The third level is when validity cannot be negated because there is evidence establishing the validity of what is being negated. In that case, the negation is one of completeness, as in the Prophet’s saying, peace and blessings be upon him: “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” (1). For whoever does not love for his brother what he loves for himself does not thereby become a disbeliever; rather, only the completeness of his faith is negated.

Their analogy with the Prophet’s saying, peace and blessings be upon him, “There is no prayer when food is present” (2), is questionable, because the reason for negating prayer in the presence of food is the distraction of the mind. Indeed, when the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, heard a child crying, he would shorten the prayer lest the child’s mother be distressed (3). She would remain in her prayer, but her child’s crying would distract her.

Moreover, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, informed us that “Satan comes to the one praying and says: ‘Remember such-and-such; remember such-and-such,’ concerning matters he had not remembered” (4). There is no doubt that this causes the heart to become inattentive. This hadith and the one before it show that mere distraction and preoccupation of the heart do not invalidate the prayer. Thus, the statement, “There is no prayer when food is present” (5), does not entail that the prayer is invalid, and the analogy is therefore unsound.

As for their claim that the Prophet’s command to the man who prayed alone behind the row to repeat his prayer (6) was a case-specific ruling, and so forth: