In the hadith of intercession, it is stated: ( . . . . . . they never did any good ). Did this come as a general rule, like the hadith of the one who killed a hundred people, where the angels of punishment said:

The questioner : The hadith, which is the hadith of intercession, some of my brothers mentioned to me that there is a response to the hadith of intercession, which ends with , meaning the intercession of Allah and the mercy of Allah for a group of people who never did any good. He said this last part is like the wording of the hadith of the one who killed a hundred people, where the angels of punishment said that he never did any good, even though the man came as a repentant person and had done good. So this is a problem: he never did any good, even though this man believes in Allah... How is this problem answered? Who said that this is only a general rule, that he never did any good?

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : The issue is that this response to these details is that one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever. If we say that this is what makes the deed beneficial... .

The Shaykh : First, what is its connection to the hadith of intercession? That these are our brothers who used to pray, and so on... What is the connection between this hadith and that?

The questioner : Meaning his statement , i.e., it is not in its meaning.

The Shaykh : Let him interpret the hadith however he wishes, that it is not our topic now. Our topic is that this is an authentic and explicit hadith that Allah the Exalted permitted the sincere believers from the people of Paradise to intercede for their brothers who were with them, who used to pray with them, but they do not see them with them. So they seek permission from their Lord to intercede for them, and He permits them. The first group came out... and they became deserving of entering the Fire, so they were brought out by the intercession of the righteous. Then He permits them to bring out another group... So the question now is: what is the connection of the hadith to those who were brought out by the intercession of the righteous and were not among the pray-ers, but what is the point of connection?

The questioner : The point of connection is that the understanding is that the second group does not negate that they did not pray... .

The Shaykh : ... that those who used to pray were brought out.

The questioner : And the others, does it negate... ?

The Shaykh : Of course, because those who said this phrase, "our brothers used to pray with us and we do not see them with us," interceded for them, so they were brought out. When they were permitted to intercede for a second group, these people are not among them. So we ask: what is the connection of this hadith to that?

The questioner : So here... .

The Shaykh : ... is what led us to use the hadith as evidence that one who abandons prayer, if he is a Muslim, as we said earlier, the difference between doctrinal disbelief and practical disbelief. If he believes in prayer but did not pray out of laziness and negligence, it is not... so intercession is made for these people.

The questioner : So this question is cut off. The question now is directing this phrase so that it means he never did any good, and no one enters Paradise except the believer.

The Shaykh : What does that mean? That no one enters Paradise except a believer... So I say sometimes yes and sometimes no. No one enters Paradise except a believer who is among the foremost, either a complete believer or, at the very least, one whose good deeds outweigh his bad deeds. As for one who is a believer but has a record of sins and so on, then either the will and forgiveness of Allah encompass him, as Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: If the forgiveness of Allah does not encompass him, he will enter the Fire to be punished for as long as He wills. At that point, as we mentioned in the previous hadith, meaning that this testimony is not the testimony by its implications, but only by its right, as it came in the hadith... The testimony that there is no god but Allah, this is faith, and this is the smallest particle of faith, meaning that there was no commitment to the rights of the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. And these rights, if a person does not commit to them, he may enter Paradise with the righteous, or he may enter it after the Reckoning, and he may have deserved a type of punishment, but he does not enter the Fire, and so on. The point is that there are degrees. But if we assume the most wretched of people... When we say that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever, meaning an apostate from his religion, what is disbelief? What is it? We cannot imagine a true scholar who does not agree with this detail that we derived from Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah... There is practical disbelief and creedal disbelief; this distinction is necessary. Otherwise, one who does not adopt this distinction is associated with the Khawarij. It is necessary. Those who declare the one who abandons prayer a disbeliever have no absolute, conclusive argument on the matter other than the apparent meanings of the texts. And these apparent meanings from the texts are opposed to the apparent meanings of other texts, so reconciliation between them is necessary. How do we reconcile? We reconcile by saying that the one who abandons prayer while believing in it, acknowledging its legitimacy, and acknowledging in the depths of his heart that he is shortchanging Allah Blessed and Exalted in neglecting it, is not to be equated with that polytheist who does not acknowledge prayer or zakat. I am very surprised how we equate the one whose disbelief is creedal and practical—the polytheist is a disbeliever in creed and practice, meaning he denies the Islamic Shari'ah in its entirety, including prayer, so he does not pray, so he is a disbeliever in creed and practice—while the Muslim may pray sometimes, as is the reality for many Muslims who abandon prayer. How can we say this is like that, my brother? This is not like that. This contradicts that completely in creed. This polytheist does not testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, nor to their implications... But this Muslim, the open sinner who has gone out from the obedience of Allah and the obedience of the Messenger of Allah, contradicts him in a fundamental way. He testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and believes in all their implications, but the desire of his soul overcame him, his love of money overcame him, and so on. These are not excuses that justify his abandoning prayer, but they are excuses that intercede for him with Allah on the Day of Resurrection, that he said, "I believed in Allah and His Messenger, but I fell short." Equating this with that is injustice, and it is a biased, unfair scale. This is in addition to the many, very many other proofs that we referred to in previous lessons, that merely saying does not mean he has apostatized from his religion, because the one who swears by other than Allah has committed disbelief does not mean he has apostatized from his religion. This kind of expression is common and very common in the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So what leads us to interpret that the one who abandons prayer has committed disbelief, meaning apostatized from his religion? The one who swears by other than Allah has committed disbelief has not apostatized from his religion. I say that these two may meet and may differ. The one who abandons prayer has committed disbelief by denial has apostatized from his religion. The one who swears by other than Allah has committed disbelief by denial is included with the first, i.e., the disbeliever. The one who abandons prayer has committed disbelief while acknowledging prayer... and that this is practical disbelief, so he is not an apostate. The one who swears by other than Allah the Mighty and Majestic, if he is excused because he did not know this, and if we mentioned it, he said, "The habit overcame me," this does not make him a disbeliever in creed, but only in practice. The hadiths and texts all respond to one another and compel us intellectually and creedally that we do not fall into confusion... And here, disbelief means he disobeyed Allah the Mighty and Majestic and committed practical disbelief, and so on, from many and very many things. And so I was surprised by your statement that this person did not ever do a good deed, linking it to the topic of the hadith of intercession. No, we noted the detail mentioned in this authentic hadith, which makes it clear to us that there are those being punished in the Fire who were praying. They were taken out, they entered the Fire not for the reason of abandoning prayer, but perhaps they committed zina, perhaps they stole, perhaps they consumed riba, and so on, as it came in the hadiths But at the same time, they were with the praying people. So their brothers, the praying righteous ones, said, "Our Lord, we do not see our brothers who used to pray with us." So Allah the Mighty and Majestic favored them and ordered them to intercede, so they interceded for them. They said, "Our brothers, they did not mention..." This detail is what made us argue with the hadith, whereas we did not previously argue with this hadith. We have many and very many things, but this hadith in reality added light to light, clarifying to one who was unaware that there is exaggeration in this matter by some shaykhs and scholars. It is sufficient for you to know that the majority of the mujtahid scholars, even Imam Ahmad to whom the statement that the one who abandons prayer out of laziness is a disbeliever is attributed, is a narration... If this person is an apostate from his religion by abandoning prayer, when will he believe? When will he become a believer? If he apostatized from his religion, he must renew his faith... If he has a job he is compelled to do to make a living, is he allowed to abandon the prayer, i.e., making it up, when it becomes easy for him? This Imam Ahmad is the Imam of the Sunnah. I see that the matter has been taken with some severity more than necessary.