HOW TO PERFORM QADÂ NAMÂZES ?

One must perform the qadâ of his omitted namâzes and get rid of this great punishment by making tawba. For this reason, one must perform the sunnats of the five daily prayers by making the intention of performing qadâ prayers. Those who do not perform namâz because of laziness, and those who have years of debts of namâz, when they begin to perform their daily prayers of namâz, concurrently with the sunnat of each of the daily prayers of namâz, should make their niyyat (intention) to make qadâ of the fard of the (missed or omitted) earliest daily prayer in correspondence with that particular times’ namâz they are currently performing. All four Madhhabs are unanimous on that they must perform the sunnats by making their niyyat for the namâz of qadâ. In the Hanafî Madhhab it is a grave sin to leave a namâz (that is fard) to qadâ, (i.e. to omit it,) without an excuse. This very grave sin becomes double as each free time that is long enough to perform namâz passes. For, it is fard also to make qadâ of namâz in your free time as soon as possible. To get rid of this terrible sin, which cannot be calculated or measured, and for escaping its torment, it is necessary to perform the initial sunnat of the early afternoon prayer, which has four rak’ats, by intending also to make qadâ of the fard of the earliest early afternoon prayer that you did not perform. When performing the final sunnat of the early afternoon prayer you must intend also to make qadâ of the fard of the earliest omitted morning prayer. When performing the sunnat of the late afternoon prayer you must make qadâ with the intention also of the fard of the earliest late afternoon prayer. When performing the sunnat of the evening prayer you must also make qadâ with the intention of the three-rak’at fard of the earliest evening prayer. When performing the initial sunnat of night prayer, you must intend also to make qadâ of the fard of the earliest night prayer, and when performing the final sunnat of the night prayer you must intend also to make qadâ of the earliest omitted Witr prayer and perform three rak’ats. Thus each day you will pay the debt of a day’s qadâ. Also, when performing the namâz of tarâwîh you must make qadâ by intending to make qadâ of the earliest fard prayer that one has a debt of. You must go on doing this for as many years as the number of years during which you left your prayers to qadâ. After finishing your prayers of qadâ you must begin performing only the sunnats as usual. If one has free time, one must perform qadâ namâzes at every opportunity, and pay the debt of omitted prayers. The sin of unperformed qadâ namâzes increases one fold each day.