Moreover, there is another statement from Imam Ahmad that should have been placed alongside the preceding citation, for it is closely related to it and likewise shows that the person who abandons the prayer does not become a disbeliever merely by that abandonment—but matters have turned out as they have.

ʿAbd Allah, the son of Imam Ahmad, says in his Masāʾil (p. 56/195):

“I asked my father about a man who had neglected the prayers of two months. He replied: ‘He should perform whatever prayers fall within the time in which he remembers those missed prayers, and he is to keep praying until the end of the time of the prayer during which he recalled the prayers he had neglected. Then he performs the current prayer that he fears will slip away, so that he does not allow it to be lost a second time, after which he returns and continues praying until he fears missing the next prayer—unless the number of missed prayers is too great for him and he is someone who must earn his livelihood and lacks the strength to complete them all. In that case he prays until he needs to go and seek what sustains his livelihood, then comes back to the prayer. No prayer is valid for him while he is aware of an earlier obligatory prayer; therefore, if he remembers such a prayer even while he is in the midst of another prayer, he must repeat that latter prayer as well.’”

So consider, dear reader: do you find in Imam Ahmad’s words anything but confirmation of what has already been established—that a Muslim does not leave Islam merely by abandoning that prayer, indeed even by neglecting the prayers of two consecutive months; rather⦗56⦘