Question : A question was asked about whether or not it is possible for a man or woman to remain with their partner in the knowledge that he or she does not pray.

Fatwa in Brief: By abandoning his or her prayers, a person leaves Islam. It is forbidden, therefore, for a Muslim to remain with a husband or wife who no longer prays; and their marriage is annulled. Anyone who stops praying may not inherit from a Muslim; when they die, their bodies may not be (ritually) washed or prayed over, and they may not be buried in Muslim cemeteries. Instead, the corpse should be taken out into the desert and buried in its clothes, as the person who abandons his/her prayers no longer deserves protection from God or man.

Shaykh Ibn al-‘Uthaymin, A Treatise on the Characteristics of the Prophet’s Prayers, pp. 29-30

Shaykh Muhammad Hassan, Speech no. 5 on his website:

www.Muhammadhassan.org

Response:

With a single stroke of the pen, this fatwa declares a vast number of Muslims, from around the world, to be unbelievers. In fact, it means that millions of people are now no longer Muslims, that they should be killed as apostates, their bodies left without prayers, and buried outside of Muslim cemeteries! Because they do not pray, they may not inherit, or bequeath to Muslims, and must be separated from their spouses, regardless of place or time. Throughout the history of Islam, there has never been a time or place where this has been judged to be the fate of Muslims who have not been praying. Rather, such people have continued to live with their spouses, inherited and bequeathed, and have been buried in Muslim cemeteries. [Why should this have been the case?] Precisely because such people have always been considered Muslims.

We do not know why the authors are so keen to exclude crowds of Muslims from God’s religion, nor why they exercise such poor judgment, and in doing so flout the pious Imams of the madhahib and the general opinion of Islam’s religious scholars.

Commentary:

The performance of [the five daily] prayers is one of the pillars of Islam. [Another way of putting it is that] its position in faith is like that of the head to the body; and there are many texts reminding Muslims of their obligation to pray, and warning them of the dangers of abandoning prayers or observing them with laxity. According to the most potent tradition in this matter, reported by Muslim, [the Prophet (upon him be peace) says]: “The barrier between a man and disbelief is the abandonment of prayers”. Explaining this hadith in brief, al-Nawawi observes that, according to the consensus of Muslim scholars, only the person who stops praying because s/he does not think consider the prayers obligatory ceases to be Muslim. This is not the case if the same person has only recently joined Islam and has, thus, not lived with Muslims or been informed of the religious obligation to pray. If on the other hand a Muslim accepts that prayers are an obligatory aspect of faith, but fails to perform them through a lack of commitment, or out of laziness, s/he should not be considered an unbeliever according to the majority of scholars and the Salaf and later generations of scholars. Rather, s/he is considered a sinner and should be instructed to repent. [Of all the Imams, only] Ahmad ibn Hanbal is reported to have taken the above hadith in one of two accounts as literal evidence that someone who neglects to pray loses his Islam.

Scholars who do not consider the person who neglects to pray an unbeliever turn to this Qur’anic Verse:

“Lo! Allah pardoneth not that partners should be ascribed unto Him. He pardoneth all save that to whom He Will” (Q. 4:116),

As well as the hadith in which the Prophet (upon him be peace) observes: “He who says that there is no God but God will go to Heaven”; and the hadith: “He who says that there is no God but God will be untouched by Hellfire”.

Those who do not consider the person who abandons prayer to have left Islam cite the hadith mentioned above, in which the Prophet describes the abandonment of prayers as “the barrier between a man and disbelief”, arguing in this case, that the hadith implies that such a one deserves the penalty of disbelief, which is death, if he is asked to repent but does not do so. Yet, this is only the case if the person fails to understand that the prayer is an obligation, or that, by leaving the prayer, he may be led into disbelief, or that the act itself is similar to the acts of disbelievers.

In his book Tabaqat al-Shafi‘yya, El-Subki includes al-Shafi‘i and Ahmad [Ibn Hanbal]’s discussion of [the status] of those who abandon their prayers. Al-Shafi‘i asked: “Ahmad, do you consider him [the person who abandons prayers] an unbeliever?” Ahmad replied that he did. Al-Shafi‘i then asked: “how does an unbeliever become Muslim?” Ahmad said: “by testifying that there is no God, but God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God”. Then, Al-Shafi‘i, continued: “But he has never lost his faith in the shahadah, as he still says it [outside of prayer]”. Ahmad responded: “To become Muslim, he must pray”. To which Al-Shafi‘i could reply: “An unbeliever’s prayer is invalid, and he does not become Muslim if he prays”. At this, Ahmad was silent.

Ibn Qudama, in al-Mughni, argues that according to the school of Imam Ahmad someone who abandons the prayers would not be counted as an unbeliever. If this is the case, then neither the four founders of the Sunni law schools nor the majority of scholars describe this person as such [i.e. as a non-Muslim]. Therefore, the relationship between a man and his wife must remain valid and beyond reproach.

Ibn Qudama also mentions that, despite the number of people who throughout the ages have neglected their prayers, there are no records that a single Muslim judge has ever separated a Muslim man and wife for this reason:

It was never reported to us in any given time that someone who had abandoned their prayers was not washed ritually for burial, nor prayed over, nor buried in Muslim cemeteries, prohibited from inheriting and bequeathing, nor separated from their spouse for the abandonment of prayers. Had they been judged non-believers, these penalties would surely have applied (Al-Mughni 2/152).

His Eminence Shaykh Dr. Saud ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Funaisan confirms that:

In the entire history of Islam, it has never once been reported that anyone was killed as an apostate (murtaddin) because he had stopped performing his prayers. In addition to what this misjudgment would have entailed with respect to their marriages to their wives is such that they would have been divorced and their children declared illegitimate… It seems to me that we cannot declare a person who neglects his prayers out of laziness or unconcern, an unbeliever, and God knows best (Islamtoday, 08/11/1427).

Ultimately, as long as he does not deny the obligatory nature of prayer, the husband who abandons his prayers is not to be treated as an unbeliever. Nevertheless, his wife should always advise him to pray, never ceasing to encourage him in the matter, while reminding him of the penalties for not doing so. Likewise, she should surround him with decent and morally refined people, and lead him towards a better path, [she should remember that] the company one keeps works beautifully in achieving this.

The wife who neglects to perform her prayers is subject to the same judgment as this; and we offer her husband the same advice to help convince the wife to keep her prayers and moral uprightness. Moreover, he should not rush to divorce her, rather he should remember the Qur’anic verse, “And enjoin upon thy people worship, and be constant therein” (Q. 20:132), and call upon her to rejoin the prayers, and to be righteous.

Both husband and wife should call upon God and rise to pray at dawn. [In light of the above debate] They should remember that, if God bestows upon a Muslim the gift of guiding someone [back] to prayer, then this is better for their religion, and it is better for their lives.

And God knows best.

Dr. Muhammad Fouad