Answered by SunniPath Answer Service Team
I ask because I find that this is something which troubles my heart. If someone has over 4 and a half years of qaza prayers to make up (which is over 10,000 prayers!!!) and these are *fardh* to make up, then how come in the hanafi madhab one is still told to continue doing the supererogatory nafl prayers, even though it is known that doing these nawafil prayers will considerably delay the completion of the qaza prayers. Surely, the fardh takes precedence over the sunnah muakkadah? I know that in the other school this is the case where one makes up all their fardh qaza prayers before continuing with their sunnahs and I just wanted to know if there were any hanafi scholars at all who have said that this is the preferred opinion, or who have said that one would not be sinful for missing sunnah muakkadah in this case as there is a need for it?
Wa Alaykum Assalam wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuhu,
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful & Compassionate
From a past post by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani:
It would be best to continue to follow your own school, and to seek the assistance of Allah and simply perform the sunnas. If you seek something for the sake of Allah, with sincerity, Allah will certainly grant you assistance therein.
If you try and still find it unreasonably difficult, then you can follow the Shafi`i position regarding non-performance of current sunnas without having to follow the Shafi`i school in matters of purification and prayer.
Also: advice from Shaykh Faraz Rabbani about making-up past prayers:
“Our makeup prayers are also going to be judged by Allah, and we will be rewarded or punished for them. Thus, while we should pray them at a steady, consistent, and fast pace, one should not rush one’s prayer.
Most rushing only fuels one’s delusions and desire to be busy’: experience shows that people who make up the most prayers tend to be those who find sweetness and presence of heart in their prayer, and it is this that fuels their determination and enables them to actually make them up as they should.
Organize your time, make a schedule of make up prayers that you stick to, and perform both your confirmed sunna prayers, which the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) essentially never left, as well as your makeup prayers.”
Search the Sunni Path Hanafi Fiqh archives at www.SunniPath.com for details on the fiqh of making up missed prayers.
Please see the following links related to your question:
Quick Makeup Prayers? Can I leave out the sunnas?
Quick Makeup Prayers?
Makeup Prayers: Performing Sunna Prayers When One Has Makeup Prayers
Wassalam,
Sunni Path Fiqh Team