I have been raised since childhood with my father praying and reciting the Qur'an, but about five years before his death, he completely stopped praying, and he was able to.

The questioner : I was raised since childhood with my father praying and reciting the Qur'an, but about five years before his death, he completely stopped praying, and he was able to. I now want to perform Hajj on his behalf. Is this permissible, O honorable Shaykh?

The Shaykh : This requires looking into the reason for his stopping of prayer. Because the apparent state of this man, who used to read the Qur'an, pray, and fast, indicates that he did not abandon prayer except for a reason. Perhaps this man’s mind became disordered and he could no longer bear prayer or feel it. In this case, prayer is not obligatory upon him if his mind is disordered and he is not aware or does not know, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): .
However, if he abandoned prayer while retaining his discernment and intellect, then he is a disbeliever, may Allah protect us from that. And if he is a disbeliever, then it is not permissible to perform Hajj on his behalf or to make du'a' for him, due to the saying of Allah the Exalted: .
If someone were to say: There is disagreement among the scholars regarding this issue, meaning the issue of abandoning prayer; does a person become a disbeliever by doing so or not?
The answer to that is that we say: Yes, there is disagreement among the scholars of knowledge regarding whether the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever or not. But the standard is the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), due to the saying of Allah the Exalted: and His saying the Exalted: .
And if we refer this issue, meaning the issue of declaring the one who abandons prayer a disbeliever, to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and we do not hold to the saying of these or the saying of those, but rather we look at what the evidence necessitates, then the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), the sayings of the Companions, and correct reasoning—these four all indicate that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever:
As for the Qur'an, Allah the Exalted said regarding the polytheists: So He made three conditions for brotherhood in religion: repentance from shirk, establishing prayer, and giving zakah. It is known that a ruling conditioned by something is not completed except by the gathering of its conditions. So brotherhood in religion is not completed except by these three: repentance from shirk, establishing prayer, and giving zakah. If they remain polytheists, they are not our brothers in religion. If they become Muslims but abandon prayer, they are not our brothers in religion. If they become Muslims and establish prayer but do not give zakah, they are not our brothers in religion. And brotherhood in religion is not negated except by disbelief, because sins, however great, do not take a person out of the brotherhood of religion, as Allah the Exalted said regarding intentional murder, which is one of the greatest of sins: So He said: And the murderer is one who commits a great major sin, and yet he has not been taken out of the brotherhood of faith.
And He the Exalted said regarding the two warring factions: And fighting between believers is one of the greatest of major sins, until the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: They said: O Messenger of Allah, what about the one who was killed? He said: And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And despite it being one of the greatest of sins and the Lawgiver calling it disbelief, it does not take one out of the circle of faith, due to the saying of Allah the Exalted: .
And abandoning prayer and abandoning the giving of zakah, as in the verse of repentance with which we began our answer, takes one out of the circle of faith, because Allah made these three conditions for brotherhood: if they repent, establish prayer, and give zakah.
If someone were to say: Do you hold to the declaration of disbelief for the one who withholds zakah?
The answer is: It has been said that the one who withholds zakah out of stinginess and negligence is a disbeliever, and this is a narration from Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him).
But the stronger position is that he is not a disbeliever, due to the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) which Muslim narrated in his Sahih. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And the fact that he sees a path to Paradise indicates that he is not a disbeliever.
It is said: The giving of zakah, the Sunnah indicates that the one who does not establish it is not a disbeliever. And the Sunnah, as is known to the scholars of knowledge, specifies the Qur'an, restricts it, explains it, and clarifies it.
As for the evidence from the Sunnah that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever, it is what Muslim narrated in his Sahih from Jabir ibn 'Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And what Buraydah ibn al-Husayb narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: It was narrated by the people of the Sunan. And this indicates, indeed these two hadiths indicate, the disbelief of the one who abandons prayer. The aspect of that is: the word "between" which indicates separation, the separation of shirk from faith, and that this is the dividing line. So whoever establishes prayer is on the side of faith, and whoever abandons it is on the side of disbelief and shirk. Whoever establishes prayer is from the Muslims, and whoever does not establish it is from the disbelievers: .
And as for the sayings of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "There is no share in Islam for the one who abandons prayer". "Share" means: portion. And it is negated by the negating "la" which indicates generality. And if the share, whether small or large, in Islam is negated, then only disbelief remains.
And 'Abdullah ibn Shaqiq (may Allah have mercy on him), who is from the Tabi'un, said: "The Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not consider any of the deeds whose abandonment is disbelief except prayer".
And as for correct reasoning, which is the fourth evidence:
It is said: How can we say to a person who is persistent in abandoning prayer, who does not pray while he hears the call and sees the Muslims standing for prayer, and he is not concerned with it nor does he care about it? How can we say to one in this state that he is a Muslim?
This is the farthest thing from the truth. So correct reasoning indicates the disbelief of this man, even if he says: "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." And not everyone who says: "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" is a Muslim. If someone were to say: "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" and disbelieve in a verse of the Qur'an or a ruling from the rulings of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, while he knows that this is established in the rulings of Allah, then he is a disbeliever.
If someone were to say: Is it not possible to interpret the hadith: as meaning that the intended meaning is disbelief of gratitude?
The answer is: This is not correct, due to what we mentioned before, which is the word "between." The word: is considered a dividing line that cannot be mixed with this at all. And absolute "between" indicates absolute difference. So abandoning prayer is different from Islam; it is not possible for a person to be a Muslim while he is abandoning his prayer.
If someone were to say: Is it not possible that we interpret the texts indicating disbelief as meaning that the intended one is one who denies it?
The answer is: This is not possible, because mere denial is disbelief. Mere denial of prayer is disbelief, whether he performs it or not. If someone were to be persistent in prayer and perform it with the congregation, but he believes that it is not obligatory, and that a person has a choice in it, if he wishes he does it and if he wishes he does not, then he is a disbeliever. And yet, he has not abandoned it.
And interpreting the texts as meaning denial is not correct from two aspects:
The first aspect: That we have nullified the description by which the Lawgiver conditioned the ruling, which is abandonment.
And the second: That we have established a description that the Lawgiver did not consider, which is denial.
And there is a third aspect: That it does not apply to the hadith, because as we said earlier, if he prayed and persisted in prayer while being a denier, he would be a disbeliever, even though he did not abandon it.
So it has become clear by this that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever, and that interpreting the texts of disbelief as meaning disbelief of gratitude is not correct, and interpreting them as meaning disbelief of denial is also not correct.
The student of knowledge should know that he is accountable before Allah (Mighty and Majestic) on the Day of Resurrection for judging according to the apparent meanings of the Book and the Sunnah. He should also know that judging people, their words, their actions, and their beliefs is not for anyone except Allah and His Messenger. So why are we hesitant to declare a person a disbeliever when the Book and the Sunnah indicate that this description applies to him and that he deserves it? Hesitating from this, when the texts indicate it, is like hesitating from prohibiting something that the Shari'ah has prohibited, despite the clarity of its evidence. It is not we who judge the servants of Allah or the actions of the servants of Allah; rather, the One who judges is Allah (Mighty and Majestic), whether in His Book or in what came from His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, it is obligatory for a person to look at the texts as a follower, or rather, to look at the texts as being followed, not as followers, so that he is safe from figurative interpretation, whether that interpretation is near or far, if there is no evidence from the Book and the Sunnah indicating it.
Based on this, we say: This man about whom the woman asked, if he left the prayer for a period of five prayers before his death, while his body was sound and his mind was sound, then he is a disbeliever who died upon disbelief, unless it is known that he repented and prayed at the end of his life. And if it happens that he died upon leaving the prayer, then it is not permissible for her to perform Hajj on his behalf or to make supplication for him.

The questioner : Rather, she should investigate her daughter?

The Shaykh : Yes, she should investigate in two matters:
The first matter: When he left the prayer, was he sane, with his mind and consciousness intact? Because I consider it unlikely that he would leave the prayer while having his mind and consciousness, especially since he was previously diligent in it and in the rest of the acts of worship.
And secondly: Did he return before his death or not? Because it is possible that he returned before he died, as happens with many people who commit negligence and laxity, and then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) saves them at the end of their lives.
'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), the truthful and the veracious, narrated to us and said: .
A person may have Allah make awakening easy for him at the end of his life, and his conclusion may be a conclusion of good and happiness. And let him know that the statement in the hadith: is qualified by another hadith: which is that he acts with the actions of the people of Paradise as it appears to people, until there is nothing between him and it but an arm's length due to the nearness of his death, and then what is in his heart of hidden evil, refuge in Allah, overcomes him, so he acts with the actions of the people of the Fire and enters it.

The questioner : We ask Allah for steadfastness for us and for you and for the honorable listening brothers, for He is the All-Hearing, the Responsive.