The last advice of the Holy Prophet ﷺ. Part 2. English Translation of a talk by Mufti Taqi Usmani DB

The Holy Qur’an and Hadith are full of commandments about praying Salah. The commandment to establish Salah comes more than 60 times in the Holy Qur’an.   It has been narrated in a Hadith that in the Aakhirah (Hereafter) the first question we will be asked, will be about Salah. We will be held accountable for how many Salah we prayed, how many we have missed, and how many we prayed after their time had passed. When a person starts preparing for Aakhirah the first thing they need to do is to take account of their Salah, as to how many they have not prayed since it became incumbent upon them after attaining puberty.  

It is for the reason above it has been the practice of our wise elders that whenever someone came to them seeking to establish Islahi Ta’alluq (mentoring relationship for self-improvement), the first teaching they received was in performing Taubah (repentance) from previous sins. There is a general or in principle Taubah, and a specific or detailed Taubah.   For general or in principle Taubah, a person should pray two raka’t with the intention of Salah of repentance (صلوٰة التوبہ), and then with a humble heart should pray to Allah Ta’ala that “O’ Allah! I beg You for forgiveness for all the sins I have committed in my previous life. Please forgive me for all the sins I have committed, major or minor. Please forgive me for all the Faraid (compulsory commandments) and Wajibat (necessary commandments) that I have neglected or not performed. O’ Allah! Please forgive me and accept my Taubah.” This is general or in principle Taubah.   

Once a person has done general Taubah, the next step is to do specific Taubah. Specific Taubah means that they look at their entire past life critically as to what wrongs they have committed in that life. Then they should reflect on which of these wrongs they can atone for now. For example, they should make a list of all the people they have hurt in their past life. Then they should try to ask for forgiveness from all those people who are still alive and they can contact, and pray for forgiveness from Allah Ta’ala in favour of all those people who have passed away or they are unable to contact any more.  

In terms of Salah, a person needs to estimate how many Salah, if any, they have not prayed (done Qada) since Salah became compulsory for them. That time starts from the age when an individual attains puberty. If they do not remember the exact age, then they should estimate it from the age of 14 years as that is the age when children usually become mature. Then they should estimate how many Salah of which time (for example Fajr or Asr) they may not have prayed since then. If they do not remember exactly, then they should make a conservative estimate. If, for example, they estimate that they had not prayed all the five Salah for 3 years. They should write that down in a copy, and then start praying a Qada Salah with each regular Salah. This is called Qada-e-Umri (قضائے عمری).