and it also states: “…so there will come out of the Fire people who never performed any good at all.”)

I said: This wording is actually a patch-work of two separate ḥadīths.

The first half comes from the end of the rigorously authenticated ḥadīth of Anas; I already cited its closing lines on p. 33.

The other half is found in the ḥadīth of the Record: “…whereupon He will take a handful from the Fire—people who never did any good for Allah whatsoever….”

That this abridgement is unduly terse is perfectly clear once you, esteemed reader, recall the correction I offered the ḥāfiẓ on p. 34, thereby completing his remarks on Ibn Abī Jamrah. It shows that the believers’ intercession, from the second round onward, was on behalf of those who did not pray, and that they were the ones removed from the Fire.

This, then, is a decisive text on the question—one that should end the dispute among scholars who share the same creed, a creed that includes not declaring Muslims guilty of major sins to be unbelievers. This is especially urgent in our own time, when some who claim scholarship have gone to extremes in branding Muslims as disbelievers merely for neglecting certain obligatory acts, even though their belief remains sound—unlike the true disbelievers who abandon the prayer as a matter of doctrine. Allah the Exalted says: “Shall We then treat the Muslims like the criminals? What is the matter with you—how do you judge?” ⦗36⦘