Is the one who abandons prayer considered outside the religion?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner asks: How do we respond to those who say that the term "disbelief" (kufr) used regarding the one who abandons prayer does not expel him from the religion, because the term "disbelief" appears in some contexts without expelling one from the religion?
Answer:
The questioner: This is what is understood. The distinction is between the terms reported from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). When the Messenger uses "disbelief" with the definite article (al-), the intended meaning is major disbelief (shirk akbar). But when "disbelief" is used in the indefinite form, such as fighting a Muslim or insulting a Muslim, that is open sinfulness (fisq), and fighting him is disbelief. This indefinite "disbelief" is the lesser one. Yes.
The questioner asks: How do we respond to those who say that the term "disbelief" (kufr) used regarding the one who abandons prayer does not expel him from the religion, because the term "disbelief" appears in some contexts without expelling one from the religion?
Answer:
The questioner: This is what is understood. The distinction is between the terms reported from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). When the Messenger uses "disbelief" with the definite article (al-), the intended meaning is major disbelief (shirk akbar). But when "disbelief" is used in the indefinite form, such as fighting a Muslim or insulting a Muslim, that is open sinfulness (fisq), and fighting him is disbelief. This indefinite "disbelief" is the lesser one. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل يعد تارك الصلاة خارج من الملة؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.