Making Up Missed Prayers (Qada)

If a prayer is missed because of genuine sleep or forgetfulness, there is no sin, and it is simply prayed when remembered — even if that falls in one of the normally discouraged times, since making up an obligation is an accepted exception in the majority view.

Where several prayers are owed, most scholars recommend making them up in their original sequence — Fajr, then Dhuhr, then Asr, and so on — and, where practical, before praying the current prayer, unless doing so would cause the current prayer's own time to run out. The schools differ on how binding this ordering is.

Deliberately abandoning a prayer until its time passes is a serious matter, and scholars have discussed at length whether such prayers can or should be made up, or whether sincere repentance and abundant voluntary prayer is the path. Rather than resolve that debate, the practical counsel of scholars is the same: turn back, resume the obligation, and make up what you reasonably can.

A missed prayer made up during travel follows the make-up rules for the prayer as it was owed. For shortening and combining current prayers on a journey, see prayer times when traveling.