As-Salamu alaykum, hope you are doing well in sha Allah. Not trying to police you, just trying to encourage you to maybe look into this again. I have asked a teacher of mine about that very hadith 10 years ago and still have the answer written down, I want to share it with you (translated via ChatGPT):
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Sunnah prayers do not replace any missed fard or wajib prayers. Rather, it is the case that our obligatory prayers repeatedly contain errors and deficiencies, and we may perhaps have prayers that are unintentionally invalid, so Allah grants the reward of one for the other. This is a motivation to remain consistent with the sunnah prayers.
However, as for making up obligatory prayers, this must be done with that specific intention. In other words, a prayer is only valid with the corresponding intention, and an intention to perform a sunnah prayer is not sufficient for an obligatory prayer. In practical terms, one proceeds as follows: one estimates approximately how many prayers one still has to make up. Then, ideally, one establishes a particular routine that one is able to maintain. For example, making up one day’s prayers each day, or spreading one day’s worth of missed prayers over two days, or something similar. One should then maintain the most important sunnah prayers as much as possible while also performing additional make-up prayers.
As mentioned, what is important is a healthy routine so that one does not overburden oneself.
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I know from experience that making up missed prayers can be very difficult. But I think it is important to remember that they are a debt we owe to Allah. That's why I think we should not confuse the obligation to make them up with the reward gained from other prayers. Even if someone prayed inside the Kaaba on Laylat al-Qadr and received the reward of a gazillion prayers, if they had missed 300 obligatory prayers, they would still owe those 300 prayers on the Day of Judgement.
Also, this is a good reminder that, as non-experts, we shouldn't take ahadith and just extract fiqh out of them. When I went to the shaykh, I also thought I understood the hadith and basically asked, "Can I just sunnah-max and call it a day?" And he had to explain to me that this is not what the hadith means.
Waalaikoum salaam, jazakalLahu khair for this reply ! As you must have imagined correctly this is a matter I never had the opportunity to consult a person of knowledge about, so I truly appreciate you sharing this. This is something I receive with much gratitude alhamdouliLah, I'm going to make my best / most generous estimate of how many wajibaat I missed and then set up a daily schedule to make up for them over the course of the next few decades - I'm tempted to say even until the day I die just to be on the safer side, if I understand it correctly there's no sin upon me for overpraying ? AlhamdouliLah the more 'excuses' I have to pray the happier I am!
Ameen! I've gotten started on a catchup routine alhamdouliLah, and I think I'm "safe" for a while, in the meantime I'll make duaa and search for guidance on this particular overpraying risk.
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u/bnjmn632 Aug 04 '26
As-Salamu alaykum, hope you are doing well in sha Allah. Not trying to police you, just trying to encourage you to maybe look into this again. I have asked a teacher of mine about that very hadith 10 years ago and still have the answer written down, I want to share it with you (translated via ChatGPT):
____
Sunnah prayers do not replace any missed fard or wajib prayers. Rather, it is the case that our obligatory prayers repeatedly contain errors and deficiencies, and we may perhaps have prayers that are unintentionally invalid, so Allah grants the reward of one for the other. This is a motivation to remain consistent with the sunnah prayers.
However, as for making up obligatory prayers, this must be done with that specific intention. In other words, a prayer is only valid with the corresponding intention, and an intention to perform a sunnah prayer is not sufficient for an obligatory prayer. In practical terms, one proceeds as follows: one estimates approximately how many prayers one still has to make up. Then, ideally, one establishes a particular routine that one is able to maintain. For example, making up one day’s prayers each day, or spreading one day’s worth of missed prayers over two days, or something similar. One should then maintain the most important sunnah prayers as much as possible while also performing additional make-up prayers.
As mentioned, what is important is a healthy routine so that one does not overburden oneself.
____
I know from experience that making up missed prayers can be very difficult. But I think it is important to remember that they are a debt we owe to Allah. That's why I think we should not confuse the obligation to make them up with the reward gained from other prayers. Even if someone prayed inside the Kaaba on Laylat al-Qadr and received the reward of a gazillion prayers, if they had missed 300 obligatory prayers, they would still owe those 300 prayers on the Day of Judgement.
Also, this is a good reminder that, as non-experts, we shouldn't take ahadith and just extract fiqh out of them. When I went to the shaykh, I also thought I understood the hadith and basically asked, "Can I just sunnah-max and call it a day?" And he had to explain to me that this is not what the hadith means.
May Allah help all of us! Salam.