Introduction

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help and forgiveness, and repent to Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves and from our bad deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomever He allows to stray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, his family, his Companions, and all who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.

To proceed: Many Muslims today have grown negligent about the prayer, some even abandoning it completely out of heedlessness.

Because this is one of the great and weighty matters afflicting people in our times—and because the scholars and leading Imams of the ummah, past and present, have differed on it—I wished to record, as Allah enables, a concise treatment of the issue.

The discussion is arranged in two chapters:
• Chapter One: The ruling on one who abandons the prayer.
• Chapter Two: The consequences that follow apostasy through abandoning the prayer or through other means.

We ask Allah, Exalted is He, to grant us success in reaching what is right.