1. If a person misses a salaat, then on remembering it, he should immediately make qada of it. It is a sin to delay offering a qada salaat without any valid excuse. If a person misses a salaat and does not make qada of it immediately, but postpones it to another time or to another day, and then suddenly dies – he will get a double sin. One for missing the salaat and the other for not making qada of it immediately.

2. If a person misses several salaats, as far as possible he should make qada of all. If it is possible, he should make an effort to offer all of them at one time. It is not necessary that the qada of zuhr be offered in zuhr time or that the qada of asr be offered at asr time. If he has to make qada for several months or several years, as far as possible he should make qada of them as quickly as possible. He should try and offer several qada salaats in one salaat time. However, if he is compelled or has no alternative, he should offer one qada salaat in one salaat time. But this is the minimum.

3. There is no stipulated time for qada salaat. Whenever one gets the opportunity, one should make wudu and offer salaat. However, one should take the makruh times of salaat into consideration.

4. If a person has only one qada salaat to offer and before this he never missed any salaat, or he had missed in the past but he made qada of all of them, then he should offer this one qada salaat before offering any other salaat. If he offers any other salaat without offering this qada salaat, it will not be valid. He must offer the qada salaat and repeat that other salaat. However, if he completely forgot to offer the qada salaat, the other salaat will be valid. When he remembers, he will merely have to offer the qada salaat and it will not be necessary to repeat the other salaat.

5. If the time is so short that if he offers the qada salaat first, he will miss the other salaat, then he should offer the other salaat first and then offer the qada salaat.

6. A person misses two, three, four or five salaats and does not have to read any other salaat for the past. That is, from the time he became mature he did not miss any salaat, or if he missed, he made qada of all. Then as long as he does not offer these five salaats, it will not be permissible to offer any other salaat. When he offers these five qada salaats, he should offer them in the same order as he had missed them, i.e. the one that he missed first should be offered first and the one that he missed second should be offered second, and so on. For example, if a person misses the salaats of an entire day: fajr, zuhr, asr, maghrib and esha. When he is offering his qada, he should offer it in the same order. If he does not offer fajr first, but zuhr or asr or any other salaat, then this will not be proper. He will have to repeat it.

7. If a person has to make qada of six salaats or more, he can offer any other salaat without having offered the six qada salaats. And when he offers these six salaats, he does not have to offer them in the order that he missed them. He can offer them in any order that he wishes. It is no longer wajib to offer them in order.

8. Several months or several years have passed and the person has not offered those six or more salaats. However, thereafter he always offered his salaats on time and did not allow himself to miss any salaat. After all these months or years, he now misses one salaat. Even in this case it will be permissible to read all other salaats without making qada of those that he missed. When offering these salaats, he does not have to follow any set order.

9. A person had to offer six or more qada salaats and therefore did not have to offer them in the order that he missed them. However, he offered these salaats by reading one or two at a time and thereby completed all of them. No salaat is left which he has to make qada of. If he now misses out one to five salaats again, he will have to make qada of them in the order that he missed and it will not be permissible for him to offer any other salaat without offering these qada salaats first. But if he misses out six salaats or more again, he will once again be excused from offering them in the order that he missed them. He will also be able to offer other salaats without having offered his qada salaats first.

10. A person had many qada salaats to offer. He commenced offering them and gradually completed all of them with the exception of four or five. It is not wajib to offer these four or five salaats in order. He has the choice of offering them as he wishes. It is also permissible for him to offer other salaats without having offered these qada salaats.

11. A person missed out witr salaat and does not have any other qada salaat to offer. It is therefore not permissible for him to offer the fajr salaat without having offered the qada of witr salaat first. If he knows that he has to make qada of the witr salaat first and still offers the fajr salaat, he will have to offer the qada salaat of witr and repeat the fajr salaat.

12. A person offered only his esha salaat and slept away. He then awoke for tahajjud, made wudu and offered his tahajjud and witr salaats. In the morning he remembered that he had forgetfully offered his esha salaat without wudu. He will now have to make qada of the esha salaat only, and not the witr salaat.

13. Qada is only made for the fard and witr salaats. There is no qada for the sunnah salaats. However, if a person misses out his fajr salaat and makes qada of it before mid-day, he should also make qada of the sunnah of fajr salaat. And if he makes the qada after mid-day, he should only make qada of the fard salaat.

14. If there was very little time left for fajr and he therefore only read the fard salaat, it is preferable to offer the sunnah salaat after the sun has risen considerably. But he has to read it before mid-day.

15. A person who rarely used to offer his salaats made taubah. It will now be wajib for him to make qada of all the salaats which he had missed throughout his life. By making taubah, one is not excused from offering salaats. However, by making taubah, he is forgiven from the sin which he committed by missing out the salaats. Now, if he does not make qada of these missed salaats, the sin will return to him.

16. A person had missed several salaats and did not get the opportunity to make qada of them as yet. At the time of death, it will be wajib for him to make a wasiyyat to pay fidyah for all the missed salaats. He will be sinning if he does not do this. The masa’il related to giving fidyah for missed salaats will be explained in Part Three in the chapter dealing with fidyah for missed fasts – Insha Allah.

17. If several people have missed a particular salaat, they should make qada of it with jama’at. If it is a salaat in which qira’at is normally made aloud, then when making qada, it should also be recited aloud. If it is normally made softly, it should also be made softly when making qada.

18. If an immature child offers his esha salaat and sleeps away, and after the break of dawn he notices traces of semen which indicates that he had a wet dream, then the preferred opinion is that he should repeat his esha salaat. And if he wakes up before the break of dawn and notices traces of semen, then all the ulama say that he will have to make qada of the esha salaat.