Short answer
No. Prayers and fasts become fard only at puberty, so nothing missed before it needs to be made up. The four schools agree. What matters is knowing when your puberty began: everything missed after that point must be made up, and if you are unsure, estimate the earliest likely date.
No qada is owed for prayers or fasts missed before bulugh. Every fard prayer and fast missed after bulugh must be made up. Where the start of puberty is uncertain, a person estimates by strong likelihood, and with no sign at all, bulugh is at fifteen lunar years.
Other madhhabs
- Maliki
- Agrees that nothing missed before puberty is owed, but with no physical sign the well-known Maliki view sets puberty at eighteen.
Explanation
The Prophet ﷺ said the pen is lifted from three: the sleeper until he wakes, the child until he reaches puberty, and the insane until he recovers. Since nothing is written as an obligation on a child, nothing is owed as a debt. The four schools agree on this.
Working out your start date:
- Girls: the first period, or an earlier wet dream if there was one. Many girls know roughly when this was.
- Boys: the first wet dream or ejaculation. This is often remembered only vaguely; choose the earliest age that seems likely, to be safe.
- No sign by fifteen: in the Hanafi school puberty is counted at fifteen lunar years, about fourteen years and seven months. Use the Hijri age calculator.
Then:
- Count the prayers you missed from that date. See making up years of missed prayers and the qada calculator.
- Fasts missed after puberty are made up too. See making up missed fasts.
- Prayers you did pray as a teenager, even imperfectly, count. Only the ones you truly missed are owed.
Converts have a different rule: nothing from before Islam is owed. See converts and missed prayers.
Do not let a large number stop you starting. Pray today's prayers on time, add a few qada prayers each day, and Allah sees the effort.
The evidence
Sunan Abi Dawud 4398
Graded sahih... رفع القلم عن ثلاثة عن النائم حتى يستيقظ ...
"The pen is lifted from three: from the sleeper until he wakes..."
A child is not under obligation before puberty.
Sahih al-Bukhari 2664
Sahih... عرضني يوم أحد وأنا ابن أربع عشرة سنة فلم يجزني ...
"He reviewed me on the day of Uhud when I was fourteen and did not accept me."
Ibn Umar's report, used for fifteen as the age of adulthood when no sign appears.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Durr al-Mukhtar, Kitab al-Hajr, chapter on puberty. The signs of puberty and the age of fifteen.
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Salah, chapter on qada of missed prayers. Missed prayers are made up from bulugh, by best estimate when unsure.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.