بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr narrated: The Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) mentioned the prayers one day and he said, “Whoever preserves the prayers, they will be his light, proof, and salvation on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever does not preserve them will not have proof, nor light, nor salvation, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be with Qar’ūn, Pharaoh, Hāmān, and Ubayy ibn Khalaf.”
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَمْرٍو عن النَّبِيِّ صلَّى اللَّهُ عليهِ وسلَّمَ أنَّهُ ذَكرَ الصَّلاةَ يومًا فقالَ من حافَظَ عليها كانت لَه نورًا وبُرهانًا ونجاةً إلى يومِ القيامةِ ومن لَم يُحافِظ عليها لم يَكن لَه نورٌ ولا برهانٌ ولا نجاةٌ وَكانَ يومَ القيامةِ معَ فرعونَ وَهامانَ وأبَيِّ بنِ خلفٍ
(Ahmad 6576 and Ibn Hibbān 1467. Declared Sahīh by Shu’ayb al-Arnā’ūt, Ahmad Shākir, and al-‘Irāqī. Al-Mundhirī declared the chain of transmission as jayyid (strong))
Explanation :
Alī al-Qārī said:
(He mentioned the prayers one day): Al-Tibī said: he (ﷺ) wanted to mention its virtues and honor.
(Whoever preserves the prayers): That is, from the occurrence of deviation in its obligations, sunnahs, manner (of praying), and maintaining them and not becoming lax (regarding them).
(They will be his light, proof and salvation) : Ibn Hajr said: Meaning an increase in light of his īmān (faith) and a clear proof of the perfection of his knowledge. Al-Tayyibī said: proof, meaning, evidence of his preservation of all other acts of obedience.
(On the day of Resurrection): because prayer is the first thing he will be asked about from the acts of worship. And it is also light, proof, and salvation for him in the grave, as stated in the narrations, for whoever dies, his resurrection has occurred.
(Whoever does not preserve them): that is, in accordance with it’s conditions and pillars. Whoever abandons it (i.e. the prayer) completely is more deserving of being deprived.
(On the Day of Resurrection he will be with… ): joined, imprisoned, or punished.
(with Qar’ūn): the one whose wealth prevented him from obeying.
(Pharaoh and Hāmān): his (i.e. Pharaoh’s) minister, whom their prestige carried them to disobey.
(Ubayy ibn Khalaf): He was a polytheist and the enemy of the Prophet (ﷺ) whom the Prophet (ﷺ) killed with his own hand on the day of Uhud.
Al-Tayyibī said: There is an indication that whoever preserved (the prayers) will be with the prophets, the truthful ones, the martyrs, and the righteous. (Mirqāt al-Mafātīh 2/515, slightly abridged)
Al-Mubārakfūrī said:
And his (ﷺ) saying : on the Day of Resurrection he will be with Qar’ūn… : (contains) an indirect expression for entering Hellfire, meaning: he will be with them in Hellfire, even if the circumstance and the manner of punishment differs.
It contains severe sternness and a great threat to those who leave out the preservation of prayer. Some of them (i.e. people of knowledge) used it as evidence for the disbelief of the one who abandons prayer – because those mentioned (i.e. in this narration) are (from) the people of Hellfire who will receive from the most severe of punishments – and (likewise) the abiding in Hellfire of the one who abandons it (i.e. prayer) is just like the abiding of those who are placed with them in the punishment (i.e. they will abide in hellfire eternally).
(Mir’āt al-Mafātīh 2/282)
Ibn al-‘Uthaymīn said (after the mention of some ahādīth including the one above):
These narrations provide useful rulings, the most important of which is that the one who abandons the prayer is an apostate, a disbeliever who leaves the religion.
‘Abdullāh ibn Shaqīq – who was from the tābi’īn – conveyed the consensus of the companions that the one who abandons the prayer is an disbeliever [‘The Companions of Muhammad (ﷺ) didn’t consider leaving anything to be disbelief except for the prayer’- al-Tirmidhī 2622].
Some of the people of knowledgeable held that if a person leaves a prayer intentionally, until the time exits for it, without an excuse, then he has disbelieved. And this was the opinion of our Shaykh, ‘Abdul-‘Azīz ibn Bāz rahimaullāh. [This was also the opinion of the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ), like ‘Umar, Abū Hurayrah, Mu’ādh ibn Jabal and others as mentioned by Ibn Hazm in al-Muhallā] (Sharh Mishkāt of al-‘Uthaymīn 1/459-460)
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