How to Deal with One Who Abandons Prayer
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The questioner : Your Eminence! If the call to prayer is made, especially for the Fajr and 'Asr prayers, which are times when one is waking up from sleep, and you wake your family for prayer, but there is a brother of yours—for example—or a family member who does not wake up except after a fight with him, and he is a man whom you cannot hit—out of respect for him—For example, he says to you: "Leave me alone, I do not want to pray, I am free," knowing that he prays when he gets up without performing wudu'.
The questioner : So should I leave him and pray, or what should I do? May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : Do not leave him; rather, wake him up and rouse him. Also, if you have authority over him, compel him to perform wudu'. And if this does not benefit him with Allah, nevertheless, outwardly, we must obligate him to follow the ordinances of Islam. If he becomes upright, that is what is required. If he does not become upright, and if the house is yours, expel him from the house; because there is nothing after abandoning prayer. We do not recommend that the sinner be expelled from the house,Rather, we say: his remaining in the house is better than him going out and being unruly in the markets, and he might be in an even worse state than being in the house; but one who abandons prayer cannot be tolerated at all. What remains after disbelief?
The questioner : So should I leave him and pray, or what should I do? May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : Do not leave him; rather, wake him up and rouse him. Also, if you have authority over him, compel him to perform wudu'. And if this does not benefit him with Allah, nevertheless, outwardly, we must obligate him to follow the ordinances of Islam. If he becomes upright, that is what is required. If he does not become upright, and if the house is yours, expel him from the house; because there is nothing after abandoning prayer. We do not recommend that the sinner be expelled from the house,Rather, we say: his remaining in the house is better than him going out and being unruly in the markets, and he might be in an even worse state than being in the house; but one who abandons prayer cannot be tolerated at all. What remains after disbelief?