(1/95–96) He closed his discussion with the words:

“Because this is the unanimous consensus of the Muslims, we do not know of any period in which a person who had abandoned the prayer was refused the funeral wash, the funeral prayer, or the right to inherit—despite the large number of people who neglect the prayer. Had such a person truly been a disbeliever, these rulings would certainly have been enforced against him. As for the aforementioned hadiths, they are intended as severe censure and as a comparison with the unbelievers, not as a literal verdict—just like the Prophet’s statement, ‘Trading insults with a Muslim is outrageous wrongdoing, and fighting him is unbelief,’ and his statement, ‘Whoever swears by anything other than Allah has committed shirk,’ and the like.” Al-Muwaffaq then said, “This is the sounder of the two opinions.”

I say: I have quoted this passage from the aforementioned marginal notes so that some of the overly zealous Hanbalis may realize that the position I have adopted is not an idea we devised in isolation from the scholars. Rather, it is the view of the majority among them and of the careful investigators from the Hanbali jurists themselves, such as al-Muwaffaq—namely, Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī—and others. This, Allah willing, should be an adequate proof to move those zealots to abandon their excesses and adopt moderation in their judgments.

There is, however, a subtle point—one that I have seldom seen anyone notice or mention—which must therefore be uncovered and explained.

I say: The verdict that a person who neglects the prayer out of laziness remains a Muslim is valid only so long as nothing appears that reveals what lies within his heart. If he dies in that condition before being summoned to repent—as is often the case in our time—the ruling of Islam applies to him. But if he were given the choice between execution and repentance by returning to regular prayer, and he chose execution and was put to death, then in that circumstance he would die a disbeliever. He would not be buried in the Muslims’ cemeteries, nor would the rulings of Islam apply to him—contrary to the view previously cited from al-Sakhāwī—for it is unimaginable that someone who was not inwardly denying the prayer would choose death over it. This is a matter whose impossibility is self-evident in human nature and needs no proof.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (2/48):