Prayer compensation

Prayer compensation (Arabic: قضاء الصلاة الفائتة) is an Islamic prayer (salat) that is performed to make up for an earlier lost and unfulfilled prayer.

The religious duty to compensate for omitted or forgotten prayers finds its framework of Islamic legislation in the Quranic verses and prophetic hadiths.

This obligation of subsequent fulfillment and compensation is cited in the Quran into the Āyah 14 of Surah Ta-Ha:

English: Indeed I am Allah —there is no god except Me. So worship Me, and maintain the prayer for My remembrance.
(Quran: 20:14)

This jurisprudential opinion was based on the prophetic hadith narrated by the companion Anas ibn Malik in the Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, which reads:

Making up obligatory prayers (fard) whose legal time (salah times) has passed is obligatory (wajib) immediately, whether the missed is due to an excuse that is not forfeited and canceled for prayer, or it was missed without an originally acceptable excuse, according to the agreement of three of several Imams of the Sunni schools (madhahib) of jurisprudence (fiqh).

It is not permissible to delay making up missed prayers except for an acceptable excuse, such as striving to gain livelihood, studying the knowledge that a Muslim is obligated to do in kind for his person, and the food and sleep necessary to maintain the health and integrity of the body.

And since delaying the prayer until its time (salah times) has ended is a major sin in Islam, the expiation for this misconduct is not only by merely performing the physical compensation of the missed rak'ahs, rather it must be associated with a correct and sincere repentance (tawbah) from this negligence and wasting the obligatory prayer (fard).