The Ruling on the One Who Abandons Prayer
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Question:
The questioner: How can there be a difference of opinion regarding the ruling on the one who abandons prayer, when a group of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) declared the one who abandons it a disbeliever, including 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and 'Umar al-Faruq (may Allah be pleased with them), with no disagreement from any of the Companions?
Answer:
My brother, the Sunnah has declared them disbelievers; the authentic hadiths have declared them disbelievers. He said:Mishkat al-Masabih 569 He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Sunan Ibn Majah 1079Sahih (Darussalam) And in the Qur'an, when the people of the Fire are asked: [Al-Muddaththir 74:42]? What is the answer?
[Al-Muddaththir 74:43] [Al-Muddaththir 74:46]. So he associated the one who abandons prayer with these people, among whom is the one who denies the Day of Judgment. Then he said: "So of no avail to them will be the intercession of those who intercede." If they had not been disbelievers, the intercession of those who intercede would have benefited them, because the one for whom the intercession of those who intercede is of no avail is the disbeliever. [Ghafir 40:18], so the disbeliever's intercession is not accepted on the Day of Resurrection. Yes.
The questioner: How can there be a difference of opinion regarding the ruling on the one who abandons prayer, when a group of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) declared the one who abandons it a disbeliever, including 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and 'Umar al-Faruq (may Allah be pleased with them), with no disagreement from any of the Companions?
Answer:
My brother, the Sunnah has declared them disbelievers; the authentic hadiths have declared them disbelievers. He said:
Jabir reported God’s Messenger as saying, “What lies between a man and infidelity is the abandonment of prayer.”* *This means that when a man does not make it his practice to observe the prayer he is no longer a Muslim. Muslim transmitted it.
صلى الله عليه وسلم بين العبد وبين الكفر ترك الصلاة رواه مسلمThe covenant that distinguishes between us and them is prayer; so whoever leaves it, he has committed Kufr.
الْعَهْدُ الَّذِي بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَهُمُ الصَّلاَةُ فَمَنْ تَرَكَهَا فَقَدْ كَفَرَ[And asking them], "What put you into Saqar?"
مَا سَلَكَكُمْ فِي سَقَرَThey will say, "We were not of those who prayed,
قَالُوا لَمْ نَكُ مِنَ الْمُصَلِّينَAnd we used to deny the Day of Recompense
وَكُنَّا نُكَذِّبُ بِيَوْمِ الدِّينِFor the wrongdoers there will be no devoted friend and no intercessor [who is] obeyed.
مَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ حَمِيمٍ وَلَا شَفِيعٍ يُطَاعُ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [504- 4717] حكم تارك الصلاة - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.