Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
The book mentions that when praying Qada prayers, a specific intention has to be made for which prayer and from what day the prayer is being made up. And if one doesn’t remember, than to make the intention of praying “the first of my missed prayers” and so on. I have been praying Qadas with just a general niyah of “qada of dhuhr” or Asr, or whatever, without specifying anything else. Would this be valid?!
Walaikum assalam,
There are three opinions in the school:
- Specifying the prayer being made-up itself: Qada of the fajr of Monday, 13 January, 1969…
- Specifying the first (or last) prayer being made up…
- No need to specify which make up.
The first two are sounder, fiqh-wise, and the second is the more practical. The third, though generally considered less sound than the other two, fiqh-wise, was deemed the correct opinion by some major Hanafi imams, most notably Imam Abu’l Barakat al-Nasafi (author of the famous tafsir, as well as arguably the best Hanafi matn, Kanz al-Daqa’iq, major texts in Hanafi fiqh, and the widely-studied matn (basic text) in Hanafi usul al-fiqh, al-Manar).
As such, the fuqaha mention that it is valid to take the third opinion for past performances, though it is best not to act on it for current makeups.
In all obligatory prayers, one should, however, specify:
- Whether it is a current performance or a make up;
- Specify which prayer it is, such as Zuhr or Asr.
Please see the related post: Intention: Important Points
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani