If someone were to say that the prayer is a prerequisite for the soundness of faith and that the one who abandons it will dwell forever in Hell, he would in fact be agreeing with the Kharijites on part of their creed—and worse, he would be contradicting the ḥadith of intercession just mentioned.

It seems that Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—by sidestepping that answer, meant to convey two points to the reader: first, the immense weight of the prayer in Islam; second, that there is no proof it is a condition for the validity of faith.

Consequently, a person who neglects the prayer out of sheer laziness is not, in his view, deemed an unbeliever unless his abandonment is accompanied by something that clearly indicates doctrinal disbelief. Only then does he fall into the kind of kufr that removes him from the fold of Islam, as I have previously indicated. This is implied by Ibn al-Qayyim’s own words at the end of this chapter, where he writes:

“It is astonishing that anyone could doubt the unbelief of someone who persists in abandoning the prayer, is called to perform it in full public view, sees the glint of the sword above his head, is bound for execution, blindfolded, and told: ‘Pray, or we will kill you,’ yet he replies, ‘Kill me—I will never pray.’”

I say: It is to such a willful defier—who refuses to pray even when the ruler threatens him with death—that all the proofs cited by those who excommunicate the abandoner of prayer must be applied.

Thus the evidence of both camps can be harmonized, allowing them to meet upon common ground. ⦗42⦘