Ruling on an individual who doesn't pray while fasting | Ramadan QA

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QUESTIONS ON FASTING IN RAMADAAN

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QUESTION 11

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There is an individual who fasts and performs certain types of worship. However, he does not pray. Is his fast and acts of worship valid and accepted?

In the name of Allaah (ﷻ), I proceed and All praise is for Him.

The correct opinion is that the one that leaves the prayer intentionally disbelieves with a disbelief that takes one out of the fold of al-Islām. Based on this, his fast is not valid and neither are the rest of his other acts of worship until he repents to Allaah (ﷻ). The proof of this

is His statement:

ذَٰلِكَ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ يَهْدِى بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ ۚ وَلَوْ أَشْرَكُوا۟ لَحَبِطَ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ

If they had joined in worship others with Allaah, all that they had done would have been of no benefit to them.

(Al An'aam, 6:88)

Other verses and narrations (aḥādīth) with the same meaning are also used as proof for this position.

Some scholars hold that the one who abandons the prayer remains in the fold of Islām. Therefore, his fast is valid along with his other acts of worship. This is if he holds the prayer to be obligatory, but out of laziness and negligence, he leaves it.

The correct opinion is the first; which is that he disbelieves with a disbelief that takes him out of the fold of Islām if he abandons the prayer intentionally. Even if he accepts its obligation.

There are many proofs for this opinion. From them is the statement of the Prophet (ﷺ):

_“That which distinguishes a man from disbelief and polytheism is the abandonment of the prayer.”_

(Muslim, 82, from the narration by Jābir bin ‘Abdillāh)

Likewise, his statement (ﷺ):

“The covenant that stands between us and them is the Ṣalāh (the prayer); whoever abandons it, he has committed disbelief.”

(At-Tirmidhī, 2621, An-Nasā’ī, 423, ibn Mājah, 1097; from the narration of Abī Mūsā al-Ash'arī)

Al-'Allāmah ibn Al-Qayyim went into some detail regarding this topic in a treatise written specifically on the topic of the prayer and its rulings.

[Scholars differed regarding the faith of the one who leaves the prayer due to laziness and negligence. Regarding this the great scholar of al-Madīnah, Muḥammad Amān al-Jāmi said: 

 “…In any case, leaving the prayer is a serious and dangerous affair. Would anyone with sense be pleased that he or she is in a position where the scholars differed regarding him; (is he a disbeliever or a muslim?) who would like the affirmation of their faith to be an issue scholars differed regarding?!”

(Sharḥ al-Fatāwā al-Ḥamawiyah al-Kubrā, p.113)]

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