Salam Dear Brother,

Thank you for your question and for joining our live session.

Our colleagues at the Fatwa Desk (Ask the Scholar) published this answer a while ago in response to a question similar to yours, and the following is an extract from their answer:

Prayer is one of the most important obligations of Islam, being one of the five pillars of Islam. A Muslim should not miss any prayer; and all prayers should be performed in their appointed times. Allah says in the Quran:

“Indeed the prayers are enjoined on Believers at stated times.” (An-Nisa’: 103)

In a hadith the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“Allah has made five prayers obligatory upon His servants. So whosoever will perform them and will not miss any of them out of negligence, he has the pledge of Allah that He will enter him in Paradise. And whosoever will not perform them, Allah has no pledge with him. If He wills He may punish him, and if He wills He may forgive him.” (Reported by An-Nasa’i, Abu Dawud and Ahmad).

Answering your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:

Salah is the most important pillar of Islam. It is in fact the first religious duty prescribed on every single prophet from Adam to Muhammad, second only to testifying the Oneness of Allah. Allah says, “Salah, indeed, is a duty enjoined upon the faithful at the appointed times.” (An-Nisa’: 103).

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) further narrates in a hadith Qudsi: Allah said:

“The covenant between Us and them is Salah; so whoever establishes it establishes religion; whoever undermines it undermines religion.”

It is therefore important that we never become slack in performing salah; if we miss any salah for whatever reason, we must pray it immediately without further delay. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said,

“Whoever oversleeps and misses his prayer or forgets to do it, let him pray as soon as he remembers it.”

In light of these and other evidence, the vast majority of scholars and imams are of the opinion that one must make up for all of the prayers one has missed in life, no matter how many they are. So according to them, you should make up for all of these prayers.

One of the best ways to do this—as has been suggested by one scholar—is to pray with each fard that you perform another fard in lieu of what you missed in the past.

Thus, for instance, before or after praying Zuhr, pray another four rak`ahs of Zuhr as qadha’, and pray another four rak`ahs of `Asr every time you pray `Asr; you should continue to do this until such time that you can be pretty sure that you have made up for all of the missed prayers.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Salam and please keep in touch.