If even this fails to convince some of the inflexible imitators, we have nothing left to say but: “Peace be upon you; we seek not the company of the ignorant.”

In summary: this hadith of intercession is weighty indeed in its many indications and meanings. Among the most decisive of them—as I have already explained—is its clear proof that a person who abandons the prayer while believing it to be obligatory neither leaves the fold of Islam nor will he dwell forever in the Fire together with the unbelievers and idolaters.

Accordingly, I earnestly beseech everyone who reads this treatise, which contains this hadith and others of the same purport, to refrain from pronouncing takfir upon Muslims who neglect the prayer yet believe in it and affirm Allah’s oneness. Declaring a Muslim to be an unbeliever is a matter of the utmost gravity, as has been shown. What is required of them is merely to remind people of the tremendous status of the prayer in Islam, citing what has been revealed about it in the Noble Quran, the Prophetic hadiths, and the authentic reports of the early generations. Regrettably, the authority to enforce judgments has slipped from the hands of the scholars; therefore, they are incapable of carrying out the ruling of disbelief and execution upon even a single person who abandons the prayer—much less upon a group of such people—within their own state, let alone in other Muslim lands.

The execution prescribed for one who refuses to pray after being summoned to do so was legislated for a manifest wisdom, namely that he might repent if he truly believes in the prayer. But if he prefers death to performing it, this indicates… ⦗61⦘