As for the five daily prayers, a person with an excuse may perform them after their prescribed times have elapsed. This shows that they may validly be performed outside their prescribed times and that the time is not a condition for their validity, unlike those other acts of worship.

The other group replied:

“The answer is twofold. First, it may be said: Grant that, as a dispensation and mercy from Allah (1), a person with an excuse may perform a prayer after its prescribed time. As for one who sleeps through it or forgets it, neither bears any sin (2); Allah therefore granted them latitude to pray upon remembering or awakening, since they could pray only then. But how does any of this prove that the same is permissible for one who commits a major sin and has no excuse for allowing the prayer to lapse?

If someone misses Hajj in one year, he can perform it the following year. If he misses the stoning of the pillars, a substitute is prescribed for it—namely, a sacrificial offering. If he misses the Friday prayer, he performs the noon prayer. Accordingly, (3) when a person with an excuse misses any of these time-bound acts of worship, a substitute is prescribed for him, and he incurs no sin, as a mercy from Allah toward him. As for a person without an excuse, a substitute is likewise prescribed for him in Hajj, because Hajj may be performed by proxy. If a person dies, Hajj may be performed on his behalf even if he had been negligent (4). Since another person may perform Hajj on his behalf, it is all the more fitting and proper that he himself be permitted to provide the substitute, for the sacrifice he personally offers is more fitting than another person’s performing Hajj on his behalf.

If he misses the Friday prayer, however, he simply performs the noon prayer, because it is the regular obligation each day, not because it is a substitute for the Friday prayer. Rather, every person is obligated to perform either—