The Punishment for the One Who Abandons Prayer

Question:
I hope you will clarify the punishment for the one who abandons prayer while he believes in its obligation, and clarify for us—may Allah protect you—the virtue of the Fajr prayer and the punishment for the one who does not perform it in its time?



Answer:
Whoever abandons prayer, his punishment is execution. He is given the opportunity to repent; if he repents, well and good, otherwise he is executed. Allah the Exalted said: [Surah al-Tawbah: 5]. This indicates that the one who does not establish prayer is not left alone; he is executed. That is, he is given the opportunity to repent; if he repents, well and good, otherwise he is executed. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So the one who prays is not executed if he is upright.
As for the one who abandons prayer, he is given the opportunity to repent; if he repents, well and good, otherwise it is obligatory to execute him as an apostate, according to the most correct of the two opinions. According to a group of scholars, he is not considered an apostate, but his execution is a hadd (fixed punishment), if we say that abandoning it is not major shirk (associating partners with Allah), provided he acknowledges its obligation and does not deny it. The correct view is that he is executed for disbelief if he is one who abandons it. He is given the opportunity to repent; if he repents, well and good, otherwise he is executed for disbelief, not as a hadd. It is extremely unlikely that one would acknowledge its obligation and then persist in not performing it until he is executed. This is extremely unlikely.
The point is that he is executed for disbelief absolutely, as long as he refuses to pray and be upright, he is executed for disbelief. We ask Allah for well-being. This applies whether the prayer is Fajr, Zuhr, 'Asr, Maghrib, or 'Isha'.
And Fajr has a special status because the hypocrites are lazy about it, and this has come in many hadiths. For this reason, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
So prayer has a great status, whether it is Fajr, Zuhr, 'Asr, Maghrib, or 'Isha. But the morning prayer has specific characteristics because it is at the end of the night, when sleep is sweet in the summer and the cold is severe in the winter. So the lazy ones may be heavy about it and resemble the people of hypocrisy. Therefore, there is an emphasis in it that the believer must take care of it so that he distances himself from resembling the hypocrites. It is not permissible for him to abandon it until the sun rises, as some people do, praying it when they get up for work. This is a great evil and a widespread corruption. It is obligatory for its owner to fear Allah and perform it in its time with the congregation of the Muslims in the mosques of Allah. And whoever knows this must give him the opportunity to repent; if he repents, well and good, otherwise he is executed. Because abandoning it when its time has passed is a great evil, indeed it is disbelief according to a group of scholars. We ask Allah for guidance and correctness for everyone.