There is the Hadith:
“The first among the doings of a person to be reckoned for on the Day of Judgement shall be his salah. A person will succeed and attain his goal if his salah is accepted, and he will fail and lose badly if it rejected. If any deficiency is found in his Fard salah, Allah will say (to the Angels): “Look for any Nafl salah in his account.’ Then the deficiency in his Fard salah will be made good for with his Nafl salah. The rest of his religious practices (fasts, zakah, etc.) will then be reckoned for in the same manner.”
I had read that for one fard rakat, 70 rakats of nafl will be required to make up for the fard. Please confirm this.
Answer
The Hadith in your question is recorded in the following Hadith sources:
Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith: 860, Sunan Tirmidhi, Hadith: 413 and Musnad Ahmad, vol.2 pg.425.
One Fard equalling seventy Nafls,
Imam Nawawi (rahimahullah) has stated that the grand scholar of the Shafi’i madhab; Imamul Haramain Al-Juwaini (rahimahullah) to have quoted from certain ‘Ulama that the reward of a fard act is actually equal to 70 nafl (voluntary) deeds!!
(Sharh Sahih Muslim, vol.1 pg.324)
‘Allamah Muhammad Yusuf Al-Binnory (rahimahullah) has quoted a similar statement from Raddul Muhtar under the above mentioned Hadith.
The Nafl salah will be used to make up for the Fard salah that was offered deficiently, or even to make up for Fard salahs that were not offered at all. However, the amount of Nafl needed for each deficiency will vary.
(Ma’arifus Sunan, vol.4 pg.54)
Other beneficial references for further commentary on this Hadith:
Sharh Ibn Raslan, Hadith: 864, Fathul Ilah, vol.5 pg.179 and Mirqat, Hadith: 1330.
And Allah Ta’ala Knows best,
Answered by: Moulana Muhammad Abasoomar
Checked by: Moulana Haroon Abasoomar