The Ruling on Delaying the Prayer Beyond Its Time to Watch Matches
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner : Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. What is the ruling on delaying the prayer until its time has passed in order to watch the matches? And if one does so intentionally, does that make him a disbeliever?
Answer:
The Shaykh : Delaying the prayer in order to watch matches or for other reasons from his desires is major shirk (associating partners with Allah) according to the stronger position. It is major shirk, and he must repent to Allah from it, as you have heard from the two hadiths. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: One must beware of everything that prevents him or distracts him from performing them in congregation, whether it is matches or anything else. He must beware of everything that occupies him from them and perform them in their time, Your Eminence.
The questioner : Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. What is the ruling on delaying the prayer until its time has passed in order to watch the matches? And if one does so intentionally, does that make him a disbeliever?
Answer:
The Shaykh : Delaying the prayer in order to watch matches or for other reasons from his desires is major shirk (associating partners with Allah) according to the stronger position. It is major shirk, and he must repent to Allah from it, as you have heard from the two hadiths. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Between a man and disbelief and shirk (associating partners with Allah) is the abandonment of prayer. The covenant between Us and them is prayer, so whoever abandons it has committed disbelief.
بين الرجل وبين الكفر والشرك ترك الصلاة العهد الذي بيننا وبينهم الصلاة فمن تركها فقد كفر
Source
فتاوى الصلاة — islamhouse.com (58:56)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.