An Explanation of the Categories of Evidence Cited by Those Who Hold That Abandoning Prayer Out of Laziness Does Not Render One a Disbeliever, and a Refutation of That Evidence

The Shaykh : It remains to be said that there are hadiths or texts cited by those who hold that one who abandons prayer does not become a disbeliever. They interpreted the hadiths or texts regarding abandonment as referring to abandonment due to denial. We have mentioned that interpreting them as abandonment due to denial is erroneous in two respects: first, it attaches the ruling to a description that the Lawgiver did not consider, which is denial; second, it negates a description that the Lawgiver did consider, which is abandonment. This constitutes two violations of the text: attributing to it what the Lawgiver did not consider, and negating what He did consider. It is not permissible for us to violate the texts by distorting them in this manner. Second, we say that this is invalid because it is refuted by the case of one who denies but prays. If they say he is a disbeliever, they have declared a contradiction with the hadith, for the hadith says, "Whoever abandons it," and this person has not abandoned it, even though he is a denier. Do you understand? Now, if he abandons it and denies it, we say there is no objection to there being two causes for disbelief, just as if a person slaughters an animal for an idol and prostrates to another idol and lies about a report from a third party. How many causes come together? Three causes. There is no objection to the multiplication of causes for disbelief. However, negating a description that the Shari'ah considered and substituting a description that it did not consider, which is also a contradictory description, is not permissible. One may not manipulate the texts in this way. It remains to be said that there are texts indicating the absence of disbelief that contradict these hadiths indicating disbelief. We say, first, we must know what contradiction means before we claim there is a contradiction. To claim there is a contradiction before knowing what contradiction is is not correct. Therefore, we say: verify before you spread. Verify the contradiction. Where is the contradiction? Did a hadith or verse come that says, "Whoever abandons prayer is not a disbeliever," or "Whoever abandons prayer is a believer," or "Whoever abandons prayer is in Paradise"? If texts came in this form, we would say this is a contradiction. Otherwise, it is not. This is a contradiction because this one says, "Whoever abandons it has disbelieved," while the contradicting one says, "Whoever abandons it has not disbelieved." This is the contradiction. If a text comes in this form—such as "Whoever abandons prayer is not a disbeliever," or "Whoever abandons prayer is a believer," or "Whoever abandons prayer enters Paradise"—then it is a valid contradiction. It is obligatory for us to attempt reconciliation if possible, or to seek the stronger opinion if reconciliation is not possible, or to resort to abrogation. But there is no contradiction here. The texts they used to argue for contradiction fall into four categories. The first category contains no evidence whatsoever for the issue and no trace of contradiction. For example, their citation of . They say, "He does not forgive that anyone should associate partners with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills." And among what is less than that is one who abandons prayer, so Allah forgives if He wills. Glory be to Allah! What does "what is less than that" mean? Does it mean "other than that"? If they say yes, we ask: What do you say about one who lies about the news of Allah and His Messenger? Is he forgiven? If they say yes, they have contradicted the Book, the Sunnah, and the consensus. If they say no, then since it is "other than that," it falls under forgiveness. Therefore, it is not valid to interpret "what is less than that" as "other than that." "What is less than that" means what is lesser than shirk. What is less than shirk falls under the will of Allah. What is equal to shirk, even if it is not shirk itself, is not under the will of Allah and is not forgiven, such as lying about a report or abandoning prayer. They say there is evidence in the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal: . We say, peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings, and welcome. Do you say that the doer of a major sin will not be punished, categorically? If they say yes, they have contradicted the verse, for they said, "He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills." Do you understand? If they say he will not be punished, they contradict the verse. If they say he will be punished, they contradict the hadith. We say that the hadith is not to be taken at its apparent meaning, and you do not take it at its apparent meaning either. You do not take it at its apparent meaning because "will not be punished whoever does not associate anything with Him" means that if one is found who does not associate anything with Him in a specific act, the punishment is negated for him regarding that specific matter because he contradicted [the sin]. However, to say "will not be punished whoever does not associate anything with Him, even if he commits whatever major sins he commits" is incorrect. We also say: if one disbelieves in something other than shirk, will he be punished or not? He will be punished. Therefore, the hadith is not to be taken at its apparent meaning. Since it is not to be taken at its apparent meaning, and we know that it is restricted by the indication of the Book and the Sunnah, and indeed by the consensus, it is not possible to use it as evidence for generality and say that nothing is excluded from it. Furthermore, we know with certainty that one who is sincere to Allah with a sincere intention will not do what takes him out of Islam. Does the sincere one who seeks the Face of Allah seek what leads to the Face of Allah or not? The sincere one in seeking something strives by every means to attain it. We find that the sincere in seeking worldly things work by every means to attain it: by hiring, by selling, by borrowing, by pledging, everything. Similarly, one who is truthful in seeking Allah must do everything that can lead him to Allah. But if he says, "I swear by Allah, I seek the Face of Allah and want nothing but the Face of Allah, but I testify to you that I will not pray," where is your seeking of the Face of Allah? Prayer came to you through negligence and laziness, yet you say, "I testify to you that I will not pray," and "I testify to you that I know Allah made it obligatory." Glory be to Allah! You testify that Allah made it obligatory and testify that you do not pray, and you say you seek the Face of Allah. This is contradicted by reality. Therefore, the hadith of Mu'adh and the hadith of 'Utbah ibn Malik all indicate that such people cannot abandon prayer. Then we say, calmly, the hadith of Jabir in Sahih Muslim : The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made abandoning prayer shirk and disbelief. It is shirk in the broader sense. It is not prostration to an idol, but it is shirk in the sense that this abandoner has made his own desire his god in a way that takes him out of Islam. Then we also bring general hadiths about taking those who say "La ilaha illa Allah" out of the Fire, even if they did no good at all. We say, yes, "did no good at all" undoubtedly includes those who did not pray, because one who prays has done good, and one who does not pray has done no good at all. But we say this is general because "no good" is an indefinite noun in the context of negation, so it is general, meaning they did not pray, did not give zakah, and did not fast. However, prayer is excluded from this by specification, because the Book and the Sunnah indicate that one who does not perform it does not come out of the Fire because he is a disbeliever. This is not the first general statement that is specified. This is among the many general statements that are specified. The fourth category of what they cited as evidence is the hadith of a group who abandoned prayer due to an excuse, namely their lack of knowledge of it. This is the hadith of Hudhayfah, in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed that Islam will be worn away as the face of a garment is worn away. It will disappear, and prayer, zakah, fasting, and others will be forgotten, until only old men and old women remain, saying, "We found our fathers and mothers upon the statement 'La ilaha illa Allah.'" The narrator of the hadith, Sahl, asked, "Will it save them from the Fire?" He remained silent, then he repeated it, and he remained silent, then he repeated it, and he said, "It will save them from the Fire." This is the statement of Hudhayfah, and we agree with Hudhayfah in this. We say it will save them from the Fire because they do not know anything about the rulings of Islam. They are like a man who embraced Islam in a land of disbelief and said, "La ilaha illa Allah," testifying that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, but he did not know anything about the rulings of Islam, and then he died. Will this phrase save him or not? Or a man who said "La ilaha illa Allah" and then died immediately. Will it save him or not? We say it will save him. And I say from this place that declaring someone a disbeliever or declaring someone a believer—ruling that a person is a believer or that a person is a disbeliever—returns to whom? It returns to Allah and His Messenger, not to us. Just as this is lawful and this is forbidden, it returns to Allah and His Messenger. If Allah forbade something, we do not try to say it is lawful. If He permitted something, we do not try to say it is forbidden. Why? If something is disbelief, we do not try to say it is not disbelief. Who knows the servants of Allah best? Allah, Mighty and Majestic. He is the One who rules upon them with faith or disbelief. Our duty is to say, "We hear and we obey," and to say, "We disbelieve in whom You declare a disbeliever, O our Lord, and include in faith those You do not exclude from it." This is our duty. But we do not say, "By Allah, let people say 'La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,' but they have neglected the mosques. Do not pray, not in the mosques and not in the houses, neither you nor your children. Do you see yourselves as a Muslim community, people?" If a person fully imagines this statement, he will know that it is corruption in reality. Because if you tell people now, "Abandoning prayer is not disbelief," yes, they abandoned it and said, "By Allah, as long as we are Muslims and we don't pray, thank Allah, that's what they want. We sit for two hours at night, how can we sleep until ten o'clock and get up? We say, 'Come on, Allah, may He not deduct from our salary if we are late to arrive.' But after today, we get up at eight o'clock and go straight to pray Fajr. No, I don't pray Fajr. What do we pray Fajr for? I testify that it is obligatory, and I testify to you that I will not pray. There is no Dhuhr, no 'Asr, no Maghrib, no 'Isha. Why should I pray? Now, does the one who does not pray take a bath for janabah or not? He does not take a bath for janabah. Why should he take a bath? Does he perform wudu when he has a hadath? Does he clean himself when he urinates? What happens to him? He becomes like a beast. There is nothing but eating and intercourse, and that's it. The truth, my brothers, is that the issue, especially in our time, I believe, and thank Allah, and I am a believer that one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever. But I also see that the statement and the expansion for people that prayer is not disbelief leads to great harms, especially in our time due to the weakness of faith and the scarcity of callers. Because people are now walking around saying, "They will declare us disbelievers..." If you declare him a disbeliever, look, your wife is divorced from you. The matter becomes great for him. The matter becomes great. And if we tell him, "You are a disbeliever, but if you pray, we will not kill you," the matter becomes even greater. He says, "Where is the road to the mosque? I don't want to walk to pray." The result is that the stronger opinion, without doubt, is that he becomes a disbeliever. And thank Allah that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, established evidence standing for disbelief without a contradicting opposing evidence. The evidence is standing and is safe from the opposing contradiction. What remains for us is to say what Allah and His Messenger said. We conclude this and stand at the door of the adhan and iqamah.