peace: "Between the servant and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer." Extracted by Muslim (8). Disbelief is a cause that makes killing permissible. He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said: "I have been forbidden from killing those who pray" (9). The implication of this is that those who do not pray, it is permissible to kill them. Furthermore, it is a pillar of the pillars of Islam, into which no proxy may enter, neither in person nor in wealth; therefore, it is mandatory that he who abandons it be killed, like one who abandons the [testimony of] faith (Shahadah). Their hadith is an argument in our favor, because the report we narrated indicates that abandoning it is disbelief, and the other hadith made an exception from it: "Except by its right." And prayer is of its right. [And from Anas, he said: Abu Bakr said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) only said: "If they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and they establish prayer, and give zakah." Extracted by al-Daraqutni] (10). Furthermore, our narrations (11) are specific, so we specify with them the general [rulings] they have mentioned. It is not correct to draw an analogy between it and Hajj, because there is disagreement regarding the permissibility of delaying Hajj, and killing is not mandatory for an act concerning which there is disagreement. As for their statement that this leads to the abandonment of prayer entirely, we say: The apparent reality is that whoever knows he will be killed if he leaves prayer will not leave it, especially after he has been called to repent (12) for three days. If he leaves it after (13) this, then there is no hope for his prayer, and there is no benefit in his remaining; nor would the execution be what causes him to miss the prayer. Furthermore, even if the possibility of prayer were lost because of it, it would result in the prayer of a thousand people, and achieving that by missing the possibility of one prayer does not violate the fundamental principle. Once this is established, the literal meaning of the words of al-Khiraqi is that he must be killed for abandoning a single prayer, and this is one of two narrations from Ahmad, because he is a person who has abandoned prayer, so his killing is necessary, just like one who abandons three. Moreover, the reports encompass the one who abandons a single prayer, but the necessity does not become fixed until the time of the prayer following it becomes constricted; because it is not known that the first one has been abandoned until its time has passed, so it becomes a missed prayer, and killing is not mandatory for its missing. Thus, when its time becomes constricted, it is known that he intends to abandon it, so his killing becomes mandatory. The second [narration]: His killing is not mandatory until he has abandoned three prayers, and the time for the fourth has become constricted, preventing its performance; because he might leave one or two prayers due to a misconception, so when that is repeated three times, it is confirmed that he is [one who abandons it] (14) out of disdain. It is considered that the time of the fourth becomes constricted, preventing its performance, for the reason we have mentioned. Ibn Hamid narrated from Abu Ishaq ibn Shaqla that if he abandons a prayer that is not combined with what follows it, [such as the dawn prayer] (15) and the Asr prayer, his killing is mandatory; but if he abandons the first of two prayers that are combined, his killing is not mandatory, because the two times are like a single time according to some scholars. This is a sound view. There is a disagreement regarding the narration: Is he killed for his disbelief or as a legal penalty (Hadd)? It is narrated that he is killed for his disbelief like an apostate, so he is not washed, not shrouded, not buried among the Muslims, no one inherits from him, and he inherits from no one. This was chosen by Abu Ishaq ibn Shaqla and Ibn Hamid, and it is the school of al-Hasan, al-Nakha'i (16), al-Sha'bi, Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani, al-Awza'i, Ibn al-Mubarak, Hammad ibn Zayd, Ishaq, and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, based on the statement of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Between the servant and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer." In a wording from Jabir, he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: "Between a man and polytheism is the abandonment of prayer." And from Buraydah, he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: