Combining the First Thing a Servant Is Accounted For and the First Thing Judged Between People

Question:
Your Eminence the Shaykh, before we enter the chapter on commanding a child to pray as a recommendation rather than an obligation, there are questions remaining on the chapter concerning the one who does not declare a disbeliever the person who abandons prayer. I say that the previous hadiths indicate that the first thing a servant is held accountable for on the Day of Resurrection is prayer, and in another hadith, the first thing judged between people is blood. How do you reconcile that? May Allah reward you both.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon whoever follows his guidance. As for what follows, the first thing a servant will be held accountable for in his relationship with his Lord is the prayer. As for what is between him and people, the first thing to be judged between people is blood, between people, in the disputes of people among themselves, the first thing to be judged between them is blood. As for what concerns his own deed, the first thing he will be held accountable for is the prayer; because it is the pillar of Islam, and the greatest of the obligatory acts after the two testimonies. Yes. Yes.