If a person apostatizes from Islam then returns to it, is it obligatory upon him to make up for what he missed of prayers and fasting before the apostasy?
The apostate, if he repents, is not obligated to make up the prayers or fasts missed during the period of apostasy, because repentance obliterates what came before it. Sheikh Ibn Baz, may Allah have mercy on him, was asked about this and he answered that there is no obligation to make up for it, because Islam wipes out what came before it, and repentance obliterates what came before it, citing the saying of Allah the Almighty: "Say to those who have disbelieved [that] if they cease, what has previously occurred will be forgiven them" and the saying of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: "Repentance obliterates what came before it, and Islam destroys what came before it." But if the apostate had missed prayers, fasts, or before his apostasy, then he is obligated to make them up, according to the majority of scholars, because abandoning worship is a sin, and the sin remains after the apostasy.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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