Do I have to make up missed prayers?

A translation of this fatwa from Naseem al-Sham

Question:

I have six years of missed prayers (ṣalāh). Do I have to make them up?

Answer (Imam Muḥammad Tawfīq Ramaḍān):

Whoever has prayers outstanding must make them up. Therefore, one must perform the obligatory prayers one owes instead of the sunan and nawāfil prayers, and I believe he will be able to make up what he owes in a short period, with Allah’s help, as long as his intention is to clear his religious liability (ibrāʾ al-dhimmah).

It is not correct to say that a person who deliberately abandoned a prayer does not have to make it up, and it is also not correct to claim that qaḍāʾ (making up prayers) applies only to those who missed a prayer due to sleep or forgetfulness. The evidence shows that whoever leaves a prayer, for whatever reason, is obligated to make it up.

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