and wickedness, whatever group he belongs to. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explained that Allah’s friends are those who draw near to Him through obligatory acts of worship: His successful party, His victorious army, and His righteous servants.

Whoever believes that someone who performs neither obligatory nor voluntary acts of worship—whether because he lacks reason, is ignorant, or for some other reason—is one of Allah’s pious friends; whoever regards such people as Allah’s pious friends, His successful party, and His righteous servants, is a disbeliever who has apostatized from the religion of the Lord of all worlds. If he says, “I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” he is among the liars of whom it is said:

“When the hypocrites come to you, they say, ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.’ Allah knows that you are indeed His Messenger, and Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are certainly liars.”

“They have taken their oaths as a shield and have turned people away from the way of Allah. Evil indeed is what they have been doing.”

“That is because they believed, then disbelieved, so their hearts were sealed, and they do not understand.”

It is authentically reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever neglects three Friday prayers out of carelessness, without an excuse, Allah will seal his heart.”

If the heart of someone who abandons Friday prayers is sealed even though he performs the noon prayer, what, then, of someone who performs neither the noon prayer nor the Friday prayer, neither obligatory nor voluntary prayers, and does not purify himself for prayer, whether by the full ritual bath or by ablution? Such a person, if he had previously been a believer and his heart had been sealed, would be a disbeliever and an apostate because of the obligations he abandoned and did not believe to be obligatory. If someone believes him to be a believer, that person is a disbeliever and an apostate. How, then, can he be considered one of the friends of