Make Up Missed Prayers and Fasts

Missed prayers

Whoever forgets a prayer or sleeps through it should pray it as soon as they remember: “there is no expiation for it other than that” (al-Bukhari and Muslim). For a prayer that was left, even for years, the four schools and most institutions, including Diyanet and Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, require making it up as well as repenting. If you do not know the exact number, go by what you think most likely.

Other scholars, Ibn Hazm and Ibn Taymiyya and, among contemporaries, Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymin, hold that a prayer abandoned on purpose is not made up: sincere repentance and voluntary prayers are enough. Both views are set out below.

Go at your own pace: Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta suggests, for example, adding one make-up prayer to each of the day’s prayers, which comes to one day made up every day.

Hadiths cited: Sahih al-Bukhari 597 · Sahih Muslim 684

Prayer (Assalat): how to perform a prayer?

References: hadith “whoever forgets a prayer…” (al-Bukhari 597, Muslim 684); Diyanet; Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta (fatwa 6581); Ibn Baz.

Menstruation and postnatal bleeding

’A’isha said: “That used to happen to us, and we were ordered to make up the fast but not ordered to make up the prayer” (Muslim). All four schools hold this.

Days of menstruation or postnatal bleeding (nifas) during Ramadan are made up, ideally before the next Ramadan; ’A’isha would make hers up as late as Sha’ban. Charity does not replace these days: fidya is only for someone who will never be able to fast. If a Ramadan has passed without making them up, see “Make-up put off”.

If her period starts after the time of a prayer has begun and she has not yet prayed it, the Hanafis (Diyanet) and the Malikis do not require it to be made up; the Shafi’is and Hanbalis do, the Shafi’is provided enough time had passed to pray it. If her period ends before a prayer’s time is over, she prays that prayer; according to the Malikis, Shafi’is and Hanbalis, also the prayer joined to it (Dhuhr with Asr, Maghrib with Isha).

Hadiths cited: Sahih Muslim 335 · Sahih al-Bukhari 1950 · Sahih Muslim 1146

References: Muslim 335; al-Bukhari 1950 and Muslim 1146; Diyanet; Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

“Allah has relieved the traveller of fasting and of half the prayer, and the pregnant and breastfeeding woman of fasting” (Abu Dawud, at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa’i). The Hanafis, and Diyanet, only require making the days up. The Shafi’is and Hanbalis distinguish: fearing for herself, she makes them up; fearing for the child, she makes them up and gives one mudd of food per day. The Malikis require the pregnant woman to make the days up, and the breastfeeding woman to make them up and give fidya.

Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Umar according to Ibn Qudama, said they feed one poor person per day without making up; among contemporaries, al-Albani held this, and al-Qaradawi adopted it for a woman whose pregnancies and breastfeeding follow one another so that she cannot make the days up. Ibn Baz, Ibn Uthaymin and the Permanent Committee hold that making up alone is due, as for the sick.

Hadiths cited: Jami' at-Tirmidhi 715 (Differing grades) · Sunan Abu Dawud 2408 (Differing grades) · Sunan an-Nasa'i 2275 (Good (hasan))

Pregnant and breastfeeding women in Ramadan

References: Quran 2:184; Abu Dawud 2408, at-Tirmidhi 715; Diyanet; Permanent Committee (fatwa 10/220); Ibn Baz; Ibn Uthaymin.

Illness

“Whoever among you is ill or on a journey, then an equal number of other days” (Quran 2:184). Someone who will never be able to fast again feeds one poor person for each day: all schools require this, the Malikis only recommend it. If they later recover, the Hanafis (Diyanet) require them to make the days up, even if they have paid the fidya.

Someone who dies during their illness, before being able to make the days up, owes nothing. For prayer: “Pray standing; if you cannot, sitting; if you cannot, on your side” (al-Bukhari). Prayers missed during an illness or a hospital stay are made up, except in the case of loss of consciousness. For daily treatment, follow your doctor’s advice.

Hadiths cited: Sahih al-Bukhari 1117

Ramadan and Diabetes: Should the diabetic be fasting?

References: Quran 2:184-185; al-Bukhari 1117; Diyanet; Fiqh Council of North America.

Elderly people

Ibn Abbas said of the verse “those who can only do it with great hardship”: they are the old man and the old woman who cannot fast; they feed one poor person for each day (al-Bukhari). All schools hold this; the Malikis recommend it without making it obligatory.

Someone who has lost their reason, through dementia for example, owes neither fasting nor fidya. Someone who cannot afford the fidya is not bound by it until they can (Diyanet).

Hadiths cited: Sahih al-Bukhari 4505

References: Quran 2:184; al-Bukhari 4505; Diyanet.

Travel

The permission comes from verse 2:184. The schools set the travel distance at around 80 to 90 km. According to the Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi’is, someone who starts the day fasting at home does not break that day’s fast if they set off later; the Hanbalis allow it once they have left.

In prayer, the traveller shortens the four-rak’ah prayers. A prayer missed while travelling and made up at home is prayed as two rak’ahs according to the Hanafis and Malikis, four according to the Shafi’is and Hanbalis; one missed at home is made up as four rak’ahs, even on a journey.

Fast-breaking of the traveler in Ramadan

References: Quran 2:184; works of the four schools.

A fast broken on purpose

The kaffarah for fasting: fast two consecutive months and, if you cannot, feed sixty poor people, as the Prophet ﷺ told the man who came to say he had had intercourse in Ramadan (al-Bukhari and Muslim). For someone who ate or drank on purpose, the Shafi’is and Hanbalis require making the day up and repenting, with no kaffarah, which is also Ibn Baz’s view.

Several days broken: one kaffarah per day according to the Malikis, Shafi’is and Hanbalis; a single one for the same Ramadan according to the Hanafis, as long as it has not yet been performed (Diyanet). A consenting wife also owes a kaffarah according to the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis, but not according to the Shafi’is. Breaking a make-up fast or a voluntary fast does not bring a kaffarah.

Hadiths cited: Sahih al-Bukhari 1936 · Sahih Muslim 1111

References: al-Bukhari 1936, Muslim 1111; Diyanet; Ibn Baz.

Years without fasting

Ibn Qudama writes that he knows of no disagreement that someone who abandoned fasting must make it up; Ibn Baz holds the same. Diyanet counts 30 days per year; the tool counts the real Ramadans, of 29 or 30 days, on the Umm al-Qura calendar.

Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Uthaymin hold that a fast abandoned on purpose from the outset is not made up: you repent and fast many voluntary days. For days never begun, most schools do not require a kaffarah; the Malikis require it of someone who deliberately decided not to fast a day of Ramadan.

Go at your own pace: two days a week, Monday and Thursday for example, come to more than a hundred days a year.

Fasting in Islam, the rules of Sawm in Ramadan

References: Ibn Qudama, al-Mughni; Diyanet; islamqa 234125.

Make-up put off past the next Ramadan

With an excuse that lasted (illness, pregnancy, breastfeeding), you only make the days up. Without an excuse, the majority adds one mudd of food per day; the Shafi’is multiply it by the number of Ramadans that have passed, the Malikis and Hanbalis give it once.

The Hanafis (Diyanet) and Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta only require making up; islamqa considers the fidya not obligatory but good to give as a precaution. In Singapore, MUIS has no longer required it by default since 2026.

Hadiths cited: Sahih al-Bukhari 1950

References: al-Nawawi, al-Majmu’; Diyanet; Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta (fatwa 6386); islamqa 486878.

A relative who has died

“Whoever dies owing fasts, their next of kin fasts for them” (al-Bukhari and Muslim). The Hanafis and Malikis require feeding one poor person per day from the third of the estate if the deceased asked for it in their will; otherwise the heirs may do so if they wish. According to ash-Shafi’i’s earlier view, preferred by an-Nawawi, and according to Ibn Baz, the relative may fast on their behalf; the Hanbalis keep this for vowed fasts and feed the poor for Ramadan.

No one can pray on behalf of the deceased (Diyanet). The Hanafis know a fidya for prayers by will; Diyanet points out that it has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah and recommends charity and good deeds in the deceased’s name.

Hadiths cited: Sahih al-Bukhari 1952 · Sahih Muslim 1147 · Sahih al-Bukhari 1953

References: al-Bukhari 1952, Muslim 1147; al-Bukhari 1953; Ibn Baz; Diyanet.

Embracing Islam

“Say to those who disbelieve that if they cease, what has passed will be forgiven them” (Quran 8:38); “Islam wipes out what came before it” (Muslim). If you have missed prayers since embracing Islam, the “I embraced Islam” calculation starts from that date.

Someone who embraces Islam during a day of Ramadan fasts from the following day; several schools ask them to refrain from eating for the rest of that day.

Hadiths cited: Sahih Muslim 121

References: Quran 8:38; Muslim 121.

Loss of consciousness, coma

The Hanbalis always require prayers to be made up, as after sleep. The Hanafis require it if the loss of consciousness lasted five prayers at most (one day and night), and not beyond. The Malikis and Shafi’is do not require a prayer to be made up if its whole time was covered by the loss of consciousness.

For fasting, the Shafi’is and Hanbalis require a day spent entirely unconscious to be made up; the Hanafis count the first day as valid if it was begun with the intention, then require the following days to be made up; the Malikis require it if the loss of consciousness lasted most of the day. Insanity and dementia lift prayer and fasting according to the majority; intoxication does not.

Hadiths cited: Sunan Abu Dawud 4403 (Differing grades) · Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1423 (Differing grades)

References: works of the four schools; hadith “the pen is lifted from three” (Abu Dawud 4403).