He then listed a number of the scholars who differed on the issue.
Al-Shawkani says in Nayl al-Awṭār (1/369), commenting on the previously cited hadith of Jabir:
“The hadith indicates that abandoning the prayer is one of the causes of unbelief (kufr). There is no disagreement among Muslims that whoever abandons the prayer while denying its obligation is an unbeliever—unless he is a recent convert to Islam or has not lived among Muslims long enough for the obligation of the prayer to have reached him.
If, however, he leaves the prayer out of laziness while still affirming its obligation—as is the case with many people (1)—the scholars have differed concerning him. After citing some of these divergent views, I relate the well-known position of the majority of the early and later scholars—among them Malik and al-Shafi‘i—that such a person is not deemed an unbeliever but rather a flagrant sinner. If he repents, all is well; if not, we execute him as a ḥadd penalty, just like the married adulterer… and so on.”
Ibn Ḥibbān states in his Ṣaḥīḥ (4/324):
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used the word ‘disbelief’ for the one who abandons the prayer, for abandoning the prayer is the first step toward unbelief. When a person gives up the prayer and becomes accustomed to that, he then moves on to abandoning other obligations, and when….”
(1) That was in his own time—so what shall we say about today? [7]
Accustomed to abandoning the obligatory acts (faraid), he was consequently driven to outright denial. For this reason the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used the designation for the final stage—the last branch of kufr (disbelief)—for the very first stage, namely abandoning the salat (prayer).
He (may Allah have mercy on him) then headed a section with the words: “A report confirming what we have stated, that the Arabs apply the name of what is expected at a thing’s end to its beginning.” After quoting the Prophet’s statement, “Disputation about the Quran is kufr,” (1) he commented:
When a person disputes about the Quran, this—unless Allah protects him—will lead him to doubt its ambiguous verses; therefore the Messenger ﷺ applied the term kufr, meaning sheer rejection, to its initial cause, which is disputation (mira).
Thus abandoning the salat is a grave and perilous matter that—Allah’s refuge is sought—may end in apostasy from the religion and in joining the ranks of the unbelievers and polytheists.
Since the scholars and leading jurists have differed on this crucial issue, it is incumbent upon students of knowledge to proceed with deliberation and caution, and not to treat every person who neglects …
(1) Reported by Abu Dawud (no. 4603), Ahmad (2/528), Ibn Abi Shaybah (10/52), al-Hakim (2/223) and others with a hasan chain. See also Mishkat al-Masabih (no. 336) and Sahih al-Targhib (no. 139), both edited by our teacher al-Albani. [8]