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The question

What is the ruling on making up prayers that I doubted I performed during my early years of religious obligation, and how can I overcome the persistent whispers of doubt regarding acts of worship?

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Source: FtawySummarized from the full answer at Ftawy · imported Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

"Waswas" (obsessive whispering/thoughts) is a dangerous disease that corrupts one's religion and life. Those afflicted by it must fortify themselves with the prescribed remembrances (adhkar), seek refuge in Allah, and turn away from doubts. We advise you to stop trying to make up for missed prayers (fawā'it) and instead perform supererogatory prayers (nawāfil), for nawāfil compensate for deficiencies in obligatory prayers, as stated in the prophetic tradition: "Indeed, the first thing for which a servant will be held accountable on the Day of Resurrection concerning his deeds is his prayer. If it is sound, he will have succeeded and prospered. If it is corrupt, he will have failed and lost. If there is any deficiency in his obligatory prayer, the Lord, the Exalted and Glorious, will say: 'Look, does My servant have any voluntary prayers through which what was deficient in his obligatory prayer may be completed?' Then the rest of his deeds will be dealt with in a similar manner."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · imported

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Ftawy
Original fatwa ID
63259
Imported
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Source text, unreviewed
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