What is the ruling on the young man who abandons the prayer?

The questioner : Some of the young brothers are asking our Shaykh about the ruling on the one who abandons the prayer.

The Shaykh : As for the youth, what is their ruling? There is no doubt that prayer is the second pillar of Islam, as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that and establish prayer and give zakah. When they do so, their blood and property are protected from me except by right, and their account is with Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He.”
So establishing the prayer is a manifestation of the Muslim’s saying, “There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” Because when he prays, he thereby affirms that he is a true servant, obedient to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, who commands the prayer in more than one verse, such as the verse: , and obedient to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), who went to great lengths in urging the preservation of the prayer, until he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “he has committed disbelief.” Here we must pause for a moment on the phrase “he has committed disbelief.” What is intended by it? Does “he has committed disbelief” mean that the Muslim who testifies from the depths of his heart that Allah is One with no partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger, if he abandons the prayer, has he apostatized from his religion? Is this what is intended by this hadith? The answer is that sometimes this meaning is intended by the hadith, and sometimes another meaning is intended. And this other meaning is not a trivial matter; rather, it is also serious and may lead its owner to the first meaning. What is the first meaning? The one who abandons the prayer has committed disbelief if he denies it, if he denies its legitimacy, if he says, as some young people who were raised in a non-Islamic upbringing say, even if they are in the heart of their homeland, “Why the prayer? Why the wudu? Why the ghusl? These matters were legislated in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. They were legislated for a people who did not know cleanliness or purity. They lived in filth, they lived with dung and garbage and the like. But now, what Allah willed, civilization, bathrooms in every house, showers, and water is all made easy, so there is no need for such purity from this angle, and there is no need for such movements, for sports today suffice the peoples for these physical movements that were legislated in a time that has passed and ended.”
These young people, whose minds may turn over these disbelieving meanings, and some of them may dare to utter them with their tongues, these are the ones directly intended by his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying “he has committed disbelief,” meaning he has apostatized from his religion. As for the second meaning, “he has committed disbelief” means he has approached disbelief and is on the verge of it, if he believes in the legitimacy of the prayer and submits to Allah, meaning he worships Him by believing in what He has legislated for him of the prayer, but his tongue sometimes and his state always says, “May Allah accept my repentance.” The phrase “May Allah accept my repentance” means that he is admitting his sin to his Lord, admitting that this prayer is obligatory for him to perform, and it is not as the first group said, “This is a time that has passed and ended.” No, this one admits to this legitimacy, but he is negligent in performing it. This does not make him a disbeliever in a way that takes him out of the religion, but it is feared that with the passage of time he may die a disbeliever. Why?
We hear today a word related to material things, for example, maintenance. What is maintenance? Maintenance of refrigerators, cars, and so on. The car is running, running, its condition is fine, but it needs maintenance every long trip, or every year, or so on. And if he does not do this maintenance, the fate of the car is that it dies and breaks down. And so the heart, which is the engine by which this human being lives, this heart also needs maintenance, but most people do not know. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith that al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated in their Sahihs, from the hadith of al-Nu'man ibn Bashir (may Allah be pleased with both of them). Al-Nu'man ibn Bashir is a Companion. The son of whom? A Companion. This al-Nu'man ibn Bashir is the one who died in the war we referred to, where al-Mughirah went to Hormuzan and spoke to him with that speech containing the pride of Islam. He was the commander of the Muslim army at that time. He said to them, “If I die, the commander will be so-and-so, and if he dies, so-and-so,” and so on. And when the two armies charged at each other, he fell as a martyr. One of them found him and placed a spear and put a distinctive flag on him so they could find him easily. And they found him dead, having been stabbed dozens of stabs.
This al-Nu'man narrates from our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: “Indeed, , , and every king has a sanctuary, and the sanctuary of Allah is His prohibitions. And whoever encroaches around the sanctuary is likely to fall into it.” This one who does not pray is encroaching around the sanctuary, likely to fall into it. The complete hadith is: . This morsel, in material terms, needs maintenance. Not only the car and the refrigerator and the like, but this is more deserving and more deserving of being preserved, because just as the heart that we know is a morsel and it gets sick and healthy, doctors always and forever strive with all effort to keep the human heart sound so that he lives soundly, especially for the elderly, like me, because if his heart is sick, soon, due to his neglect of maintenance, it will become what? Nothing. This material heart, which material doctors care for with complete care, more than any part of the body, because the body can live without any organ except this heart; if it loses it, it loses itself completely.
This material care for the heart must be concerned with this heart with a higher and higher and greater care than the care of material doctors for this heart, so that it is safe and so that he does not expose himself to what he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the previous hadith. “Whoever abandons the prayer has committed disbelief,” meaning he exposed himself to disbelief. This is if he believes in the legitimacy of the prayer. But if he says, “No prayer, no such thing,” then he is a companion who will be gathered with Pharaoh, Haman, and all the disbelievers in the lowest level of the Fire. This is the importance of the prayer in Islam. And so, whoever is afflicted among the young people, and even among the adults, with great regret, whoever is afflicted with the prayer by abandoning it or being negligent with it, let him remember this reality and let him preserve the performance of the prayers in their times. And not only this, and I hope you pay attention.
It is not just this, but also that they pray in the mosques, for Allah the Mighty and Majestic says in the clear text of the Noble Qur'an: This is the first command. This is the second command. This is the third command. This third command is not a repetition of the first. If we removed what is between it and "give zakah," what would be left with us? Is it a repetition? Far be it from Allah; the speech of Allah the Mighty and Majestic has no equal in eloquence and clarity, and it is among the concise words: few words that convey very many meanings. "Establish the prayer" does not mean merely "perform it." Pay attention; the meaning of "establish the prayer" is not just to perform it, but to perfect its performance. Establishing a thing means straightening it and setting it in its place. If Allah the Mighty and Majestic had only wanted to command the prayer, He would have said to you, "Perform the prayer." But He said, "Establish the prayer," meaning perfect the performance of the prayer when you pray. Then He commanded a second thing at the end of the verse: "with those who bow," which is the plural, meaning: make what you have been commanded to do, which is establishing the prayer, together with those who bow in the mosques.