What do I do if I miss a prayer?
Pray it as soon as you remember or wake up. A missed prayer is made up (qada) with the same number of rakat, in the same way, with the intention of making up that prayer. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever forgets a prayer, let him pray it when he remembers it" (Bukhari and Muslim). Then carry on with your day and the next prayer.
By Benjamin · Last updated
Step by step
- Pray it when you remember. Do not wait for the same time the next day. Make wudu and pray it as soon as you can.
- Make the intention. In your heart: "I am making up the Dhuhr I missed, for Allah."
- Pray the same number of rakat. Fajr is made up as 2 rakat, Maghrib as 3, and Dhuhr, Asr and Isha as 4. The positions and words are the same as always.
- Then pray the current prayer. If the time of the next prayer has come, pray the missed one first and then the current one, as long as there is time for both.
- Ask Allah for forgiveness. If the prayer was missed without a good reason, make sincere repentance as well. Forgetting or oversleeping is not a sin.
Forgetting and sleeping through a prayer
Once, on a journey, the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his companions slept through Fajr and woke when the sun was already up. They moved a little, made wudu and prayed it (Bukhari and Muslim). Sleeping through a prayer is not a sin; praying it when you wake is the answer.
Allah says: "Prayer has been decreed upon the believers at specified times" (Quran 4:103). So the goal is to pray on time, and the make up is there for the days you do not manage it.
Prayers that are never made up
- Prayers from before you became Muslim. Islam wipes away what came before it, so there is nothing to make up from that time.
- Prayers during menstruation and postnatal bleeding. They are excused completely.
The order of prayers, and where the schools differ
- Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali: when only a few prayers are missed, they are prayed in order, before the current prayer, unless its time is about to end.
- Shafi'i: praying them in order is recommended, not required.
- Deliberately missed prayers: the four schools agree they must still be made up, together with repentance.
Light, not points
A missed prayer is not the end of anything. In the Revertly app you can mark a prayer as made up later, with no streak to lose and no score. You just see your month, quietly, and keep going.
Prayer times today: London · Birmingham · Manchester · Bradford · All UK towns
Common questions
Do I make up prayers from before my shahada?
No. You were not Muslim then, so there is nothing to make up. You begin with a clean page.
Can I make up a prayer at any time?
In the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools, yes. The Hanafi school does not pray at the moments of sunrise, the sun's zenith and sunset, so wait a few minutes.
I missed many prayers after becoming Muslim. What now?
Start praying the five daily prayers on time from today, and make up the missed ones bit by bit, for example one extra prayer with each prayer you pray. An imam can help you estimate how many.
Is it a sin to oversleep Fajr?
No, as long as you did not sleep through it carelessly. Pray it as soon as you wake. An alarm and an early night help.
Practise it with audio
Revertly walks you through this with a recitation for every word, at your own pace. Can't afford the app? Ask for a free code.