قال الشيخ رحمه الله ومن فاتته صلوات كثيرة لم يحص عددها ولا عرف أيها هي من الخمس صلوات على التعيين أو كانت الخمس بأجمعها فاتته له مدة ولا يحصيها فليصل أربعا وثلاثا واثنتين في كل وقت لا يتضيق لصلاة حاضرة وليكثر من ذلك حتى يغلب على ظنه انه قد قضى ما فاته وزاد عليه قد بينا انه إذا لم يتعين له ما فاته يصلي اربعا وثلاثا واثنتين في كل وقت فاما ما يدل على انه يجب أن يكثر منه فهو ما قد ثبت ان قضاء الفرايض واجب وإذا ثبت قضاؤها ولم يمكنه أن يتخلص من ذلك إلا بأن يستكثر منها وجب عليه الاستكثار منها ويزيد ذلك وضوحا ان النوافل التي لا يجب قضاؤها قد رغب في قضائها إذا كان حكمها هذا الحكم فالفرايض بذلك أولى والذي روى ذلك
The Shaykh (Al-Mufid), may Allah سبحانه وتعالى support him, said: ‘Whoever has missed many prayers and does not know their number, nor does he know which of the five prayers they are specifically, or if he has missed all five for a period he cannot calculate, then he should pray four rak‘ahs, three, and two during every time that is not restricted by the obligation of a current prayer. And he should increase that until he overcomes the assumption that he has made up what he missed and added to it.’ We have explained that when it is not specified which prayers he missed, he should pray four, three, and two rak‘ahs in every time. As for what indicates that it is obligatory to increase such prayers, it is that the making up (‘qadahʾ’) of the obligatory prayers is indeed obligatory. And when their making up is obligatory and he cannot be free of that responsibility except by doing more, then it becomes obligatory upon him to increase them. And to make this even clearer: the ‘nafilah’ (recommended) prayers, for which making up is not obligatory, are still recommended to be made up. So if that is the case with ‘nafilah’, then the obligatory prayers are even more deserving of this. What has been narrated regarding this is:
