Leaving the congregational prayer and justifying it with the purity of the heart

Question:
A female questioner from Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia says: My husband is a man of good character who prays, but he does not pray in the mosque and does not pray the recommended prayers. When I try to wake him for the Fajr prayer, he shouts at me, which has made me stop trying to wake him so that he does not shout at me. Sometimes he claims that he does not do anything that angers Allah, and that his heart is pure, and says that this is sufficient. I ask for guidance and advice.

Answer:
It is obligatory for every accountable Muslim to pray the five prayers with the Muslims in the mosque, based on the saying of Allah ﷽: [al-Baqarah:43] and His saying, Exalted is He: the verse [al-Nisa:102]. If prayer in congregation becomes obligatory in a state of fear, then its obligation in a state of security is even more right and preferable. And based on the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: It was narrated by Ibn Majah, al-Daraqutni, Ibn Hibban, and al-Hakim with a sound chain. It was said to Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), "What is the excuse?" He said: "(Fear or illness)."
It is authentic from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that a blind man asked him, saying, "O Messenger of Allah, I have no guide to lead me to the mosque, so do I have a dispensation to pray in my house?" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him: He said: Yes. He said: It was narrated by Muslim in his Sahih.
And Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Whoever wishes to meet Allah tomorrow as a Muslim, let him guard these prayers when the call is made for them. Indeed, Allah has prescribed for your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) the sunnahs of guidance, and these are among the sunnahs of guidance. If you prayed in your homes as this delinquent prays in his home, you would abandon the sunnah of your Prophet, and if you abandoned the sunnah of your Prophet, you would go astray. I have surely seen us, and none would lag behind them except a known hypocrite or a sick person. And indeed, a man would be brought, supported between two men, until he was placed in the row." Muslim narrated it in his Sahih.
So it is obligatory for you to advise him in a good manner, and to encourage him to pray the rawatib (regular voluntary prayers) with the obligatory ones. They are four before the Zuhr, with taslim from every two, and two after the Zuhr, and two after the Maghrib, and two after the Isha, and two before the Fajr prayer, totaling twelve rak'ahs, and they are called the rawatib. The Prophet ﷺ used to guard them, and he said ﷺ: .
It is authentic from Umm Habib (may Allah be pleased with her) from the Prophet ﷺ that he explained these rak'ahs as these rawatib. It is recommended for the Muslim to pray four before the Asr, based on the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: .
And it is better to say taslim from every two; based on the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: It was narrated by Imam Ahmad and the people of the four Sunan with a sound chain.
And it is also better to pray four after the Zuhr, just as he prayed four before it, saying taslim from every two; based on the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: It was narrated by Imam Ahmad and the people of the four Sunan with a sound chain from the hadith of Umm Habib (may Allah be pleased with her), the wife of the Prophet ﷺ.
And it is obligatory for your husband to beware of delaying the Fajr prayer from its time; because that is major shirk in the most correct of the scholars' opinions; based on the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: It was narrated by Muslim in his Sahih.
And the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: It was narrated by Imam Ahmad and the people of the four Sunan with a sound chain from Buraydah ibn al-Husayb (may Allah be pleased with him).
The hadiths regarding the greatness of the status of prayer, and the urging to perform it in its time and in congregation, are very numerous. And we ask Allah to guide your husband and all Muslims to all good, and to protect him from the evil of his own self and desires, and to make you among the best of his helpers in good. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the Near.
As for your husband's saying that he does not do anything that angers Allah, and that his heart is pure, this is self-deception and self-praise. There is no doubt that delaying the prayer from its time, and not performing it in congregation in the mosque, both anger Allah, Exalted is He. And there is no doubt that the one whose heart is pure, whom Allah has filled with faith and righteousness, does not delay the prayer from its time, nor does he lag behind the prayer in congregation in the mosque; based on the saying of the Prophet ﷺ in the authentic hadith: It is agreed upon as authentic. And success is from Allah.