Can You Make Up a Prayer After Its Time?
The Impermissibility of Praying Outside Prescribed Times Without Legitimate Excuse
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour discusses the impermissibility of performing salah outside of its prescribed time without a legitimate excuse from Allah and His Messenger. He explains that excuses like work, sleep, or shopping are not valid Islamic excuses, and only those sanctioned by Islamic law are acceptable. Sh. Ali Mashhour uses practical examples, such as someone praying Fajr before its start time or after its end time, to illustrate that praying outside the designated timeframe renders the prayer invalid and cannot be made up later. He emphasizes that time is a fundamental condition of salah, similar to wudhu, and that deliberately praying outside prescribed times without valid excuse is a major sin upon which there is scholarly consensus.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Alhamdulillah.
[Silence]
So in the previous couple of gatherings we discussed the timings of prayer. We discussed the starting time, the ending time of each prayer, the ideal time, the bare minimum time. Now we have to discuss an issue that will be rather new to many of us I believe and that is an issue regarding making salah outside of his prescribed time. We've discussed the start and end time of each prayer. And we've discussed the excuses a person may have to join prayers and there will be an entire book dedicated to that which is joining prayers and the excuses for that and so forth. But this here is discussing a person having no legitimate excuse. When we say legitimate excuse, we are speaking about an excuse from Allah, from the messenger of Allah. This is a legitimate excuse. Human beings have excuses for everything. If you see one man kill another, he'll have an excuse why he killed him, right? But not all excuses are valid. The only excuse that is considered valid is the excuse that comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or his messengeratam. And so this is the what the author is going to discuss now. And I want to make sure that we understand this in the spirit in which the author intends it. And that is that a person knowingly, purposely makes a prayer outside of its ordained time without a legitimate excuse. That is what we're discussing here. Making a salah out of its prescribed time knowingly, purposely without a legitimate excuse. Legitimate excuse means what? What is a legitimate excuse?
[Arabic recitation]
Sallallah.aii wasallam. Person says I was working. Person says I was sleeping. Person says I was gaming. Person says I was shopping. These are all excuses. Right? But the only excuses which are valid are the excuses which come from Allah. The one who obligated and set these parameters to start with. He is the only one who has the right to change or break these rules that he sets. Subhanahu wa'ta'ala. And so the following is an excerpt of from his book mu and it is discussing that exact point that I just mentioned and that is a person makes salah outside of its prescribed time knowingly purposely without a legitimate excuse. He says, Abdul walked in. Wasam.
[Silence]
So essentially this is the point that he makes. I want you to imagine something with me. Imagine a person knows that starts at when is now 506. Okay. person says, "Well, I'm going to be busy at 5:06, so I'm going to go ahead and make sal at 4:45. I'm going to make at 4:30, not 506. I'm going to make salah at 4:00 because I'm planning to be busy at 5:06." What would we say with respect to this prayer? Valid or invalid? Invalid. Everybody agrees with that, right? So what is the difference between that person and the person who says I'm busy now I'm going to make salah at 7:06 not at 506. What is the difference between those two? One prayed it before its start time. One prayed it after its end time. Is there a difference between the two? Let's say a person other acts of worship have to start in end times Ramadan. Person says well I'm going to be busy during Ramadan. It's inconvenient. Therefore I will fast Ramadan this year during Shabban. We would all agree that this is what invalid. Correct. A person says I'm busy right now. I will fast Ramadan inshaw without an excuse to break his fast. What is the difference between those two? Inherently, there is no difference between praying before its time and after its time. The only difference is the excuse. Does a person have a legitimate allowance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And so something fud fud has no time allowance for a traveler, for someone who's sick, for someone who's in war. Fud has to be made at a very particular time. And so there is no legitimate excuse for a person to pray fud after its set time. Just there is no excuse to make fudg before it's set time for a person who is conscious a person who does it purposely there is no permissibility for this. Likewise when we look at the remainder of the four prayers we have two times two general times daytime and nighttime. Daytime is and nighttime is when a person has an excuse to join prayers those two times become one long time. So a person who has an excuse to join and the time for the daytime prayer for that person begins at the be beginning of and ends with the sun setting and likewise for the nighttime. If a person knowingly takes a daytime prayer and makes it at night or vice versa, this is an invalid prayer. It doesn't matter how many times a person makes it up. Just the person who broke or did not fast Ramadan during its time or fasted the Ramadan before its time or a person who prayed before his time, it is impossible to make that prayer up. Why? because it has a start and end time. If it only had a starting time, then we could make it up zaka. Let's say a person fails to give zaka for a number of years and they wish to repent for this. What do they do? They pay zaka for all of the years that they missed. Even if it's 50, even if it's a hundred years. Why? Because zak has a start time but it does not have a what? An expiration time. However, for something salah that has a start and end time if a person does not have a legitimate excuse that salah cannot be made up. What does the person is the person obligated to do? The person is obligated to repent for this. This is a major sin and this is a consensus amongst the scholars of Islam and the jurists and that is that knowingly without a valid legislative excuse taking salah out of its prescribed time and making it during a time that is past its expiration or before there is no difference. The person is considered to have not made salah because time is one of the conditions of salah. Correct? So what else is a condition of salah? wudoo correct you know but for for simplicity's sake is a condition of salah. A person knowingly makes salah without wudoo without an excuse. What would we say with respect to this salah? Not only is it invalid, but it's never happened. I mean, legislatively, it never happened. Physically, it happened, right? But legislatively, the person didn't pray. The man that was making salah and it was in in the masid in Bkari. He was making salah come up afterwards and says to the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam and his response would be go back and pray. You have not prayed yet. Physically he prayed but legislatively he did not pray. This is not prayer. Making salah without is not this is not. He did not pray making outside of its time. making during time making after. This is not correct. This is not. So a person either has an excuse or doesn't. And we're going to get into the excuses for joining the prayers. However, in general, if a person knowingly takes the time of prayer out of its prescribed time and especially daytime into night and nighttime into day, this person is obligated to repent. As for making up the it's not possible and this actually is a bit of a mercy because if someone comes and says I haven't prayed for 10 years what do we say make salah for 10 years past not possible this person is still repentant and start praying.
[Arabic recitation]