One Who Says, “I Do Not Pray”

Question

Concerning one who deliberately abandons prayer, and concerning a person who is called to pray and flatly refuses to pray or displays aversion to it, Mawlana Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi, in “Imdad al-Fatawa”, vol. 1, p. 534 (printed by Idara Ashraf al-‘Ulum, Karachi), after citing three different opinions about the deliberate abandoner of prayer, wrote as follows: “And if he displayed repugnance or aversion to prayer, or treated it with contempt and mockery, he will become a kafir, because insulting a ruling of the Sacred…

Answer

Concerning one who deliberately, without any excuse, abandons the obligatory prayer, has no intention of making it up, and does not even fear God’s punishment for it, the noble jurists have written: [ar]يَكْفُرُ بِتَرْكِ الصَّلَاةِ مُتَعَمِّدًا غَيْرَ نَاوٍ لِلْقَضَاءِ وَغَيْرَ خَائِفٍ مِنَ الْعِقَابِ[/ar] “He becomes a kafir by abandoning prayer deliberately, not intending to…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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