What is meant is that negating faith of one who abandons the prayer is more warranted than negating it of one who commits major sins, and negating the designation of Islam from him is more warranted than negating it from one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are not safe. Thus, one who abandons the prayer is not to be called a Muslim or a believer, even if he possesses a branch of Islam and faith.
(I say: There is room for consideration in negating the aforementioned designation from one who abandons the prayer. Allah Most High called the transgressing group believers in the well-known verse: “If two groups of the believers fight one another, then make peace between them…” Yet the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said in the hadith cited earlier: “Fighting him is disbelief.” Just as describing a transgressing Muslim as having committed disbelief does not necessitate negating from him the designation of believer—let alone that of Muslim—the same applies to one who abandons the prayer, unless he means that he is not a complete Muslim; but that is unlikely. He said:)
Yes, the question remains: Will the faith he possesses benefit him by preventing his abiding eternally in the Fire? The answer is: It will benefit him if that which he has omitted is not a condition for the soundness and validity of what remains; but if that which he has omitted is a condition for the validity of what remains, it will not benefit him.
Is the prayer, then, a condition for the validity of faith? This is the crux of the issue.
(I say: He then referred to the proofs he had previously cited for the first camp, which declares the one who abandons the prayer a disbeliever, and said:)
They indicate that none of a servant’s deeds are accepted from him unless he performs the prayer.
(I say: It seems quite clear to me that Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, after his valuable discussion distinguishing practical disbelief from disbelief of conviction, and establishing that a Muslim does not leave the religion through practical disbelief, was unable to rule in favour of the camp that declares disbelief on account of abandoning the prayer, despite the many proofs he cited for them, because all of them indicate only practical disbelief. He therefore ultimately resorted to asking: Will his faith benefit him? And is the prayer a condition for the validity of faith?