How can missed prayers be made up when one is unable to determine their number or when they were missed? Is it sufficient to make up two days of missed prayers in addition to the obligatory and Sunnah prayers? What is the fate of someone who began making up missed prayers and then passed away?

Scholars have differed on the ruling regarding making up prayers for one who intentionally missed them, after agreeing on the sinfulness of the one who abandoned them. The majority of scholars went with the opinion that making them up is obligatory, citing the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) saying: “Allah’s debt is more worthy of being fulfilled,” and by analogy with making up prayers for one who slept through them or forgot them. While others, including Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, went with the opinion that making them up is not prescribed, citing Allah’s (Exalted be He) saying: {Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a prescribed obligation}, and based on the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): “We were commanded to make up for the fast and we were not commanded to make up for the prayer,” and the hadith: “Whoever introduces into this matter of ours that which is not from it, it is rejected.” The fatwa is that making them up is obligatory according to one’s capacity. And whoever repents and begins to make up prayers, then dies, Allah will forgive him for the remaining prayers he did not make up, out of His mercy, because he did what was within his power.