Note: We have already quoted on pages 57–58 the words of Ibn Qudāmah—may Allah have mercy on him—who, along with others, failed to employ this sound hadith as proof for the sound position that a person who abandons the prayer out of laziness is not to be declared an unbeliever.

What is striking, however, is that he cited another hadith which, had it been authentic, would have settled the dispute once and for all. It narrates that a client of the Ansar died; he used to pray at times and omit the prayer at others, yet the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) still ordered that he be washed, that the funeral prayer be performed over him, and that he be buried.

Although Ibn Qudāmah did not pronounce a judgment on this report, he did well by transmitting it together with its chain of transmission as recorded by al-Khallāl, which enabled me to study it and rule on it with the weakness and oddity it deserves. For that reason I have included it in my book. ⦗62⦘