Date : 10-10-2012

Question :

Is it permissible that a person makes up missed obligatory prayers at the time of a current prayer?

The Answer :

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of The Worlds, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all of his family and companions.
Missed obligatory prayers are a debt due to Allah from a person. Therefore, paying off that debt is an obligation i.e. making up these prayers. The evidence of this is the Hadith in which the Prophet(PBUH) said: " The debt due to Allah is the one which most deserves to be paid."{Related by Bukhari & Muslim}. Moreover, it is permissible to make up for them at any time, but it is recommended to observe their prescribed order.
As regards making up missed prayers, Muslim scholars have differentiated between prayers missed for a valid excuse and those missed deliberately :
First: Obligatory prayers missed for a valid excuse must be made up hastily in order to be cleared from liability for it was stated in the Shafie book {Boshra al-Kareem Shareh al-Mokadima al-Hadramiah, p.179}: "It is recommended to hasten making up obligatory prayers missed for a valid excuse, such as sleep and oblivion, but without these excuses being made out of a person`s misconduct. This is in order to clear him from the liability as soon as possible. It is also recommended to make them up according to their prescribed order and perform them, if missed for a valid excuse, before the prayer whose time is due unless there is no time to perform all of them, and even if the congregation is missed."
Second: Deliberately missed obligatory prayers must be made up for hastily, even if that consumed the time of the current prayer. It was stated in {Boshra al-Kareem, p.179}: "The person who missed obligatory prayers for no valid excuse must make them up hastily, as means of rebuking him for being negligent, and he must also spend his free time in doing so."
In conclusion, you(Asker) are permitted to make up missed obligatory prayers at the time of any current prayer. Rather, you are obliged to make up for deliberately missed obligatory prayers immediately. However, if that involved hardship then you have to hasten doing that according to your ability, even if it means making up a missed prayer with each current prayer. And Allah knows best.