Chapter: Making Up a Missed Prayer and the Obligation to Perform It Promptly
Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Whoever forgets a prayer must offer it when he remembers it. There is no expiation for it other than that.” He then recited the Almighty’s words: “And establish the prayer for My remembrance” (Q 20:14).
Muslim’s wording reads: “Whoever forgets a prayer or sleeps through it—its expiation is only that he perform it when he remembers it.”
Overall meaning
The prayer has a fixed time with a beginning and an end; it is unlawful to perform it before that time, and likewise unlawful to delay it beyond that time for one who is able to pray. If a person sleeps through the prayer or forgets it until its time has elapsed, the sin is lifted from him because he has a valid excuse. He must, however, hasten to make it up as soon as he remembers, and he may not postpone it any further. The expiation for his delay is precisely that he hurry to perform it. Hence the Exalted said, “And establish the prayer for My remembrance,” and the Prophet’s recitation of this verse when explaining the ruling indicates that the intended meaning is: establish the prayer as soon as you remember it (1).
Scholarly disagreement
The scholars have differed over whether one must perform the prayer immediately upon remembering it or whether a delay is permissible. The majority—including the three imams, Abu Hanifah, Malik, and Ahmad, and their followers—hold that immediacy is obligatory. Al-Shafiʿi maintained that performing it right away is recommended but that postponement is allowed.
Al-Shafiʿi reasoned that when the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions once overslept, they did not pray in the very spot where they had slept; instead, he instructed them to lead their mounts to another place where he then prayed. Had making up the prayer been strictly immediate, they would have prayed where they were.
The majority cite the present hadith, which ties the prayer directly to the moment of remembering it. They answer al-Shafiʿi’s argument by saying that immediacy does not rule out a brief delay for matters that perfect and enhance the prayer, such as waiting for a congregation or increasing its numbers.
Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) has discussed this issue at length in his book Al-Ṣalāh, refuting the opinion that postponement is permissible.
The scholars also disagreed about one who deliberately abandons a prayer until its time passes: is he required to make it up or not?