And anyone who reflects upon his answer to this question will note that he turned aside from it to assert that righteous deeds are accepted only with prayer. But where is the answer as to whether prayer is a condition for the validity of faith? That is, whether it is a condition not merely of completeness; for, according to Ahl al-Sunnah, all righteous deeds are conditions of completeness—unlike the Kharijites and the Mu'tazilites, who maintain that those who commit major sins will abide eternally in the Fire, the Kharijites explicitly declaring them disbelievers. Thus, if someone were to say that prayer is a condition for the validity of faith and that one who abandons it will abide eternally in the Fire, he would agree with the Kharijites in this part of their doctrine. More dangerously still, he would contradict this hadith concerning intercession, as has already been explained.

Perhaps, by turning aside from that answer, Ibn al-Qayyim intended on the one hand to impress upon the reader the importance of prayer in Islam, and on the other to indicate that there is no evidence that it is a condition for the validity of faith.

Accordingly, in his view, one who abandons the prayer out of laziness does not commit disbelief unless his abandonment is accompanied by something indicating that his disbelief is disbelief of conviction. Only in that case does he commit disbelief that expels him from the religion, as I have previously indicated. This is what Ibn al-Qayyim’s words at the end of this chapter suggest, for he said:

“It is astonishing that there should be any doubt concerning the disbelief of one who persists in abandoning it, who is called upon to perform it in public while he sees the sword flashing above his head, is bound for execution, blindfolded, and told, ‘Pray, or we will kill you!’ Yet he replies, ‘Kill me; I will never pray!’”

I say: All the proofs of the camp that declares the one who abandons prayer to be a disbeliever must be understood as applying to one who persists in abandoning and refusing to pray despite the ruler’s threat to kill him. In this way, their proofs are reconciled with those of their opponents, and they agree on a common point: mere abandonment does not render one a disbeliever, because it is