I’m worried I’ll miss my salah, can I pray it early?
You can’t pray before the prayer time starts. Salah is not about your availability; it’s about the time that Allah ordained for the salah. If the salah has started you can pray, but if it has not started, your prayer will not be counted as a valid salah, it will counted as a voluntary (nawafil) salah. Imagine if you woke up in the middle of the night, you say, ‘Alhamdulillah I’m awake now, so I’ll pray Fajr’ and go back to sleep. It’s not Fajr time, you can’t pray before the time begins.
If you are unable to pray a salah on time because you are a traveller or sick, you have the option to combine dhuhr and asr or maghrib and isha, and in that scenario pray asr early or isha early, or dhuhr late and maghrib late. However if you do not have a valid reason such as being sick or being a traveller, then you cannot combine the salah.
When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was asked about what is the best deed, he said, ‘prayer on time.’ This is one of the best deeds – to pray on time.
Repaying a missed (qada) salah
If you miss a salah, you should repay the salah. This is a qada salah.
There are two opinions on whether you can make up for missed salah (qadha salah). The Hanafi, Shafi’ and Maliki opinion is that you should make up your missed salah. The Hanbali position is that you cannot make it up and should repent.
According to the majority opinion, it is better to repay a missed fard salah than pray nawafil.
Imam Nawawi stated in his al Majmu,
‘There is consensus of the scholars whose opinion counts, is that whoever leaves a prayer intentionally must make it up.’
Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:
Whoever forgets to pray a salah, it is obligatory upon him/her that he/she pray that salah when he remembers. There is no other way that this can be made up.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
On another occasion, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:
Whenever one of you misses a Salah due to sleeping or due to negligence, it is obligatory upon him/her that he/she pray the salah when he remembers it because Allah has mentioned, “Perform salah when you remember Me. (Muslim)
If one has to make up a missed prayer due to forgetfulness, then by extension, one is obliged make up a prayer missed through neglect.
How to make up missed prayers?
When making intention for missed prayers (qada salat), make your intention for the specific salah you missed. For instance, “I am performing such and such day’s Fajr salah (for example)” Then try to make up the salah as soon as possible.
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