if he does so, he wrongs the Muslims, while no blame falls on them, for they did not know his true condition. Allah says, “And never offer the funeral prayer for any one of them who dies, nor stand at his grave; they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger and died while defiantly disobedient.”

Whoever abandons the prayer is a disbeliever in Allah and His Messenger—even if he professes that Allah exists and that Muhammad is His Messenger—for the hypocrites say the very same words: “When the hypocrites come to you, they say, ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.’ Allah knows that you are His Messenger, and Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are surely liars.”

Know, moreover, that if someone of your relatives dies having neglected the prayer, then—according to most scholars—you may not take a single penny of his estate. His wealth is not inherited by his Muslim kin, just as he himself would not inherit from a Muslim relative were that relative to predecease him.

For example, if a man dies leaving a son who does not pray and a distant cousin who does, the distant cousin inherits while the son receives nothing. Likewise, should a wealthy man die leaving a father who does not pray and an uncle who does, the estate goes to the praying uncle.

The Prophet ﷺ said, “A Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, and a disbeliever does not inherit from a Muslim.” This is what the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah indicate, and it is the consensus of the Companions, as reported by ʿAbd Allah ibn Shaqīq—also cited as Shaqīq ibn ʿAbd Allah—who said, “The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ considered nothing whose abandonment constituted disbelief except the prayer.”