Saturday, September 8, 2012

Repentance (tawbah) - on compensating for acts of worship deliberately neglected in the past

I have neglected many rights of Allah in the past, such as prayers,
fasts, and zakah. Am I required to repeat them or compensate for them?
As far as the five daily prayers are concerned, thepreferred opinion
is that the repetition or compensation (or what is known as qadaa' in
Arabic), is not obligatory for the reason that prayers are obligatory
at a particular time, and once that time has elapsed, there is no way
to offer them. However one ought to seek Allah's forgiveness and offer
as many nawafil (voluntary prayers) as possible.
As for fasting-yes, if a person was a Muslim at the time they became
obligatory and he did not fast, then their performance is required,
accompanied by feeding of a poor Muslim for everyday of fast that was
not observed during previous years. What is required is always a day
for a day-no more, no less.
Example 1: A person did not fast three days of Ramadan of the year
1400 A.H., and five days ofRamadan of the year 1401 A.H., all out of
negligence. He must now fast 8 days, and feed eightpoor Muslims in
compensation.
Example 2: A girl reached puberty in the Ramadan of the year 1400 A.H.
but out of shame and modesty did not inform anyone of her
menstruation, and, rather,continued fasting say for eight days of her
period. Thereafter, she repented. She would then be required to redo
eight days of fasting.
It may also be pointed out here that this is the predominant position.
A minority opinion is that the ruling for fasting is the same as that
for the prayers, i.e., there is no qadaa' (making up) for fasting in
the case of a person who did not fast and did not have a valid reason
for not fasting.
As for he who did not offer the obligatory zakah, it is necessary for
arepentant to them for all previous unpaid years, forit is, from one
angle, Allah's right, while from another, the poor people'sright.

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