My father has recently passed away.
He has missed many salaah during his lifetime. He has passed away at aged 65.
Is there any way of paying to charity any amount for the salaah missed.
Please advise how to calculate the number of salaah missed and the amount to pay for charity for each day of salaah missed.
Eg. 65 years less 15 years = 50 years salaah missed. 50 years X 365 days = 18250 days of salaah missed.
Your assistance in answering the above will be greatly appreciated.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
The scholars differed on the ruling on one who neglects the
prayer out of heedlessness and laziness. The correct view is that he is a
kaafir. This has been discussed previously in the answers to questions no.
2182 and
5208.
Once it is established that the one who does not pray is a
kaafir, it is not permissible to give charity, fast and do Hajj on his
behalf.
The scholars of the Standing Committee (9/69) were asked: Is
it acceptable to pray for forgiveness and give charity for one who died when
he did not pray, or he used to pray sometimes and sometimes he did not pray?
Is it permissible to attend his funeral and bury him in the Muslim
graveyard?
They replied: The one who does not pray because he denies
that it is obligatory is a kaafir according to the consensus of the Muslims.
The one who does not pray out of heedlessness and laziness is a kaafir
according to the more correct of the two scholarly opinions.
Based on that, if a person who deliberately does not pray
dies, it is not permissible to pray for forgiveness for him, or to give
charity on his behalf, or to attend his funeral, or bury him in the Muslim
graveyard, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
said: “The covenant that stands between us and them is the prayer; whoever
abandons it is a kaafir.” Narrated by Ahmad and the authors of as-Sunan
with a saheeh isnaad. And he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
said: “Between a man and kufr and shirk there stands his giving up prayer.”
Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh.
Standing Committee for Academic Research and Issuing Fatwas
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Baaz … Shaykh ‘Abd
ar-Razzaaq ‘Afeefi… Shaykh ‘Abdullah ibn Ghadyaan… Shaykh ‘Abdullah ibn
Qa‘ood
If your father was unaware that prayer is obligatory, or he
followed scholars who ruled that the one who does not pray out of
heedlessness is not a kaafir, then we hope that Allah will forgive him, and
in this case supplication and prayers for forgiveness for him, and giving
charity on his behalf, will benefit him.
And Allah knows best.
