The Ruling on One Who Deliberately Abandons Prayer and Advice Regarding Parents

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Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: My father prays some obligatory prayers and abandons others, and he does not fast except in Ramadan. When I tell him, "Father, get up for the Fajr prayer or another," he gets up and speaks ill of me. When my mother advises him, he gets up and speaks ill of her. The question is: What is your advice to me and my mother?

Answer:
The one who abandons some of the prayers deliberately is a disbeliever, and it does not benefit him that he prays the other obligatory ones. Allah the Exalted said:

Maintain with care the [obligatory] prayers and [in particular] the middle prayer and stand before Allah

حَافِظُوا عَلَى الصَّلَوَاتِ وَالصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ وَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ

[Al-Baqarah 2:238]

silent. He said: "And establish prayer," meaning all the prayers. He said:

And they who carefully maintain their prayers -

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَىٰ صَلَوَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ

[Al-Mu'minun 23:9]

So it is necessary to maintain all the prayers because they are obligatory. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

(peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Five prayers have been made obligatory by Allah in the day and night," and he said to Mu'adh: "Inform them that Allah has made obligatory upon them five prayers in the day and night."

صلى الله عليه وسلم خمس صلوات فرضهن الله في اليوم والليلة، وقال لمعاذ أعلمهم أن الله فرض عليهم خمس صلوات في اليوم والليلة،

So the one who prays some and abandons some deliberately is a disbeliever. The one who abandons all of them is like the one who abandons all of them. So whoever abandons all the prayers or some of them deliberately is a disbeliever, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):

Between the servant and shirk (associating partners with Allah) and kufr (disbelief) is the abandonment of prayer.

بين العبد والشرك والكفر ترك الصلاة،

as in Sahih Muslim. In the other hadith in the Sunan, regarding the covenant between us and the abandonment of prayer: if you do not find anything, you have disbelieved. He said: "If it were not for the abandonment of prayer." With the obligation for the Day of Judgment. And with the fear in the religion of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.
He, the Exalted and Glorious, said:

⁽³⁸⁾ Every soul, for what it has earned, will be retained ⁽³⁹⁾ Except the companions of the right, ⁽⁴⁰⁾ [Who will be] in gardens, questioning each other ⁽⁴¹⁾ About the criminals, ⁽⁴²⁾ [And asking them], "What put you into Saqar?"

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ رَهِينَةٌ إِلَّا أَصْحَابَ الْيَمِينِ فِي جَنَّاتٍ يَتَسَاءَلُونَ عَنِ الْمُجْرِمِينَ مَا سَلَكَكُمْ فِي

[Al-Muddaththir 74:38-42]

"Fall" means: what is the cause that put you into the Fire? They said: "We were not among those who prayed." The first answer is

We were not of those who prayed, ⁽⁴⁴⁾ Nor did we used to feed the poor.

لَمْ نَكُ مِنَ الْمُصَلِّينَ وَلَمْ نَكُ نُطْعِمُ الْمِسْكِينَ

[Al-Muddaththir 74:43-44]

meaning they withheld the zakah, which is a pillar of Islam, and

And we used to enter into vain discourse with those who engaged [in it],

وَكُنَّا نَخُوضُ مَعَ الْخَائِضِينَ

[Al-Muddaththir 74:45]

they doubted matters of the religion, such as the distance and the resurrection. Then

used to enter into vain discourse with those who engaged [in it],

نَخُوضُ مَعَ الْخَائِضِينَ

[Al-Muddaththir 74:45]

"until they reached certainty" means they died in that state, may Allah protect us from it. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said:

So there will not benefit them the intercession of [any] intercessors.

فَمَا تَنفَعُهُمْ شَفَاعَةُ الشَّافِعِينَ

[Al-Muddaththir 74:48]

So he who separates from the prayer that intercedes... The one who prostrates to the Resurrection and the Book and withholds the zakah... because the believer benefits from the intercession of the intercessors by the permission of Allah, and the one who does not benefit from the intercession of the intercessors is the disbeliever. And He, the Exalted, said:

⁽³¹⁾ And the disbeliever had not believed, nor had he prayed. ⁽³²⁾ But [instead], he denied and turned away.

فَلَا صَدَّقَ وَلَا صَلَّىٰ وَلَٰكِن كَذَّبَ وَتَوَلَّىٰ

[Al-Qiyamah 75:31-32]

So He paired belief and faith with prayer, and paired the abandonment of prayer with disbelief in the religion. There is clear evidence for this. So you must disapprove of this man. If he does not comply, report him to the levels of the authority around him so that they take him by the hand and compel him to pray. It is not permissible to remain silent about him. Yes.

Source تارك الصلاة — alfawzan.live

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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