Observing the sequence when making up many missed prayers
11-10-2009 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalamu Alaykum,
I have 2 questions:
1- I used to pray in the past, but sometimes I would miss fajr or other prayers by sleeping and wouldnt make them up as soon as I woke up. I used to think that i can make them up anytime. This resulted in an accumulation of many prayers which I now am trying to make up ( i wrote them down on paper).
My question is, I am trying to make them up in order, but often I would remember other prayers in which I was not covered properly, or where I didnt perform wudu properly and therefore need to make them up. I get confused when I remember these prayers as i do not know if I have to add them to my list so I can make up the prayers in order, or I have to make them up as soon as I remember them (ie seperate from the list)
If i have been making them up as soon as I remember, do I have to repeat them so they are in order with the other prayers in my list ? or is the fact that I prayed them when I remmebered sufficient.
Please note that now I do not miss prayers due to sleep, and if I realise that I need to repeat a prayer I make it up as soon as I remmeber them. I am just confused about how to deal with these old prayers.
2- Does the smoke from matches/cars/other smokers invalidate the fast? I read a fatwa regarding bukhoor smoke and fasting, and wanted to know if this applied to other things. Also if a spice or perfume shop contains smells that make one's chest itchy when they breath for eg black pepper.. does this mean the particles that enter the chest invalidate the fast? Is one sinful if they do not avoid such shops while fasting? This smell is from dry substances, not steam or smoke.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The scholars 
differed in opinion about the obligation of sequence when making up missed prayers and the opinion that it is an obligation is more appropriate in order to be on the safe side.
Therefore, if you are able to observe the sequence when making up the missed prayers and the prayers that were lacking one of the conditions for their validity, then this is better, otherwise you may pray without observing the sequence especially that the missed prayers are more than five.
As regards inhaling smoke and perfume while fasting, then what a person cannot avoid like road dust, the smoke of cars and the smell of solid products that are not powdered, then this does not invalidate the fasting by entering the stomach, as regards what a person can avoid and which has a substance, then the scholars differed in opinion whether or not it invalidates the fasting by deliberately inhaling it through the throat. The majority of scholars, are of the view that it invalidates the fasting. Therefore, it is more appropriate to avoid as much as possible inhaling what contains a substance that enters the stomach.