—a matter that people today treat far too lightly. Let it be understood that if a person abandons the prayer and then a marriage contract is concluded for him with a woman, that marriage is invalid; and should he have relations with her, he does so in outright fornication—Allah’s refuge is sought. Likewise, if the contract was drawn up while he was still praying but he later abandons the prayer, the marriage is automatically dissolved and the two must be separated, unless he repents and returns to Islam, in which case the marriage remains in force.

Know also that if someone dies persisting in his neglect of the prayer, he is not to be washed, shrouded, prayed over, or buried in the Muslims’ cemetery; no mercy is to be invoked for him, and he will have no share in the Prophet’s intercession on the Day of Resurrection. What, then, should be done with him?

Shall we leave his carcass for the dogs to devour while we look on? No, for that would break the hearts of his relatives. Instead, he is taken out to the open land, a pit is dug, and he is cast into it in his clothes—without shroud, without washing, without funeral prayer, and with no honor. Were it not for the grief of his family we would have said, “Leave him exposed on the face of the earth for the dogs to consume while people look on,” but he is disposed of only to spare others his stench, his odor, and his filth.

On the Day of Resurrection, the Prophet ﷺ said, he will be raised together with Pharaoh, Haman, Korah, and Ubayy ibn Khalaf.

From all this we learn how momentous the abandonment of the prayer truly is, and that whoever has in his care a deceased person who did not pray must keep him away from Muslim burial grounds. It is not lawful for him to present the body for the Muslims to pray over when he knows the man died having never prayed, for