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Is it obligatory for someone who has missed prayers for years to make them up, or is it permissible to offer a monetary expiation for them, and what is the amount of this expiation?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Prayer is the second pillar of Islam, and abandoning it carries severe warnings in the Qur'an and Sunnah. It is the first thing a servant will be held accountable for on the Day of Judgment. Whoever abandons prayer, denying its obligation, is considered a disbeliever by consensus. However, regarding one who abandons it out of laziness, scholars have differed, and the majority opinion is that they are not considered a disbeliever. One who abandons prayer out of laziness must make up all the prayers they missed; paying a sum of money instead is not sufficient. They must hasten to make up these prayers according to their capacity.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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