The Ruling on Abandoning Prayer While Acknowledging Its Obligation

Question:
The one who abandons prayer is my slave, but he acknowledges it. The one who abandons prayer is my slave.

Answer:
Regarding the one who abandons prayer intentionally while acknowledging its obligation and believing in it, there are two opinions among the scholars. One is that he is a disbeliever who has committed major shirk (associating partners with Allah) and has apostatized from Islam, because he abandoned it and intentionally left Islam. This is the stronger opinion due to many pieces of evidence, including the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that the head of Islam and its pillar is prayer. It also includes what came in the Noble Qur'an regarding the laws of Allah for those who pray and His command to establish prayer. It also includes His statement about the disbelievers when they were asked, , where they mentioned that among the reasons for their entering the Fire and dwelling in it is that they were not among those who prayed.
Among the evidence is His saying: . And the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) between a man... and others said that he said it is minor kufr (disbelief), not major. This is because the evidence for tawhid (the oneness of Allah) indicates that abandoning prayer does not constitute apostasy from Islam. They mentioned things in this vein that indicate what they believed, namely that his kufr is minor, not major. They stated that if he believes it is obligatory upon him and that it is a fard (obligatory), but he considers it light, he commits minor kufr and becomes a fasiq (open sinner). His fisq (open sinfulness) is greater than that of the fornicator and the thief, but it is not major kufr. They said that with this, he is prayed over and he is called a Muslim. This is the opinion of a group of scholars. The opinion of the scholars that is more apparent in evidence and stronger in argument is that his kufr is major. We seek refuge in Allah from...