Missed Prayer, Its Fidya, and the Hila (Legal Stratagem)

Question

If a person misses his prayer out of carelessness or for other motives — or he is simply careless, for Allah is the Master of the heart, [He knows] why he missed it — then what is he to be called outwardly? And if he makes [the missed prayers] up according to his ability, yet over his whole life five hundred or a thousand [missed] prayers still remain, what will the fidya for them be? Can there be any device in the fidya, that is, a hila (legal stratagem), or not?

Answer

Prayer is fard ‘ayn; abandoning it is perilous and a major sin (kabira). Then making it up (qada’) is fard: however many prayers are owed, he should make all of them up as soon as possible and on no account be negligent; whether they are five hundred or a thousand, he should make them all up.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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