What is the ruling on being lax about the congregational prayer?

The first message in this episode is a message sent to the program from al-Qasim - Unayzah, sent by one of the sisters from there, saying: (M. S. J). Our sister is asking an important question, in my view, Your Eminence the Shaykh. She says: Is it true that a man’s not going to pray with the congregation is a cause for the blessing to be removed from his state and his wealth? And what is the evidence for that?
Answer: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send blessings and peace upon the Messenger of Allah, upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance.
As for what follows: There is no doubt that the prayer is the pillar of Islam and it is the greatest of the obligatory duties and obligations after the two testimonies, and many verses and authentic hadiths from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) have indicated this. Among them is His saying (peace and blessings be upon him) : [al-Baqarah:238].
And His saying, the Exalted: [al-Baqarah:43].
And His saying, the Exalted: [al-'Ankabut:45].
And His saying, the Exalted: those who are humble in their prayers [al-Mu'minun:1-2] until He said: those are the inheritors who will inherit the Garden of Delight, in which they will abide forever [al-Mu'minun:9-11].
And He, the Exalted, said: [al-Bayyinah:5] He made it a companion to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) [al-Bayyinah:5] This is tawhid, and this is the meaning of "There is no god but Allah," then He said after it: [al-Bayyinah:5].
And He, the Exalted, said: [al-Tawbah:5] meaning: from shirk (associating partners with Allah) [al-Tawbah:5] This indicates its greatness and that it is a companion to tawhid.
And He, the Exalted, said: [al-Tawbah:11].
And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And among the most important of its obligations and the greatest of its obligations is performing it in congregation for the man, to the extent that the Lord, the Exalted, made it obligatory in a state of fear. He, the Glorious and Majestic, said: [al-Nisa:102] the verse. So He made the congregational prayer obligatory in a state of fear and in a state of the Muslims facing their disbeliever enemy, and He commanded them to pray in congregation and to carry their weapons so that the enemy would not attack them.
And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And a blind man came to him (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: Muslim narrated it in his Sahih. So this is a blind man whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not permit to be absent from the congregation. In the other wording, he said: So he explicitly stated that he has no dispensation, and he is blind and has no guide to accompany him, meaning: to take care of him in going with him. So if the blind man who has no guide to look after him and take care of him has no dispensation, but rather he must go and strive and make an effort until he reaches the mosque, then how much more so is the case of the strong and healthy person? The matter is greater and bigger in his case.
Then, being absent from the congregational prayer is one of the greatest means of being lax about it and abandoning it thereafter, for he is absent today and tomorrow he abandons it and wastes time; because his little concern for it made him be absent from performing it in congregation and in the mosques which are the houses of Allah, and about which He, the Exalted, said: [al-Nur:36] and they are the mosques.
And this is a tested matter, for those who are absent from the congregation find it easy to abandon the prayer with the slightest excuse and the smallest reason, and then after that they abandon it completely because of its little impact in their chests and its little greatness in their hearts, so they abandon it thereafter. So abandoning the prayer in congregation is a strange means and a known path to abandoning it completely. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: Imam Ahmad narrated it in the Musnad, and Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah with a sound chain from Buraydah ibn al-Husayb (may Allah be pleased with him) .
And Muslim narrated in the Sahih from Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with them both) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: And this indicates that it is major shirk (associating partners with Allah). He said: disbelief and shirk, so he used the definite article for disbelief and the definite article for shirk, and this is evidence that what is intended is major disbelief. Even though some of the scholars held that it is disbelief less than disbelief if one is not denying its obligation, but knows that it is obligatory but is lax. A large group of scholars, some of whom cited it as the opinion of the majority, held that it is disbelief less than disbelief, and that one does not commit major disbelief by it. But the correct view, upon which the evidence is established, is that it is major disbelief, and this is the apparent consensus of the Companions before those who opposed them after that.
And 'Abd Allah ibn Shaqiq al-'Uqayli, the great and trustworthy Tabi'i, narrated from the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): that they did not consider anything whose abandonment is disbelief except the prayer. So in their view, abandoning the prayer is disbelief, and he intended major disbelief; because there are things whose doing is disbelief but it is not major disbelief, such as slandering lineages and wailing over the dead, which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) called disbelief, and the Companions called it disbelief, but it is minor disbelief. So when it was reported about them that they did not consider anything whose abandonment is disbelief except the prayer, it is known that he intended by that major disbelief, as came in the hadith.
And as for the fact that this sin causes the removal of blessing and also causes much harm to him in his body and in his actions, this is not strange, for sins have much ill-omen and have severe consequences in the person himself, in his heart, in his actions, and in his provision, so this is not strange. And the evidence has indicated that sins have severe consequences. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: .
It is well known that sins cause drought in the land, the withholding of rain, and hardship, and all of this is due to the causes of sins, as He said: [Surah al-Shura: 30] And He the Exalted said: [Surah al-Nisa: 79] This is a matter known through the texts and through reality. Therefore, it is fitting for the believer to fear the consequences and evil of sins, to keep his distance from them, and to strive to fulfill what Allah has made obligatory upon him, and to hasten to acts of obedience, for they are good in this world and the Hereafter. All acts of obedience are good in this world and the Hereafter, and sins are evil in this world and the Hereafter. May Allah grant everyone well-being and safety.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.