Explanation of the author's statement: "… upon every Muslim …"

The Shaykh : The author says "It is obligatory upon every Muslim". Every Muslim: the Muslim is the one who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and who establishes the prayer, gives the zakah, fasts Ramadan, and performs Hajj to the House. This is the complete Muslim in Islam. However, the intended meaning of "Muslim" here is the one who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, based on the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to Mu'adh ibn Jabal: and so on. So it is obligatory upon this one who testified that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Now, it is not obligatory upon the disbeliever. And the intended meaning of negating the obligation from the disbeliever, O Abdullah, is that he is not bound by it during his state of disbelief, and he is not required to make it up after his Islam. He is not bound by it during his disbelief, and he is not required to make it up during his Islam. As for his being held accountable for it in the Hereafter, that is established, as will come if Allah wills. Now, the evidence that he is not bound by it during his disbelief: the evidence for that is the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: This is evidence that the prayer is not accepted from him. And if it is not accepted from him, why? Because it is not valid. And if it is not valid, it is not obligatory, because if it were obligatory and he did what is required in it, it would be valid. So the disbeliever is not bound by the prayer, and he is not required to make it up if he becomes a Muslim, based on the saying of Allah the Exalted: And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So he is not required to make it up if he becomes a Muslim. And there is a third piece of evidence from reasoning, which is that if we obligated him to make it up after his Islam, that would involve hardship and repulsion from Islam. Let us suppose that this man became a Muslim and he has been [a disbeliever] for forty years. We would say to him: "Make up the prayer of twenty-five years, and so on, twenty-five years." Is that so? Yes, the prayer of twenty-five years. And if we obligated him to do something like this, he would find the matter heavy, and perhaps he would remain in his disbelief, may Allah protect us from that. Now, we mentioned that he is held accountable for it in the Hereafter. In this world, we know his ruling: he is not bound by it during disbelief, and the evidence for that is the verse we referred to. Perhaps we can also cite as evidence, and add to that, the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal, because it did not mention the obligation of prayer upon them except after the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. He is not required to make it up, based on the verse we referred to: And perhaps we can add to it also a piece of evidence from the Sunnah, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not obligate those who became Muslims to make up their past prayers. Yes. And he also said: Reasoning and analogy indicate that there is hardship in that, which might repel him from Islam. So not obligating him to make it up is a means of reconciling him to Islam. So these are three pieces of evidence from the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and the third is correct reasoning. Now, we said that in the Hereafter he is held accountable for it. He is held accountable for leaving the prayer in the Hereafter. The scholars cited as evidence for that the saying of Allah the Exalted: meaning, what led you into the Fire? Or this is evidence that they are punished for leaving the prayer, and for not feeding the poor, and for mixing with those who mix, and for denying the Day of Judgment. If someone says: "The mere denial of the Day of Judgment necessitates entering the Fire, because that is disbelief," the answer is to say: "Were it not for the fact that their leaving the prayer, feeding the poor, and mixing with those who mix had an effect in their torment, mentioning it would be from the category of nonsense and play. This is the aspect of the indication from the verse that they are punished. As for from the aspect of reasoning, it is said: If the Muslim is punished for leaving this obligatory duty, and he is undoubtedly, in the sight of Allah, Glorified and Exalted, more honored than the disbeliever, how is the disbeliever not punished? How is the disbeliever not punished? If you say: "The disbeliever is not punished because he is not bound by it, since he is a disbeliever," I say to you: "If you are a Christian or a Jew or something like that, you are not bound." We say: Even if he is not bound, he is bound by the Shari'ah. He is a servant of Allah, and it is obligatory upon him to do what Allah has obligated upon His servants. So the fact that he is not bound is from his stubbornness, his stubbornness and arrogance. And arrogance toward the truth does not remove it. Yes. So if it indicates that they are held accountable for leaving the obligatory duties, I mean the disbelievers, the evidence and the reasoning, the evidence and the reasoning. The intended meaning of "reasoning," O Hamad, yes, what does "reasoning" mean?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, it means correct analogy. Correct analogy, or the meaning that necessitates that ruling. Rather, I say that the disbeliever is held accountable for every blessing that Allah bestowed upon him, such as hearing. He is held accountable for it on the Day of Resurrection. Meaning, not only for leaving the obligatory duties, but also for taking advantage of the blessings and enjoying the blessings, he is held accountable for that. And the evidence for that from the evidence is the saying of Allah the Exalted: and so on. Now, as for those who did not believe and did not do righteous deeds, upon them is a covering in the implication. And this is not an implication of a name, but an implication of a description, and its meaning is faith and action. The implication of a name is that the ruling is established based on a matter in which it does not appear that the meaning was intended. The scholars differed on whether it is a proof. But this is an implication of a description: "Those who believed and did righteous deeds." And Allah the Exalted said: So they are lawful for the believers in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection they are not held accountable for them. But as for these, they are forbidden for them, and they are held accountable for them. If you say: "If you say that they are forbidden for them, why are they not prevented from eating and drinking, because it is forbidden? How can they be able to do the forbidden?" The answer to that is that Allah, Glorified and Exalted, provides the servants with both the lawful and the forbidden, is that not so? Because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has guaranteed the provision: If a person acquires this provision through a lawful means, he is free from the responsibility; otherwise, he is not. We do not say "do not take it." We say "take it," but upon you falls the sin that falls upon the doer of the forbidden. Now, if the disbeliever in this world is more responsible than the believer, because the disbeliever is held accountable for eating and drinking and clothing and every blessing. As for the reasoning that indicates that the disbeliever is punished in the Hereafter for what he enjoyed of the blessings of Allah, it is because the covenant necessitates that if someone has been good to you, then you reciprocate with obedience and compliance when he commands you. And reason sees that one of the ugliest of uglinesses is to repel the one who has been good to you by being arrogant toward his obedience and denying his news. For this reason, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said in the Qudsi Hadith: O son of Adam, who is it? O son of Adam, the disbeliever is the one who lied to Allah and insulted Him, and he has no right to do that. It is not his right to lie to Allah and to insult Allah. If that is not his right, it indicates that his action is one of the ugliest of uglinesses: to enjoy the blessings of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and yet deny this favor by being arrogant toward obedience, O Kamal, and denying the news.