Do Reverts Have to Make Up Prayers Missed Before Islam?

Short answer: no. You do not have to make up any prayers or fasts from the years before you became Muslim. Not one.

This is one of the few questions in this area that scholars do not disagree on. It is settled. Here is why, and what it means in practice.

You start with a clean page

Allah says in the Quran: “Say to those who have disbelieved, if they cease, what has previously occurred will be forgiven for them” (Quran 8:38).

There is also a well known hadith. The companion Amr ibn al-As was hesitant to accept Islam because of what he had done before. The Prophet (peace be upon him) told him that Islam wipes out what came before it (Sahih Muslim 121).

Before your shahada, the obligations of Islam were not yet on you. So there is nothing to make up. The Prophet never asked the companions who became Muslim as adults to pray years of missed prayers. They simply started.

What “qada” means

Qada is the word for making up a prayer or a fast you missed. You will hear it a lot from born Muslims, because for someone who was raised Muslim and missed prayers as an adult, making them up is a real topic.

That conversation is not about you. Sometimes a well meaning person will assume it is. If someone tells you that you owe years of prayers, you can gently say that prayers before Islam do not need to be made up, and leave it there.

Your good deeds are not erased

Here is the part that surprises people. Islam wipes out the sins of the past, but not the good. A companion called Hakim ibn Hizam asked the Prophet about charity and kindness he had done before Islam. The Prophet told him that he had become Muslim with all the good he had done before (Sahih al-Bukhari 1436, Sahih Muslim 123).

Every time you helped someone, gave to someone in need, or looked after your family before your shahada, that came with you.

The Quran goes even further for those who turn to Allah sincerely, saying that Allah will replace their bad deeds with good ones (Quran 25:70).

What does carry over

A clean page with Allah does not cancel what you owe to people.

• Debts: money you owe is still owed. Pay it back as you are able.
• Things you took: if you have something that belongs to someone else, return it or make it right if you reasonably can.
• Promises and contracts: your lease, your job contract and your phone plan are still valid.
• Your marriage: this has its own rules. They depend on if your spouse is Muslim, Christian, Jewish or neither. It is a real conversation to have with a knowledgeable imam, not something to guess at from a blog post.

Prayers missed after your shahada

This is where things get less simple. Once you are Muslim, the five prayers are part of your life, and scholars generally treat a prayer you missed after that point differently.

The majority view across the four schools is that an obligatory prayer missed after you became Muslim should be made up. Some scholars take a more lenient view for a new Muslim who genuinely did not know yet that the prayer was required, or did not know how to pray at all. Because this depends on your situation and your school, talk to an imam you trust about your specific case.

What you can do right now:

1. Start praying today with whatever you know. Do not wait for a perfect answer about the past before you begin the present.
2. Make up a missed prayer as soon as you remember it. If you slept through Fajr, pray it when you wake up. That is normal practice for every Muslim.
3. Ask an imam about any longer stretch of missed prayers after your shahada. If you are told to make them up, the usual advice is to add one or two with each daily prayer, slowly, over time.

If you are still at the stage of not knowing the words, read how to pray before you know Al-Fatiha. You can start today.

When someone tells you otherwise

You may meet people online or at the mosque who make Islam sound like a mountain of debt you now have to pay off. Some of them mean well and simply have not thought about the situation of a revert. Some are repeating something they heard.

You do not need to argue. You can say, calmly, that you asked about it and that prayers before Islam do not need to be made up. If they push, ask them for their source, and then take the question to an imam you trust. A good imam will be glad you asked.

What about fasting and zakat?

The same principle applies. You do not make up Ramadan fasts from years before your shahada, and you do not owe zakat for years when you were not Muslim. Zakat is due on wealth you hold for a full lunar year as a Muslim, above a minimum amount.

If Ramadan is coming up, our beginner fasting guide covers the basics.

Let go of the weight

Many reverts carry guilt into Islam. About the years before, about things they did, about not having found this sooner. Islam does not ask you to carry that. It asks you to start.

Five prayers today. Then five tomorrow. Revertly is built around that kind of small, steady start, and if cost is a problem, there is a free code for you.