Answered by Sami’ al-Ihsan Khan
About two years ago I converted to Islam. When I converted I did not now how to pray for the first three months and so I did not pray at all. I am now making up four months (to be sure I perform all the missed prayers). Is it obligatory or recommended that these prayers be performed as soon as possible, as I know there is difference between prayers missed for different reasons?
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
As correctly implied in this question, a Muslim is required to make up any fard (obligatory) prayers that were missed for whatever reason. Emphasis is placed on the word fard, because only prayers that were originally obligatory need to be made up. Thus, prayers missed during menstruation, during childhood, or during a coma or bout of insanity (may Allah protect us) need not be made up, since those prayers were not obligatory on the person in the first place due to their particular state at the time of prayer.
While ignorance on the part of a new Muslim excuses him or her from certain responsibilities and constitutes a valid excuse for some rulings, it does not excuse them from the responsibility of prayer. Thus, any prayers missed during the first few months after one’s conversion need to be made up, since they were fard originally. It should be noted here, though, that while this ruling seems to place a great burden on the new Muslim to immediately learn all the intricacies of a valid prayer, it in fact does not. The Sharia’h accommodates the new Muslim who is unfamiliar with the prayer and/or the Arabic language by loosening some of the requirements for a valid prayer in his or her case until he or she can learn (of course, they are responsible for learning what is required in a reasonable amount of time). However, he or she must still perform the basic fundamentals of the prayer even during this early period.
Thus, as correctly implied in the question, prayers that were not performed at all during the initial period after converting to Islam must be made up. The question then is whether it is simply recommended to make them up immediately, or whether it is obligatory. In the Shafi’i school, it is obligatory in this case. To explain, missed fard prayers fall into two categories, those that were missed for a valid excuse, and those that were missed for an invalid or unacceptable excuse. An example of a fard prayer that was missed for a valid excuse would be someone who completely forgot about the prayer for the entire duration of the prayer time. If at no point during the prayer time it ever occurred to the person that they needed to pray, and they realized only afterwards, this person would be considered to have a valid excuse for missing the fard prayer. This means that although he or she would still be required to make the missed prayer up, they would not be considered sinful. An example of a person who missed a fard prayer for an unacceptable excuse would be somebody who realized within the time that they needed to pray, but negligently let the time elapse before getting around to it. This person, in addition to being required to make the prayer up, would of course be considered sinful in his omission of the prayer.
To continue, prayers missed for a valid excuse need not be made up immediately, although it is recommended to do so. Prayers missed for an unacceptable excuse, however, must be made up immediately. The case of missed prayers due to ignorance falls into the second category. Even though a person is a new Muslim and is ignorant of how to pray, this fact is not a valid excuse for not performing the prayer at all. Thus, once they have learned how to correctly perform the prayer it is obligatory for them to make up any missed prayers immediately. This means that they must spend all of their time that is not occupied by necessities making up their missed prayers. Indeed, in “the Shafi’i school, it is not even permissible for such a person to perform sunna prayers before having finished making up the missed ones” (Reliance of the Traveller, section f2.7).
With that said, a number of scholars with whom I have studied have held that it is not necessarily blameworthy (but not recommended either) for a person to take a dispensation from another school with respect to this last point. For instance, the Hanafi school does not require that a person with a large number of missed prayers spend all of his or her free time making them up. Nevertheless, it is advisable that such a person do his or her best to complete the prayers as quickly as possible, and it is always advisable to avoid dispensations as much as possible.
And Allah Most High knows best.