Addressing the first group who declare the abandoner of prayer an unbeliever, he then said: “It shows that none of a servant’s deeds will be accepted unless he performs the prayer.”

I say: It is perfectly clear to me that Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—after his valuable investigation into the difference between kufr ʿamalī (practical disbelief) and kufr iʿtiqādī (doctrinal disbelief), and after establishing that a Muslim does not leave the faith through practical disbelief, was unable to endorse the stance of those who excommunicate the one who neglects the prayer, despite the many proofs he cited on their behalf, because none of those proofs demonstrate practical disbelief.

For that reason he finally resorted to asking: “Will his faith benefit him? And is the prayer a condition for the validity of faith?”

I say: Anyone who examines his reply to this question will notice that he sidestepped it and simply stated that no righteous deed is accepted without the prayer. So where is the answer to whether the prayer is a prerequisite for the soundness of faith?

In other words, it is not merely a condition for perfection—for all righteous deeds are conditions for perfection according to Ahl al-Sunnah, in contrast to the Kharijites and the Muʿtazilites, who consign the perpetrators of major sins to eternal Hell, with the Kharijites explicitly branding them unbelievers. ⦗41⦘