the great majority of authors who have written extensively on this important issue—namely, whether one who abandons the prayer out of laziness is to be declared an unbeliever or not. To the best of my knowledge, all of them have overlooked citing this authentic hadith, despite al-Bukhari and Muslim, as well as others, agreeing on its authenticity. It was neither cited by those whose position it supports nor answered by those whose position it refutes—especially Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah Most High have mercy on him. For, despite his extensive presentation in his valuable book, The Prayer, of the evidences of the differing parties and each party’s response to the evidence of its opponent, he mentioned this hadith among the proofs of those who oppose declaring such a person an unbeliever only in an excessively abbreviated manner, one that does not make clear its explicit indication that intercession also includes the one who abandons the prayer. He said, may Allah have mercy on him:

“In the hadith of intercession: ‘Allah says: By My might and My majesty, I shall surely bring out of the Fire whoever says: There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.’ It also states: ‘Then there will emerge from the Fire those who never did any good whatsoever ...’”

I say: This wording conflates two hadiths. The first half occurs at the end of the hadith of Anas, reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim; I previously cited its final portion (p. 131). The second half is found in the hadith under discussion:

“Then He will take a handful of people from the Fire who never did any good deed for Allah whatsoever ...”

That this abbreviation is deficient is very clear, if you recall, dear reader, what I previously added by way of correction to al-Hafiz (p. 132), thereby completing his comment upon Ibn Abi Jamrah. This demonstrates that the believers’ intercession was on behalf of those who did not pray on the second occasion and thereafter, and that they brought them out of the Fire. This, then, is an explicit and conclusive text on the matter, by which the disagreement over this issue should be settled among the scholars who share the same creed—one tenet of which is that members of Muhammad’s ummah who commit major sins are not to be declared unbelievers—especially in this age, when some who profess knowledge have gone to excess