I will now offer a brief digest of Ibn al-Qayyim’s treatment of the matter in his book Al-Ṣalāh, for he has spoken on it at length.
The scholars are unanimously agreed that anyone who delays a prayer beyond its prescribed time without a legitimate excuse commits a grave sin.
Yet the four imams—Abu Ḥanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad—ruled that such a person must still make the prayer up, while remaining liable for punishment unless Allah pardons him.
A number of early and later authorities, however, held that whoever deliberately postpones a prayer past its time with no excuse can never make it up: it will not be accepted from him. What is required of him is sincere repentance, abundant seeking of forgiveness, and plentiful supererogatory prayers.
Those who insist on making it up argue: if the sleeper and the forgetful—both of whom have an excuse—are nonetheless required to make the prayer up, then the unexcused sinner is even more deserving of that requirement.
They also cite the Day of the Trench, when the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions performed the afternoon prayer after sunset. It is well known that they were neither asleep nor forgetful; and even if some of them had lapsed, all of them could not have done so simultaneously.
Abu ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr championed the obligation to make the prayer up.
On the other side are the Ẓāhirīs, Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, and Ibn al-Qayyim, who in Al-Ṣalāh marshalled extensive proofs and refuted the arguments of their opponents.
Among their evidences is the implicit meaning of the present hadith: its explicit wording obligates making the prayer up for the sleeper and the forgetful, while its implication is that no such obligation exists for anyone else. They further point out that the commands of the Sacred Law fall into two categories:
- Unrestricted commands.
- Time-bound commands, such as the Friday prayer and standing at ʿArafah.
Works of worship in the second category are accepted only within their appointed times, and this includes the prayer that is intentionally delayed without excuse.
The Prophet’s statement, “Whoever catches one rakʿah of the afternoon prayer before the sun sets has caught the afternoon prayer,” also supports their view. Had praying it after sunset been valid without restriction, the person would be deemed to have caught the prayer whether he had secured one rakʿah, less than a rakʿah, or nothing at all.
Moreover, combatants have been commanded to pray even in the heat of battle—proof of the supreme importance of performing the prayer within its time. If a concession to delay it existed, they would have postponed it so as to observe all its conditions and pillars, which cannot be fulfilled while fighting. This demonstrates that the appointed time takes precedence over every other duty and prerequisite connected with the prayer.