The ruling on attributing the story of the snake and the hadith regarding the punishment of the one who abandons prayer to the Prophet

Question:
O Messenger of Allah. He says: Is what we hear from people and read in images something we have no concern with?

Answer:
Yes, is it? He says: When you hear from people and read in images that one of them is buried in his heart, and a snake is found in his heart, and there is a commotion from the snake stirring up dust and the like, and what they say about the consequences of the experts of this world if it were followed by fifteen punishments.
This is a fabricated report. The Committee has issued a refutation of the story in which they depicted a dead man wrapped in a snake, and they said this happened in Madinah. When the specialists in Madinah were asked, they said, "No, this is a lie and has no truth." Likewise, the report that is narrated that the one who abandons prayer is punished with fifteen punishments; this also has no basis. Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Baz (may Allah have mercy on him) wrote about it; he wrote a treatise refuting this hadith. There is no doubt that the one who abandons prayer intentionally is a disbeliever, and he faces severe punishments. But attributing to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) something he did not say, this is not permissible. Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him take his place in the Fire.