The Consensus Amongst the Companions that the One Who Does Not Pray Is a Disbeliever

Idris16

Junior Member
1 - Mujahid bin al-Hajjaj (the noble Tabi’i) asked Jabir bin ‘Abdillah (the noble Companion): “What actions did you use to differentiate between belief and disbelief during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)?” He replied: “The prayer.

[al-Marwazi in 'Ta'dhim Qadr as-Salah' (2/877) and al-Lalaka'i in 'I'tiqad Ahl as-Sunnah' (4/829), by way of Ya'qub bin Ibrahim, who is known as a trustworthy narrator]

2 - The noble Tabi’i ‘Abdullah bin Shaqiq al-’Aqili said: “The Companions of Muhammad did not see the abandonment of any actions as consituting disbelief except for the prayer.”

[at-Tirmidhi (2622) and al-Hakim (1/1248) by way of Bishr bin al-Mufaddal. al-Hakim declared it to be authentic on the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim]

al-Mubarakfuri commented on this in ‘Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi’ (7/370) by saying: “This saying of ‘Abdullah bin Shaqiq – in its apparent meaning – proves that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah believed the abandoment of prayer to be disbelief. What is apparent from this statement is that the Companions were all agreed in this, since he said: “The Companions of Muhammad…,” which is a collective attribution.”

3 - The noble Tabi’i al-Hasan al-Basri said: “It has reached me that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to say: “Between a servant and his falling into polytheism and disbelief is that he leaves the prayer without a valid excuse.

[al-Lalaka'i (4/829, 1539), Ibn Battah in 'al-Ibanah' (p. 87), and al-Khallal in 'as-Sunnah' (4/124 and #1372)]

4 - Hammad bin Zayd narrated from Ayyub (a well-known Tabi’i) that he said: “To leave the prayer is disbelief. There is no difference of opinion on this.

[al-Marwazi in 'Ta'dhim Qadr as-Salah' (2/925 and 978)]

5 - al-Marwazi also mentions that he heard Ishaq bin Rahwiyah (the well-known trustworthy narrator, the companion of Ahmad bin Hambal) say: “It has been authentically narrated from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that the one who leaves the prayer is a disbeliever. Likewise, this has been the opinion of the people of knowledge since the time of the Prophet up until our times: that the one who leaves the prayer beyond its proper time – intentionally and without a valid excuse – is a disbeliever.”

6 - al-Marwazi also mentioned in ‘Ta’dhim Qadr as-Salah’ (2/925): “We mentioned the reports narrated from the Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding the disbelief of the one who leaves the prayer, and his leaving the creed of Islam, and the permissibility of fighting the one who refuses to establish it. Then, we received similar reports from the Companions, and we did not come across any difference from this opinion from a single one of them. However, the people of knowledge began differing in this afterwards…

And it is well-known that Muhammad bin Nasr al-Marwazi was famous for his vast knowledge of the sayings and opinions of the people of knowledge in the area of agreement and differing on various legal issues, as was mentioned by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi in ‘Tarikh Baghdad’ (3/315): “He was from the most knowledgable of people of the differences of opinion amonst the Companions and those who came after them.” Also, adh-Dhahabi supported this saying in ‘Siyar A’lam an-Nubala” (14/34): “It is said: “He was by far the most knowledgable of the scholars regarding the differences of opinion between the scholars.”"

7 - Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned in ‘Sharh al-’Umdah’ (2/75), as did Ibn al-Qayyim in ‘as-Salah’ (p.67), that this is the consensus of the Companions, due to the saying of ‘Umar, in the presence of the Companions, without any of them opposing his saying: “There is no share of Islam for the one who leaves the prayer,” or: “There is no Islam for the one who does not pray.”

8 - With all of this, nobody who says that the one who does not pray is not a disbeliever can find a single Companion who holds their opinion. In fact, they cannot find even a single Tabi’i except az-Zuhri, who was himself a minor Tabi’i.

Ibn Hazm says in ‘al-Muhalla’ (2/242): “We do not know of what we have mentioned from the Companions any difference of opinion amongst them, and the followers of the four madhahib are very eager to hold onto the difference of opinion from a Companion if this is in accordance with their desires. And it has been narrated from ‘Umar, ‘Abdur-Rahman bin ‘Awf, Mu’adh bin Jabal, Abu Hurayrah, and other than them from the Companions that the one who leaves a single obligatory prayer – intentionally and beyond its proper time – then he is a disbelieving apostate.”

And al-Mundhiri mentioned in ‘at-Targhib wat-Tarhib’ (1/393) additional Companions who reported this: “…’Abdullah bin Mas’ud, ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abbas, Jabir bin ‘Abdillah, and Abu ad-Darda’ – may Allah be pleased with them all.” And from other than the Companions: “…Ahmad bin Hambal, Ishaq bin Rahwiyah, ‘Abdullah bin al-Mubarak, Ibrahim an-Nakha’i, al-Hakam bin ‘Utaybah, Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani, Abu Dawud at-Taylasi, Abu Bakr bin Abi Shaybah, Zuhayr bin Harb, and other than them.”

And this is the saying of the majority of the people of Hadith, and this was the opinion of Sa’id bin Jubayr, al-Hasan al-Basri, al-Awza’i, and Muhammad bin al-Hasan. It is the authentically narrated opinion of ash-Shafi’i, as Ibn Kathir mentioned in his ‘Tafsir’ (in his explanation of verse 59 in ‘Maryam’) and at-Tahawi narrated from ash-Shafi’i personally.

Final benefit: Ibn al-Qayyim said, in ‘as-Salah’: “The Muslims do not disagree that the intentional abandonment of the obligatory prayer is from the greatest and most major of sins, and that the sin of such a person is greater in the Sight of Allah than the sin of the one who commits murder and steals wealth, and commits fornication, and drinks alcohol, and that he is exposing himself to the punishment and anger of Allah, and humiliation in this life and the next.”

Original Arabic

http://iskandrani.wordpress.com/200...-who-does-not-pray-is-a-disbeliever/#more-201
 

John Smith

Junior Member
So does this mean that if one prayer is missed then we are out of the realm of Islam and we need to take shahada again?

No it does not,you have the oppurtunity to make up the missed prayer however if you go out your way to miss prayer and stop praying all together then i believe the ruling applys.
 

samiha

---------
Staff member
:salam2:

So does this mean that if one prayer is missed then we are out of the realm of Islam and we need to take shahada again?

Interesting question - What seems clear from the scholars is that the Shahaadah does not need to be repeated in the specific case of missing salawaat, but there is a difference of opinion as to whether missing one prayer (or a few) constitutes kufr or not.

Here's some information which should help insha'Allaah:

Islam-QA said:
If the one who does not pray repents and prays, then he has come back to Islam and he does not need to repeat the Shahaadatayn.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: As for the one who does not pray sometimes and does not make them up and does not intend to make them up, or he misses some of the obligatory parts of the prayer and does not make them up or intend to make them up, many of our companions ruled that he becomes a kaafir thereby… Then when he prays again he becomes a believer, as is indicated by the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him): “Whoever misses ‘Asr prayer deliberately, his good deeds will be lost.” And he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever misses a prayer deliberately is no longer under the protection of Allaah.” End quote.

He also said: If he prays after stopping praying, he comes back to Islam from apostasy, and his prayer is valid, unlike the one who was originally a kaafir, whose prayer is not valid until after he says the Shahaadatayn, because the kufr of the former is due to failing to do something, and if he does it he comes back to Islam. In the case where a person’s kufr results from rejecting (some of the obligations of Islam), if he then accepts and affirms the obligation, then he rejoins Islam.

If it is said that in cases other than this, the apostate’s return to Islam is not valid unless he utters the Shahaadatayn, no matter what form his apostasy took, the answer is that it is because he denied something, so he must speak words of affirmation, starting with the Shahaadatayn, which implies accepting everything else. But in this case (the one who does not pray), he accepts that it is obligatory, so all he needs to do is to do it in order to rejoin Islam. End quote.

Based on this, your saying “thus I am still a kaafir and Allaah will not accept any deed from me” is incorrect, rather your having repented to Allaah and your performing the prayers mean that you are no longer a kaafir, and the one who repents from sin is like one who did not sin at all.

Also:

But if he misses some of the prayers, then some of the scholars do not regard him as having become a kaafir thereby. This is the view of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah and Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him). And some of the scholars say that the one who misses a single obligatory prayer deliberately until the time for it and the time for a prayer to which it may be joined is over, becomes a kaafir thereby, such as if he delays Zuhr until the sun sets.


Source: http://islamqa.com/en/ref/89722

wa'Allaahu A'lam
 
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