What is the ruling on the slaughter of one who abandons prayer?

Also, in this episode, we return to the letter of our sister Nuwarah Salem from Libya. Our sister in this episode has two questions. In her first question, she says: What is the ruling on the slaughter of one who abandons prayer, whether he denies its obligation or is merely lazy? And also, if it is known that he invoked the name of Allah upon it, or if it is not known?
Answer: One who abandons prayer is in one of two states, as the questioner mentioned:
If he has denied its obligation, then he is a disbeliever by consensus; the consensus of the scholars; because he is one who lies about Allah and lies about His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Indeed, the Book of Allah the Exalted has indicated in many places the obligation of prayer, and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has indicated the obligation of prayer and that it is one of the five pillars of Islam. Rather, it is the greatest pillar of Islam after the two testimonies. So whoever denies its obligation and rejects that, he is an apostate, a disbeliever by consensus, if he claims to be a Muslim. His slaughter is not lawful, just as the slaughter of the polytheists is not lawful, rather it is worse; because the apostate is more severe in disbelief than the original polytheist. And if the slaughter of the original polytheist is not permitted, then the apostate is even more so. The slaughter of the People of the Book is only permitted if they slaughter it in the manner prescribed by the Shari'ah, and they are the Jews and the Christians.
As for the one who abandons it out of laziness, the scholars differed on this. Some said: He is a disbeliever with major shirk (associating partners with Allah). And some said: It is disbelief less than disbelief. So whoever says that his disbelief is less than disbelief, he permits his slaughter, just as the slaughter of the fornicator, the thief, and the drinker of intoxicants is permitted, if he did not consider it lawful, but rather he did it while knowing that they are sins and that they are wrong.
The second opinion is: He is a disbeliever with major shirk (associating partners with Allah) — as mentioned before — and this is the stronger position, that his disbelief is major shirk like the one who denies it, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith: It was narrated by Imam Ahmad and the people of the Sunan with a sound chain from Buraydah (may Allah be pleased with him) , and due to what Muslim narrated in his Sahih from Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: along with other hadiths on this matter. And on this basis, his slaughter is also not permitted; because he is a disbeliever, a polytheist of the same type as the polytheist, rather more severe; because he is an apostate. We ask Allah for safety. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you.