What Is the Ruling on One Who Prays Some of the Five Daily Prayers but Leaves Others?
Question: What is the correct statement regarding one who prays two prayers, or three, or four prayers in the day, and does not pray all five prayers?
Summary:
Whoever prays some of the prayers and leaves some deliberately is in great danger, and has committed one of the greatest major sins. Prayer is not acts of worship from which the Muslim chooses whatever he wills and leaves whatever he wills; rather, it is a firmly established obligation that Allah imposed five times in the day and the night. And the one who neglects one prayer deliberately until its time passes has exposed himself to a severe threat, so how about one who has made leaving some of the prayers a continuous habit?
Answer:
Allah the Exalted said:
From the Qur'an:
- [Al-Ma‘un: 4-5]
“So woe to those who pray, those who are heedless of their prayer”
Meaning: destruction and punishment for those who pray who delay the prayer beyond its time, or waste it and are negligent regarding it. So if this threat is concerning one who is heedless of it and neglects it, then how about one who leaves it deliberately?
- [Maryam: 59]
And He, Glorified is He, said: “Then there came after them successors who wasted the prayer and followed desires, so they will meet ghayy”
Meaning: after the prophets and the righteous came a people who wasted the prayer and left preserving it, and followed their desires and lusts, so Allah threatened them with “ghayy,” which is a valley in Hellfire or a severe punishment in the Fire.
From the Qur'an:
- [Al-Muddaththir: 42-43]
And Allah the Exalted said about the people of the Fire: “What placed you in Saqar? They said: We were not of those who prayed”
Meaning: the people of the Fire are asked about the reason for their entering Hellfire, so they mention the first of the causes of their destruction: that they were not of those who prayed, which indicates the greatness of the matter of prayer and the danger of leaving it.
From the Sunnah:
- Sahih Muslim,Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported,
“Indeed, between a man and between shirk and disbelief is leaving the prayer.”
- Sahih al-Nasa, TirmidhiBuraydah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated,
“The covenant that is between us and between them is the prayer; whoever leaves it has disbelieved.”
For this reason, the Salaf used to magnify the matter of prayer to the utmost magnification.
From the Salaf:
- Abdullah ibn Shaqiq, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
“The Companions of Muhammad ﷺ did not see anything from the deeds, the leaving of which is disbelief, other than the prayer.”
So it should be known that whoever prays two prayers, or three, or four, and deliberately leaves what remains, is not preserving the prayer that Allah commanded; rather, he is wasting an obligation from the greatest obligations of Islam. And how can a Muslim feel at ease regarding his state while he knows that Allah calls him five times in the day, so he answers some of the calls and turns away from some of them? Indeed, death comes suddenly, and how many a person has left his house and not returned, and how many a healthy person became well in the morning and then came to be in his grave in the evening. So with what face will the servant meet his Lord if He asks him about the Fajr prayer that he left, or the Asr that he wasted, or the Isha that he slept through deliberately? And some of the Salaf used to say: There is nothing between the servant and between disbelief except that he leaves the prayer. For this reason, the people of knowledge would strongly denounce the one who is negligent regarding it, because negligence regarding prayer is negligence regarding the greatest of the pillars of Islam after the two testimonies. And it is a mistake for some people to think that performing some of the prayers is sufficient for him while persisting in leaving the rest; for the obligation is to preserve all five prayers in their times, as Allah the Exalted said: “Preserve the prayers” [Al-Baqarah: 238]. The Result: The one who prays some of the prayers and leaves some of them deliberately has committed a great sin, and he is in severe danger and under a certain threat, and he has exposed himself to the statements of the people of knowledge regarding the disbelief of the one who leaves the prayer. Some scholars said: And the one who deliberately leaves one prayer is a disbeliever. So what is obligatory upon him is to repent to Allah immediately, and to preserve all five prayers, for prayer is the pillar of Islam and the first thing for which the servant will be brought to account on the Day of Resurrection. And whoever wastes it is more wasting of what is besides it. We ask Allah for firmness and a good ending.
And Allah knows best.
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