A word on declaring someone a disbeliever for abandoning prayer.

The questioner : Abu Hammam asks about declaring someone a disbeliever...

The Shaykh : I will say a word regarding those who have been afflicted with the chatter about declaring the one who abandons prayer a disbeliever, and who did not stop at this statement, which we cannot say is an innovated statement, because some of the Imams have said it. But—and peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you—they have, as it is said, "added to the mud and made it stickier, and added a note to the drum"; for they expanded the circle of declaring someone a disbeliever, even to the point of including those who abandoned some of the remaining pillars, the five pillars of Islam. So, without doubt, in this declaration of disbelief, they have aligned themselves with the Khawarij. However, as far as I know, they do not make this explicit, and I hope that their lack of explicitness stems from their own lack of conviction; because the one who commits major sins is equated with the one who abandons a pillar of the five pillars; meaning, they do not distinguish between them. Otherwise, in that case, they would be entirely of the Khawarij. So I want to draw attention to a factual reality: the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever. Those who are afflicted with abandoning prayer fall into categories that cannot be fully enumerated. The worst of them is the one who has not prostrated to Allah even once. The best of them is the one who followed his desire in prayer, and his worldly life occupied him from his prayer. We ask them: Did this last one commit disbelief? This last person abandoned a single prayer in his entire life without a Sharia excuse, such as sleep or forgetfulness, but rather his worldly life occupied him; did he commit disbelief? They are, by nature, from the people of desires—every person of desire, old and new—uttering words that blind people; because they are not callers to guidance and good. So you will not find in their words, despite their abundance, a detail of who is the one who is declared a disbeliever for abandoning prayer? Is it the one who spent his entire life abandoning prayer, or the one who abandoned many prayers, or even if the one who abandoned a single prayer? If they say so, they have entered into details now, and we will stand against them and say to them: .
We start with the least evil of them; it is this one who abandoned a single prayer. We ask them: Did he commit disbelief or not? If they say: He committed disbelief, we follow them in the discussion. If they say: No, he did not commit disbelief. We say to them: Why? Why? So they must bring the evidence that distinguishes between one who abandons and another who abandons, and they will never be able to find a way to do that; because what will happen is as follows: You say that this one who abandoned a single prayer did not commit disbelief, okay; did he commit disbelief when he abandoned a second prayer? If he says: He committed disbelief. We say to him as we said in the first case. If he says: He did not commit disbelief, okay, a third and a fourth. So when does he commit disbelief? And he will say, for example: It is the one who did not pray to Allah a single prayer; so we say to them two things:
First: You did not declare him a disbeliever, you do not say that he is the one who abandons prayer at all, and that he did not pray to Allah even a single prayer. You utter words like this without basis, and this is proof that you do not want to advise the Ummah; because the one who wants to advise the Ummah clarifies the way for them, as He—Exalted is He—said: . If they say: So the difference between this one and that one, we demand the difference from them. And if they say: All of them, the one who abandons a single prayer and the one who abandons all prayers. We say to them: What is the evidence? Is it the action, or the abandonment, or the belief? Here our precise topic with the group enters, and the previous research returns there completely. The action may indicate what is in the heart; it may indicate! But it is necessary to bring the conditions that we discussed in the previous session. If you say that even if he abandons a single prayer; then this understanding does not stand alone to be evidence that this person, if he believed in the obligation of prayer, would not have abandoned it even once. And there they will fall, as it is said, into confusion.
So the summary of the word in the observation I wanted to dictate is: First: That they be compelled to explain the detail of their declaration of disbelief for the one who abandons prayer, the detail. Then, in light of the detail, we demand from them the evidence; so they will not find a way to that.