Question:
BismilLaah
salaam alaykum
I reverted to Islam 14 years ago. I have difficulties to fast Ramadan and to pray.
I suffer from middle difficult depression and difficult anxiety. I take medicines(Efexor 150 mg, sedatives, sleeping tablets daily).
My nervousness grows when I try to pray 5 times a day and I get exhausted. Then I get depressed because of that.
Same with Ramadan. If I wake for suhur, after 2-3 days my anxiety grows very high, as I don’t get enough sleep. Also, I have to cook for the family and they are ordering this and that food, so I get anxious.
How to I make up these 14 years of Ramadans? It is over a year of fasting. How do I make up my prayers, thousands of them, maybe 20,000 prayers? Ya Allah.. How to continue, what to do? How to get rid of my depression and panic attacks, and anxiousness?
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Prayers must be made up. Allah is Generous so when you pray the normal fard prayer, add to it one additional qada, missed prayer. Action is by intentions, so with each prayer you make up one other. Then in 14 years they will finish.
For Ramadan, and based on what you are saying, you are excused for medical reasons. So, if based on what you said, you can pay for each month missed. For each missed day pay $5.00. Pay this over time. Give that to the poor. You have an excuse not to fast.
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
