This shows that he represents the utmost extreme of disbelief. How, then, could he have died a believer?

It is well known that someone who dies a believer may not be branded or described as a disbeliever, for Islam wipes away what came before it. In the Musnad collections of Ahmad and Ishāq and the Sahīh of Abū Hātim, it is reported from ‘Awf ibn Mālik, from ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Amr, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said concerning one who abandons prayer:

“He will come with Korah, Pharaoh, Haman, and Ubayy ibn Khalaf.”