convinced that the Messenger was truthful in what he conveyed, but he refrained from following him out of partisan attachment to his own religion, fear of the disgrace of submitting, and arrogance that prevented him from letting his buttocks rise above his head. This distinction must be understood. If a jurist states without qualification that only someone who denies the obligation of prayer becomes a disbeliever, then “denial,” as he uses it, encompasses both rejecting the truth of its being obligatory and refusing to acknowledge that obligation and commit oneself to fulfilling it. As Allah Most High says:

“It is not you they deny, but it is the signs of Allah that the wrongdoers reject.”

And He Most High says:

“They rejected them, though their souls were convinced of them, out of injustice and arrogance. So see what was the end of the corrupters.”

Otherwise, whenever someone refuses to acknowledge its obligation and commit himself to performing it, he is to be executed and is deemed a disbeliever by agreement.

The third category is someone who acknowledges its obligation and commits himself to performing it, but abandons it out of laziness and negligence, or because his own pursuits distract him from it. This is the case in dispute. He is like someone who owes a debt, acknowledges his obligation to repay it, and commits himself to doing so, yet delays payment out of miserliness or negligence.

There is also a fourth category: someone who abandons prayer and neither acknowledges nor denies its obligation, but professes Islam in general. Does this fall within the disputed cases or those on which there is consensus? Perhaps the statements of many of the early generations encompass this person: one who turns away from prayer, neither acknowledging nor denying its obligation, and merely professes Islam verbally. This requires consideration. If we say that he is a disbeliever by agreement, then believing in the obligation of each of these duties individually is part of faith; a general belief would not suffice for them, as it does in the case of