Surah Fussilat Verses 37-54

Who is Allah? — Powerful Speech

Allah knows what is in your heart, and when you are daydreaming in the salah, He is aware of all of it. He is the one who gave you the wife you are busy with, He gave you the job you are busy with, He gave you the children you are busy with.

And how Patient is Allah, that you do this day in and day out in your salah, and He still continues to give you chances to speak to him, and complain to Him, and beg Him.

Allah doesn’t need us.

We need Allah.

The Levels of Prayer – What Level Are You?

By Ibnul-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah

Ibnul-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah said:

And mankind, with regard to their performance of prayer are in five levels:

The First: The level of the one who is negligent and wrongs her soul: She is the one who falls short in performing Wudu (ablution) properly, performing the prayer upon its time and within its specified limits, and in fulfilling its essential pillars.

The Second: The one who guards her prayers upon their proper times and within their specified limits, fulfils their essential pillars and performs her Wudu with care. However, her striving (in achieving the above) is wasted due whisperings in her prayer so she is taken away by thoughts and ideas.

The Third: The one who guards her prayers within the specified limits, fulfils their essential pillars and strives with herself to repel the whisperings, thoughts and ideas. She is busy struggling against her enemy (Shaytan or Satan) so that she does not steal from the prayer. On account of this she is engaged in (both) prayer and Jihad.

The Fourth: The one who stands for the prayer, completes and perfects its due rights, its essential pillars, performs it within its specified limits and her heart becomes engrossed in safeguarding its rights and specified limits, so that nothing is wasted from it. Her whole concern is directed towards its establishment, its completion and its perfection, as it should be. Her heart is immersed in the prayer and in enslavement to her Lord the Exalted.

The Fifth: The one who stands for the prayer like the one mentioned above. However, on top of this, she has taken and placed her heart in front of her Lord looking towards Him with her heart with anticipation, (her heart) filled with His love and His might, as if she sees and witnesses Allah. The whisperings, thoughts and ideas have vanished and the coverings which are between her and her Lord are raised. What is between this person and others with respect to the prayer, is superior and greater than what is between the heavens and the earth. This person is busy with her Lord delighted with Him.

The First type will be punished, the second type will be held to account, the third will have her sins and shortcomings expiated, the fourth will be rewarded and the fifth will be close to her Lord, because she will receive the portion of the one who makes her prayer the delight and pleasure of her eye. Whoever makes her prayer, the delight and pleasure of her eye, will have the nearness to her Lord made the delight and pleasure of her eye in the Hereafter. She will also be made a pleasure to the eye in this world since whoever makes Allah the pleasure of her eye in this world, every other eye will become delighted and pleased with her.

The Consensus Amongst the Companions that the One Who Does Not Pray is a Disbeliever

The Consensus Amongst the Companions that the One Who Does Not Pray Is a Disbeliever

1 – Mujahid bin al-Hajjaj (the noble Tabi’i) asked Jabir bin ‘Abdillah (the noble Companion): “What actions did you use to differentiate between belief and disbelief during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)?” He replied: “The prayer.”

[al-Marwazi in ‘Ta’dhim Qadr as-Salah’ (2/877) and al-Lalaka’i in ‘I’tiqad Ahl as-Sunnah’ (4/829), by way of Ya’qub bin Ibrahim, who is known as a trustworthy narrator]

2 – The noble Tabi’i ‘Abdullah bin Shaqiq al-’Aqili said: “The Companions of Muhammad did not see the abandonment of any actions as consituting disbelief except for the prayer.”

[at-Tirmidhi (2622) and al-Hakim (1/1248) by way of Bishr bin al-Mufaddal. al-Hakim declared it to be authentic on the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim]

al-Mubarakfuri commented on this in ‘Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi’ (7/370) by saying: “This saying of ‘Abdullah bin Shaqiq – in its apparent meaning – proves that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah believed the abandoment of prayer to be disbelief. What is apparent from this statement is that the Companions were all agreed in this, since he said: “The Companions of Muhammad…,” which is a collective attribution.”

3 – The noble Tabi’i al-Hasan al-Basri said: “It has reached me that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to say: “Between a servant and his falling into polytheism and disbelief is that he leaves the prayer without a valid excuse.”

[al-Lalaka’i (4/829, 1539), Ibn Battah in ‘al-Ibanah’ (p. 87), and al-Khallal in ‘as-Sunnah’ (4/124 and #1372)]

4 – Hammad bin Zayd narrated from Ayyub (a well-known Tabi’i) that he said: “To leave the prayer is disbelief. There is no difference of opinion on this.”

[al-Marwazi in ‘Ta’dhim Qadr as-Salah’ (2/925 and 978)]

5 – al-Marwazi also mentions that he heard Ishaq bin Rahwiyah (the well-known trustworthy narrator, the companion of Ahmad bin Hambal) say: “It has been authentically narrated from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that the one who leaves the prayer is a disbeliever. Likewise, this has been the opinion of the people of knowledge since the time of the Prophet up until our times: that the one who leaves the prayer beyond its proper time – intentionally and without a valid excuse – is a disbeliever.”

6 – al-Marwazi also mentioned in ‘Ta’dhim Qadr as-Salah’ (2/925): “We mentioned the reports narrated from the Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding the disbelief of the one who leaves the prayer, and his leaving the creed of Islam, and the permissibility of fighting the one who refuses to establish it. Then, we received similar reports from the Companions, and we did not come across any difference from this opinion from a single one of them. However, the people of knowledge began differing in this afterwards…”

And it is well-known that Muhammad bin Nasr al-Marwazi was famous for his vast knowledge of the sayings and opinions of the people of knowledge in the area of agreement and differing on various legal issues, as was mentioned by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi in ‘Tarikh Baghdad’ (3/315): “He was from the most knowledgable of people of the differences of opinion amonst the Companions and those who came after them.” Also, adh-Dhahabi supported this saying in ‘Siyar A’lam an-Nubala” (14/34): “It is said: “He was by far the most knowledgable of the scholars regarding the differences of opinion between the scholars.””

7 – Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned in ‘Sharh al-’Umdah’ (2/75), as did Ibn al-Qayyim in ‘as-Salah’ (p.67), that this is the consensus of the Companions, due to the saying of ‘Umar, in the presence of the Companions, without any of them opposing his saying: “There is no share of Islam for the one who leaves the prayer,” or: “There is no Islam for the one who does not pray.”

8 – With all of this, nobody who says that the one who does not pray is not a disbeliever can find a single Companion who holds their opinion. In fact, they cannot find even a single Tabi’i except az-Zuhri, who was himself a minor Tabi’i.

Ibn Hazm says in ‘al-Muhalla’ (2/242): “We do not know of what we have mentioned from the Companions any difference of opinion amongst them, and the followers of the four madhahib are very eager to hold onto the difference of opinion from a Companion if this is in accordance with their desires. And it has been narrated from ‘Umar, ‘Abdur-Rahman bin ‘Awf, Mu’adh bin Jabal, Abu Hurayrah, and other than them from the Companions that the one who leaves a single obligatory prayer – intentionally and beyond its proper time – then he is a disbelieving apostate.”

And al-Mundhiri mentioned in ‘at-Targhib wat-Tarhib’ (1/393) additional Companions who reported this: “…’Abdullah bin Mas’ud, ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abbas, Jabir bin ‘Abdillah, and Abu ad-Darda’ – may Allah be pleased with them all.” And from other than the Companions: “…Ahmad bin Hambal, Ishaq bin Rahwiyah, ‘Abdullah bin al-Mubarak, Ibrahim an-Nakha’i, al-Hakam bin ‘Utaybah, Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani, Abu Dawud at-Taylasi, Abu Bakr bin Abi Shaybah, Zuhayr bin Harb, and other than them.”

And this is the saying of the majority of the people of Hadith, and this was the opinion of Sa’id bin Jubayr, al-Hasan al-Basri, al-Awza’i, and Muhammad bin al-Hasan. It is the authentically narrated opinion of ash-Shafi’i, as Ibn Kathir mentioned in his ‘Tafsir’ (in his explanation of verse 59 in ‘Maryam’) and at-Tahawi narrated from ash-Shafi’i personally.

Final benefit: Ibn al-Qayyim said, in ‘as-Salah’: “The Muslims do not disagree that the intentional abandonment of the obligatory prayer is from the greatest and most major of sins, and that the sin of such a person is greater in the Sight of Allah than the sin of the one who commits murder and steals wealth, and commits fornication, and drinks alcohol, and that he is exposing himself to the punishment and anger of Allah, and humiliation in this life and the next.”