Question:
Please clarify the correct position regarding prayers which were makruh tahrimi due to an error in them. I know that it is wajib to repeat them within the prayer time, but how about once the prayer time has passed? If someone had years of these prayers, must they still make them up now?
Answer:
Walaikum assalam,
I hope you are doing well, insha’Allah.
The fatwa position of most of the later scholars is that if a prayer was performed with something prohibitively disliked (makeup tahriman), it is (1) necessary (wajib) to repeat within the time; and (2) not necessary to repeat after the time—but, rather, it is recommended to repeat.
[Haskafi, al-Durr al-Mukhtar; Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah]
This is based on joining between two transmitted positions within the school regarding repeating such prayers: one, that is necessary (wajib) to repeat them; and the other, that it is recommended to do so. [Ibn Nujaym, al-Bahr al-Rafiq; Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; al-Mohit al-Burhani]
The scholars joined between these two positions within the school, balancing the consideration of caution and avoiding imposing widespread hardship. It is permitted for scholars to join between two positions within the school (talfiq), as Imam Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi explained in his work Khulasat al-Tahqiq fi’l Ijtihad wa’l Taqlid wa’l Talfiq.
While Imam Ibn Abidin took the stricter position on this—that such prayers need to be repeated within the time and after it—our teachers and other notable scholars agreed with what most of the later scholars affirmed, as explained above.
The Difference Between Making Up Prayers and Repeating Prayers
Makeup (qada’) refers to when one either (1) did not pray within the time of prayer; or (2) prayed invalidly—by either (a) not fulfilling a condition (shart); (b) omitting an integral (rukn); or (c) doing something invalidating.
[Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; Nablusi, Nihaya al-Murad Sharh Hadiyya Ibn `Imad]
Repeating (i`ada) refers to performing a prayer again. This is done when the prayer was valid but deficient, either due to (1) the omission of a necessary (wajib) action; or (2) doing something prohibitively disliked. Such prayers, though valid, are repeated to lift the deficiency in them. [Ibid.]
This highlights the nuance of the Sacred Law and the beautiful balance between caution and ease.
And Allah is the giver of success and facilitation.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.