Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-Uthaymin

Hukm Tarik al-Salah (Arabic: حكم تارك الصلاة, lit. 'The Ruling on the One Who Abandons Prayer') is a short legal treatise written by the Saudi scholar Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin (d. 1421 AH / 2001 CE), examining the legal and creedal ruling on abandoning the ritual prayer and detailing the worldly and afterlife consequences entailed by apostasy resulting from its neglect Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…+1.

Background and Purpose

Al-Uthaymin noted in his preface that he authored the treatise because many Muslims had become negligent regarding prayer, some abandoning it entirely out of carelessness, and because the question represents one of the major issues of scholarly debate among early and later Muslim jurists Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…+1. The work was published as an independent treatise—including an edition released by the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts in al-Qassim—and was subsequently incorporated into the twelfth volume of his collected writings, Majmu‘ Fatawa wa-Rasa'il al-Uthaymin al-Salat wasf mufassal li…+1.

Structure and Contents

The treatise is organized into an introduction and two primary chapters:

Chapter One: The Legal Ruling on the One Who Abandons Prayer

Al-Uthaymin begins by surveying classical legal positions on the person who abandons prayer: Ahmad ibn Hanbal deemed him an unbeliever whose disbelief expels him from the fold of Islam and warrants capital punishment if he fails to repent and pray; whereas Abu Hanifah, Malik ibn Anas, and al-Shafi'i viewed him as a grave sinner (fasiq) rather than an apostate, with Malik and al-Shafi'i prescribing execution as a legal penalty (hadd) and Abu Hanifah advocating discretionary corporal punishment (ta'zir) rather than execution Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….

Al-Uthaymin argues that contested matters must be resolved through textual proofs, maintaining that both the Quran and the Sunnah establish that total abandonment of prayer constitutes major disbelief (al-kufr al-akbar) Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…:

• Quranic Evidence: He cites verses conditioning religious brotherhood on the performance of prayer, such as فَإِنْ تَابُوا وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ فَإِخْوَانُكُمْ فِي الدِّين ("Yet if they repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, they are your brothers in faith", Quran 9:11), and the exception made for prayer-neglectors in إِلَّا مَنْ تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا ("Except for those who repent, believe, and do righteous work", Quran 19:60), arguing that religious fraternity ceases only when one exits Islam entirely Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…+1.
• Hadith Evidence: He draws on prophetic traditions defining prayer as the boundary of faith, such as إن بين الرجل وبين الشرك والكفر ترك الصلاة ("Between a person and polytheism and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer") and العهد الذي بيننا وبينهم الصلاة، فمن تركها فقد كفر ("The covenant between us and them is prayer; whoever abandons it has disbelieved"), as well as hadiths forbidding armed rebellion against rulers so long as they establish prayer Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…+1.
• Statements of the Companions: He adduces reports from the Companions, such as the statement transmitted by Abdullah ibn Shaqiq that the Companions saw no deed whose abandonment was disbelief other than prayer, as well as consensuses reported by Ishaq ibn Rahwayh and Ibn Hazm attributing this stance to Umar ibn al-Khattab, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, and Abu Hurayrah Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…+1.

Al-Uthaymin rejects restricting these texts solely to those who deny the obligation of prayer (juhud), noting that denying an obligation causes disbelief regardless of whether one prays, whereas the texts explicitly made actual abandonment (tark) the legal cause (manat) Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…. Relying on an analysis by Ibn Taymiyyah, he distinguishes the definite form al-kufr (signifying major disbelief) from indefinite expressions of minor disbelief (kufr duna kufr) Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…. He then classifies the evidence used by scholars who do not declare such individuals apostates into five categories: weak non-explicit narrations; irrelevant texts; general texts restricted by specific rulings on prayer; texts qualified by conditions incompatible with prayer abandonment (such as uttering the declaration of faith with sincere conviction); and narrations addressing persons excused due to ignorance of Islamic obligations at the end of time Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-…+3.

Chapter Two: Consequences of Apostasy Resulting from Abandoning Prayer

The second chapter outlines the legal ramifications resulting from the verdict of apostasy, categorizing them into worldly and afterlife rulings:

• Worldly Rulings:
  1. Forfeiture of legal guardianship (wilayah), precluding the individual from acting as a marriage guardian over Muslim relatives or managing the affairs of minors Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….
  2. Loss of reciprocal inheritance rights with Muslim relatives Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….
  3. Prohibition against entering Mecca and its sacred sanctuary Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….
  4. Unlawfulness of consuming livestock slaughtered by him Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….
  5. Prohibition of offering funeral prayers over him, supplicating for his forgiveness, or burying him in Muslim cemeteries Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….
  6. Invalidation and prohibition of marriage to a Muslim woman Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….
  7. Rules regarding the lineage of children born from such an invalid union depending on whether the husband was aware of the prohibition Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….
• Afterlife Consequences: Exposure to divine punishment, the rebuke of angels at death, and eternal punishment in the Hellfire Hukm Tarik al-Salah - al-….