The ruling on the stories circulated about the snake in the grave and the punishments for the one who abandons prayer

The questioner:
May Allah guide you. He says: Do we not hear from people and read in newspapers that there is no limit to burying him before his qiblah?

The Shaykh:
Yes, is it?

The questioner:
He says: Is it true that we hear from people and read that one of them, when he was buried in his grave, found a snake in his grave, and that during the burial the snake stirred him up or something like that, and what some of them say about that, that the world is free of him, that he is punished with fifteen punishments? Is this...

The Shaykh:
This is not correct. The Committee has issued a refutation of the story where they showed a dead man wrapped in a snake and said this happened in Madinah. When the specialists in Madinah were asked, they said: No, this is a lie and it did not happen.
Likewise, the hadith that is narrated that the one who abandons prayer is punished with fifteen punishments has no basis either. Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Baz (may Allah have mercy on him) wrote about it; he wrote a letter refuting this hadith. Yes, there is no doubt that the one who abandons prayer intentionally is a disbeliever.
And severe punishments are upon him, but attributing to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) something he did not say, this is not permissible, . Yes.