mentioned in his words:

“Whoever abandons the afternoon prayer, his deeds have come to nothing (1).” (2)

For such a person is a scholar exercising independent legal reasoning who has adopted a mistaken interpretation. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“Allah has pardoned my nation for mistakes and forgetfulness.” (3)

This is a fair-grade hadith, and its meaning is supported by the Quran and authentic hadith (4).

As for someone who deliberately allows the prayer to lapse while knowing that it is obligatory, or knowingly omits one of its obligatory elements, this is a matter over which the scholars have disagreed.

One view concerning all such cases is that he may validly perform the prayer after allowing it to lapse and that he must do so. He is rewarded for performing it but punished for allowing its time to lapse. This is like someone who, without an excuse, delays the noon prayer until the time of the afternoon prayer, and the sunset and night prayers until the end of the night.

This is the position of Abū Hanīfa, al-Shāfiī, and Ahmad. They say (5): This (6) applies to every prayer that must (7) be repeated within its prescribed time: it must also be repeated after that time has elapsed. Mālik and other scholars of Medina, however, distinguish between what must be repeated within the prescribed time and what must be repeated after that time has elapsed. If an omitted element is not a fard (strict obligation) but merely a wājib (duty)—which they call a sunna—they require the prayer to be repeated within its prescribed time when that element is omitted, as in the case of someone who prayed with impurity on him. If, however, the omitted element is a fard, such as bowing, prostration, or ritual purification, then he is in the same position as one who did not pray at all, and must repeat the prayer after its prescribed time has elapsed.