It is written at the beginning of the chapter about namaz in the
book Durr-ul-mukhtar, which Ibni Abidin explains as follows in his
Radd-ul-muhtar:
Since Hadrat Adam, each Shariat had had one namaz in it, once each day. Those which had been performed by all of them, being gathered together, were made fard for us to perform. It is not one of the conditions of iman to perform namaz, yet it is a condition to believe that it is fard to perform namaz. Namaz means prayer. The worship commanded by the Shariat, as we all know, has been called namaz (salat). It is fard-i 'ayn for every Muslim who is liable [discreet and has reached the age of puberty] to perform namaz five times a day. It is communicated clearly in the Qur'an and in hadiths that it is fard. Namaz five times each day became fard on the Night of Miraj. Miraj was one year before the Hegira, and on the twenty-seventh night of the blessed Rajab month. Before Miraj, namaz had been being performed in mornings and afternoons only.
It is necessary to command a seven-year-old child to perform namaz and to beat it with the hand if it does not perform it when it is ten years old. Also, a teacher in school may beat the child three times with his hand in order to make it study. He cannot beat it more than that, nor can he thrash it with a stick. [There cannot be bastinadoes in Islamic schools. Flogging is practiced in police-stations or prisons. If the enemies of Islam, in order to estrange young people from Islam, show in dramas and motion pictures how the khodjas used to bastinado their pupils and say that with the abrogation of religious lessons and the closing of Islamic schools the youth were rescued from the bastinado, from being flogged, they will have slandered the Islamic din. It is written clearly in Islamic books that Islam has prohibited beating pupils with sticks. Our Prophet strictly prohibited beating the child even with the hand more than three times.] Children at this age should be taught and accustomed to doing other kinds of worships, too, and should be prohibited from sinning.
In order to express the importance of the prayers of namaz that are fard, Hadrat Muhammad Rabhami wrote in the twelfth paragraph of the first chapter of the second part of his Persian book entitled Riyad-un-nasikhin, which he published in India by selecting from four hundred and forty-four books in the eight hundred and fifty-third [853] year of the Hegira.
In the two fundamental books of the Islamic din [Bukhari and Muslim], which are called Sahihayn, Rasulullah 'sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam' declares in a hadith quoted by Jabir bin Abdullah 'rahmatullahi alaih': "If there is a river in front of someone's house and if he bathes in the river five times each day, will there be any dirt left on him?" "No, O Rasulallah!" we said. "Likewise, the small sins of those who perform namaz five times each day will be pardoned." [Upon hearing this hadith some ignoramuses say, "Then, I shall both perform namaz and live as I wish. In any case, my sins will be pardoned." It is not good to think so. For, a namaz that has been performed observing its conditions and adabs and which has been accepted will shake off the sins. Furthermore, even if one's small sins are pardoned, it will be a grave sin to go on committing small sins. And it will cause disbelief to insist on doing grave sins.] Ibni Jawzi says in his explanatory book named AlMughni, "Hadrat Abu Bakr Siddiq 'radiAllahu anh' said that when the time for each of the five prayers of namaz comes angels say: 'O the Sons of Adam, get up! Perform namaz to extinguish the fire which has been prepared to burn people.' "A hadith declares: "The difference distinguishing the Believer from the disbeliever is namaz." In other words, a Believer will perform namaz, but a disbeliever will not. And munafiqs perform namaz sometimes, and sometimes they do not. Munafiqs will be tormented very bitterly in Hell. Abdullah bin Abbas, the shah of mufassirs, says, "I heard Rasulullah say, 'Those who do not perform namaz will find Allahu ta'ala angry on the Day of Resurrection.' "
Savants of hadith say unanimously, "A person who omits one namaz on purpose, that is, who does not feel sorry for not performing the namaz as its due time goes past, becomes a disbeliever, or he dies without iman at last. This being the case, what will become of those who never think of namaz and who do not even consider it as a duty?" Savants of the Ahl as-sunnat unanimously said, "Worships are not parts of iman." But there was not unanimity on namaz. Of the savants of fiqh, Imam-i Ahmad ibni Hanbal, Ishaq ibni Rahawaih, Abdullah ibni Mubarak, Ibrahim Nahai, Hakam bin Utayba, Ayyub Sakhtiyani, Dawud Tai, Abu Bakr ibni Shayba, Zubair bin Harb and many other great savants said that a person who omitted one namaz on purpose would become a disbeliever. Now, o my brother-in- Islam, do not omit even one namaz, nor perform it slackly; do it willingly! What will you do if Allahu ta'ala punishes in the next world in accordance with the ijtihad of these savants? It is written in Tafsir-i Mughni, "One of our superiors asked the Devil, 'I want to be accursed like you; what should I do?' Being happy the Devil said, 'If you want to be like me, slight the namaz, take an oath on whatever you say whether it is true or false, that is, swear often.' So the great person said that he would never omit any namaz or swear." In the Hanbali Madhhab, if a person omits any prayer of namaz without any excuse, he will be killed like an apostate, he will not be washed or wrapped in a shroud, nor will the janaza namaz for him be performed. He will not be buried in a Muslim cemetery, nor will his grave be marked off. He will be put in some ditch in the mountains. In the Shafi'i Madhhab, he who insists on not performing namaz does not become an apostate, but his punishment is death. It is written in Ibni Abidin and on the sixty-third page of the translation of Milal- Nihal that the Maliki Madhhab is like Shafi'i in this respect. And in the Hanafi Madhhab, he will be imprisoned until he begins to perform namaz again, or he will be thrashed till blood comes out of his body. [But a person who slights namaz and who does not recognize it as a duty becomes a disbeliever in any of the four madhhabs. It is written in the chapter about the disasters incurred by the tongue in Al-Hadiqa that a person who omits a namaz on purpose, who does not think of performing it later, and who does not fear that he will be tormented for this will become a disbeliever in the Hanafi Madhhab, too.] Allahu ta'ala did not command non-Muslims to perform namaz or to fast. They have not been honored with being commanded by Allahu ta'ala. They will not be punished for not performing namaz or for not fasting. They have deserved one thing only: Hell, which is the punishment for disbelief. The book Zadul-muqwin writes, "It was written by the early savants that he who does not do five things will be deprived of five other things:
1 - He who does not give the zakat of his property will not benefit from his property.
2 - He who does not give the 'ushr (a kind of zakat) will not get barakat, use from his field, from his earnings.
3 - He who does not give alms will not be healthy.
4 - He who does not pray will not get what he wishes.
5 - He who does not want to perform namaz when the time for namaz comes will not be able to say the kalima-i shahadat as he dies. He who does not perform namaz because of indolence, although he believes that to perform it is the first duty, is a fasiq. He is not kufw for a pious girl. In other words, he is not worthy of or suitable for (marrying) the girl."
As it is seen, not to perform namaz causes one to die without iman. Continuing to perform namaz is a means for filling the heart with nurs and attaining to endless bliss. Our Prophet declared, "Namaz is a nur." That is, it brightens the heart in the world and enlightens the Sirat in the Hereafter. Do you know what happens to Allah's lovers in namaz and how in namaz they attain their desires?
A story: Abdullah bin Tahir, governor of Khorasan, was very just. One day, his gendarmes reported to the governor that they had caught some thieves. One of the thieves escaped. A blacksmith from Hirat who had gone to Nishabur was arrested, instead, as he was going back home one night. Together with the thieves they took him up to the governor, who then commanded them to be imprisoned. In the prison, the blacksmith made an ablution and performed namaz. Holding his hands out, he invoked, "O my Allah! You alone know that I am innocent. You alone can rescue me from this dungeon. O Allah! Save me!" That night the governor dreamt of four strong people, who came up to him and were about to turn his throne upside down, when he woke up. Immediately, he made an ablution and performed a namaz of two rakats. He went back to sleep. Again he dreamt that the four persons were about to overturn his throne, and woke up. He realized that he had been doing injustice to someone who in turn had been invoking against him. As a matter of fact, the poem says:
Thousands of cannons and rifles can never do
What tears will do in the early morning.
The enemy-frightening spears are often
Pulverized by a Believer's praying.
O our Allah! Thou only art great! And Thou art so great that the great as well as the small beg only Thee when they are in trouble. Only he who begs Thee will attain his desire.
That very night he summoned the prison manager and asked him if there was anyone who was unjustly put in there. The prison manager said, "I couldn't know. But there is somebody who is performing namaz and saying prayers very much. He is weeping, too." Upon this, he had the blacksmith brought to him. Asking him and then learning what was wrong, he apologized and begged, "Forgive me, please, and do accept these thousand silver coins as my gift upon you. Whenever you desire anything, whatsoever, just come to me!" The blacksmith said, "I have forgiven you and will accept your present. But I cannot come to you to ask for my wish." When asked why, he said, "Would it become me as a born slave to present my wishes to someone else, abandoning my Owner, Who has several times overturned the throne of such a sultan as you for the sake of such a poor person as me? Upon the prayers which I sent after my namaz, He rescued me from many problems. He enabled me to attain many a desire. How could I ever trust myself to someone else? My Allah opened the door of the treasure of Infinite Mercy. He set His endless table of gifts in front of everybody. How could I go to someone else despite these? Who on earth asked from Him and wasn't given? Who on earth came to Him and then went back empty-handed? If you don't know how to ask, you will not obtain. If you do not enter His presence in due manner, you will not get His compassion." A poem:
If anyone puts his head on worship's threshold for one night,
The Darling's favor will for certain open up for him a thousand ways.
When Rabia-i Adwiyya, one of the great Awliya, heard somebody praying, "O my Allah! Open for me the gate to Thine mercy!" she said to him, "O you ignoramus! Has the gate to Allah's Mercy been closed up to now so that you want it to be opened?" [Although the gate through which Allah's mercy originally emanates is always open, the heart which is the gate for it to enter, is not open in everybody. We must pray for the opening of this gate. ]
O our Allah! Thou, alone, rescues everyone from hardships. Do not leave us in disasters, neither in this world nor in the one to come! Thou, alone, sends everything to the needy! Send us those things which are useful in this world and in the next! Make us need none [but Thee] in this world and the next! Amin. Translation from Riyad-un-nasikhin ends here.
It is written at the beginning of the chapter about namaz in Kitab-ul-fiqh-alal-madhahib- il-arba'a, "Namaz is the most important of the pillars of the Islamic din. Allahu ta'ala made namaz a fard so that His slaves will worship Him only. The hundred and second ayat of Nisa Sura means, 'It has become fard to perform namaz at certain times.' A hadith-i Sharif declares: 'Allahu ta'ala has promised that He shall put in Paradise the person who performs namaz respectfully and observing the conditions five times every day.' Namaz is the most valuable of worships. A hadith ash-Sharif declares: 'Person who does not perform namaz has not had a share from Islam.' Another hadith ash-Sharif, which is quoted in Mishkat, in Kunuz-ud-daqaiq and in the Sahihayn, declares: 'The difference between man and disbelief is to omit namaz.' Its meaning is not that 'Man and disbelief are two separate beings. Between them is not performing namaz. When (the case of) not performing namaz goes away from between them, that is, if a person performs namaz, there will no longer be a curtain between this person and disbelief. The two will come together.' Its meaning is, 'Disbelief is an attribute. It does not exist by itself. It exists in a person. A person who has disbelief also has "not performing namaz." A person who does not have disbelief does not have not performing namaz. The difference between a person who has disbelief and one who does not have disbelief is to perform namaz or not.' This hadith ash-Sharif is like the saying, 'The difference between man and death is not to breathe.' A person who has death does not breathe. A person who does not have death does not have (the case of) not breathing. If a person has (the case of) not breathing, it will be understood that he is dead. This hadith ash-Sharif vehemently threatens those who are too lazy to perform namaz. To perform namaz is to consider the greatness of Allahu ta'ala and to realize one's own inferiority before Him. A person who realizes this will always do good. He will never do evil. Even if the namaz of a person who follows his nafs is sahih, it will never give its fruits. If a person intends to be in the presence of his Rab (Allah) five times every day, his heart will be filled with ikhlas. Every act commanded to be done in namaz gives various benefits to the heart and body. Performing namaz in jamaat in mosques will attach Muslims' hearts to one another. It will bring about love between them. They will realize that they are brothers. The seniors will be affable with the juniors. And the juniors will be respectful to the seniors. The rich will be helpful to the poor, and the powerful to the weak. The healthy will visit the sick in their homes as they will miss them in the mosque. For being blessed with the glad tidings given in the hadith, 'Allah is the helper of a person who runs to help his brother-in-Islam,' they will race one another."
A hadith in the book Qurratul-uyun declares: "Allahu ta'ala will give fifteen different troubles to the person who neglects namaz without any excuse. Of these, six are in the world, three are at the time of death, three in the grave, and three during the resurrection from the grave. The six troubles in the world are:
1 - There will not be abundance in the life of a person who does not perform namaz.
2 - He will not have the beauty, the geniality peculiar to those whom Allahu ta'ala loves.
3 - He will not be given thawab for any of his favors. [This hadith shows that those who do not perform the fard worships within their prescribed times will not be given thawab for their sunnat worships. That is, their sunnats will not be accepted.]
4 - His prayers will not be accepted.
5 - No one will like him.
6 - Muslims' prayers for him will do him no good.
The troubles which he will suffer when dying are:
1 - He will die in a contemptible, bad and disgusting way.
2 - He will die hungry.
3 - However much water he drinks, he will die suffering thirst. The disasters which he will suffer in grave are:
1 - The grave will squeeze him. His bones will intertwine.
2 - His grave will be filled with fire, which will burn him day and night.
3 - Allahu ta'ala will send a big serpent to his grave. It is unlike worldly serpents. It will sting him at each time of namaz every day. It will never let him rest. The torments which he will suffer in the next world are:
1 - The angels of torment which will drag him to Hell will not leave him alone.
2 - Allahu ta'ala will meet him wrathfully.
3 - His accounting will be very hard, and he will be hurled into Hell."
Since Hadrat Adam, each Shariat had had one namaz in it, once each day. Those which had been performed by all of them, being gathered together, were made fard for us to perform. It is not one of the conditions of iman to perform namaz, yet it is a condition to believe that it is fard to perform namaz. Namaz means prayer. The worship commanded by the Shariat, as we all know, has been called namaz (salat). It is fard-i 'ayn for every Muslim who is liable [discreet and has reached the age of puberty] to perform namaz five times a day. It is communicated clearly in the Qur'an and in hadiths that it is fard. Namaz five times each day became fard on the Night of Miraj. Miraj was one year before the Hegira, and on the twenty-seventh night of the blessed Rajab month. Before Miraj, namaz had been being performed in mornings and afternoons only.
It is necessary to command a seven-year-old child to perform namaz and to beat it with the hand if it does not perform it when it is ten years old. Also, a teacher in school may beat the child three times with his hand in order to make it study. He cannot beat it more than that, nor can he thrash it with a stick. [There cannot be bastinadoes in Islamic schools. Flogging is practiced in police-stations or prisons. If the enemies of Islam, in order to estrange young people from Islam, show in dramas and motion pictures how the khodjas used to bastinado their pupils and say that with the abrogation of religious lessons and the closing of Islamic schools the youth were rescued from the bastinado, from being flogged, they will have slandered the Islamic din. It is written clearly in Islamic books that Islam has prohibited beating pupils with sticks. Our Prophet strictly prohibited beating the child even with the hand more than three times.] Children at this age should be taught and accustomed to doing other kinds of worships, too, and should be prohibited from sinning.
In order to express the importance of the prayers of namaz that are fard, Hadrat Muhammad Rabhami wrote in the twelfth paragraph of the first chapter of the second part of his Persian book entitled Riyad-un-nasikhin, which he published in India by selecting from four hundred and forty-four books in the eight hundred and fifty-third [853] year of the Hegira.
In the two fundamental books of the Islamic din [Bukhari and Muslim], which are called Sahihayn, Rasulullah 'sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam' declares in a hadith quoted by Jabir bin Abdullah 'rahmatullahi alaih': "If there is a river in front of someone's house and if he bathes in the river five times each day, will there be any dirt left on him?" "No, O Rasulallah!" we said. "Likewise, the small sins of those who perform namaz five times each day will be pardoned." [Upon hearing this hadith some ignoramuses say, "Then, I shall both perform namaz and live as I wish. In any case, my sins will be pardoned." It is not good to think so. For, a namaz that has been performed observing its conditions and adabs and which has been accepted will shake off the sins. Furthermore, even if one's small sins are pardoned, it will be a grave sin to go on committing small sins. And it will cause disbelief to insist on doing grave sins.] Ibni Jawzi says in his explanatory book named AlMughni, "Hadrat Abu Bakr Siddiq 'radiAllahu anh' said that when the time for each of the five prayers of namaz comes angels say: 'O the Sons of Adam, get up! Perform namaz to extinguish the fire which has been prepared to burn people.' "A hadith declares: "The difference distinguishing the Believer from the disbeliever is namaz." In other words, a Believer will perform namaz, but a disbeliever will not. And munafiqs perform namaz sometimes, and sometimes they do not. Munafiqs will be tormented very bitterly in Hell. Abdullah bin Abbas, the shah of mufassirs, says, "I heard Rasulullah say, 'Those who do not perform namaz will find Allahu ta'ala angry on the Day of Resurrection.' "
Savants of hadith say unanimously, "A person who omits one namaz on purpose, that is, who does not feel sorry for not performing the namaz as its due time goes past, becomes a disbeliever, or he dies without iman at last. This being the case, what will become of those who never think of namaz and who do not even consider it as a duty?" Savants of the Ahl as-sunnat unanimously said, "Worships are not parts of iman." But there was not unanimity on namaz. Of the savants of fiqh, Imam-i Ahmad ibni Hanbal, Ishaq ibni Rahawaih, Abdullah ibni Mubarak, Ibrahim Nahai, Hakam bin Utayba, Ayyub Sakhtiyani, Dawud Tai, Abu Bakr ibni Shayba, Zubair bin Harb and many other great savants said that a person who omitted one namaz on purpose would become a disbeliever. Now, o my brother-in- Islam, do not omit even one namaz, nor perform it slackly; do it willingly! What will you do if Allahu ta'ala punishes in the next world in accordance with the ijtihad of these savants? It is written in Tafsir-i Mughni, "One of our superiors asked the Devil, 'I want to be accursed like you; what should I do?' Being happy the Devil said, 'If you want to be like me, slight the namaz, take an oath on whatever you say whether it is true or false, that is, swear often.' So the great person said that he would never omit any namaz or swear." In the Hanbali Madhhab, if a person omits any prayer of namaz without any excuse, he will be killed like an apostate, he will not be washed or wrapped in a shroud, nor will the janaza namaz for him be performed. He will not be buried in a Muslim cemetery, nor will his grave be marked off. He will be put in some ditch in the mountains. In the Shafi'i Madhhab, he who insists on not performing namaz does not become an apostate, but his punishment is death. It is written in Ibni Abidin and on the sixty-third page of the translation of Milal- Nihal that the Maliki Madhhab is like Shafi'i in this respect. And in the Hanafi Madhhab, he will be imprisoned until he begins to perform namaz again, or he will be thrashed till blood comes out of his body. [But a person who slights namaz and who does not recognize it as a duty becomes a disbeliever in any of the four madhhabs. It is written in the chapter about the disasters incurred by the tongue in Al-Hadiqa that a person who omits a namaz on purpose, who does not think of performing it later, and who does not fear that he will be tormented for this will become a disbeliever in the Hanafi Madhhab, too.] Allahu ta'ala did not command non-Muslims to perform namaz or to fast. They have not been honored with being commanded by Allahu ta'ala. They will not be punished for not performing namaz or for not fasting. They have deserved one thing only: Hell, which is the punishment for disbelief. The book Zadul-muqwin writes, "It was written by the early savants that he who does not do five things will be deprived of five other things:
1 - He who does not give the zakat of his property will not benefit from his property.
2 - He who does not give the 'ushr (a kind of zakat) will not get barakat, use from his field, from his earnings.
3 - He who does not give alms will not be healthy.
4 - He who does not pray will not get what he wishes.
5 - He who does not want to perform namaz when the time for namaz comes will not be able to say the kalima-i shahadat as he dies. He who does not perform namaz because of indolence, although he believes that to perform it is the first duty, is a fasiq. He is not kufw for a pious girl. In other words, he is not worthy of or suitable for (marrying) the girl."
As it is seen, not to perform namaz causes one to die without iman. Continuing to perform namaz is a means for filling the heart with nurs and attaining to endless bliss. Our Prophet declared, "Namaz is a nur." That is, it brightens the heart in the world and enlightens the Sirat in the Hereafter. Do you know what happens to Allah's lovers in namaz and how in namaz they attain their desires?
A story: Abdullah bin Tahir, governor of Khorasan, was very just. One day, his gendarmes reported to the governor that they had caught some thieves. One of the thieves escaped. A blacksmith from Hirat who had gone to Nishabur was arrested, instead, as he was going back home one night. Together with the thieves they took him up to the governor, who then commanded them to be imprisoned. In the prison, the blacksmith made an ablution and performed namaz. Holding his hands out, he invoked, "O my Allah! You alone know that I am innocent. You alone can rescue me from this dungeon. O Allah! Save me!" That night the governor dreamt of four strong people, who came up to him and were about to turn his throne upside down, when he woke up. Immediately, he made an ablution and performed a namaz of two rakats. He went back to sleep. Again he dreamt that the four persons were about to overturn his throne, and woke up. He realized that he had been doing injustice to someone who in turn had been invoking against him. As a matter of fact, the poem says:
Thousands of cannons and rifles can never do
What tears will do in the early morning.
The enemy-frightening spears are often
Pulverized by a Believer's praying.
O our Allah! Thou only art great! And Thou art so great that the great as well as the small beg only Thee when they are in trouble. Only he who begs Thee will attain his desire.
That very night he summoned the prison manager and asked him if there was anyone who was unjustly put in there. The prison manager said, "I couldn't know. But there is somebody who is performing namaz and saying prayers very much. He is weeping, too." Upon this, he had the blacksmith brought to him. Asking him and then learning what was wrong, he apologized and begged, "Forgive me, please, and do accept these thousand silver coins as my gift upon you. Whenever you desire anything, whatsoever, just come to me!" The blacksmith said, "I have forgiven you and will accept your present. But I cannot come to you to ask for my wish." When asked why, he said, "Would it become me as a born slave to present my wishes to someone else, abandoning my Owner, Who has several times overturned the throne of such a sultan as you for the sake of such a poor person as me? Upon the prayers which I sent after my namaz, He rescued me from many problems. He enabled me to attain many a desire. How could I ever trust myself to someone else? My Allah opened the door of the treasure of Infinite Mercy. He set His endless table of gifts in front of everybody. How could I go to someone else despite these? Who on earth asked from Him and wasn't given? Who on earth came to Him and then went back empty-handed? If you don't know how to ask, you will not obtain. If you do not enter His presence in due manner, you will not get His compassion." A poem:
If anyone puts his head on worship's threshold for one night,
The Darling's favor will for certain open up for him a thousand ways.
When Rabia-i Adwiyya, one of the great Awliya, heard somebody praying, "O my Allah! Open for me the gate to Thine mercy!" she said to him, "O you ignoramus! Has the gate to Allah's Mercy been closed up to now so that you want it to be opened?" [Although the gate through which Allah's mercy originally emanates is always open, the heart which is the gate for it to enter, is not open in everybody. We must pray for the opening of this gate. ]
O our Allah! Thou, alone, rescues everyone from hardships. Do not leave us in disasters, neither in this world nor in the one to come! Thou, alone, sends everything to the needy! Send us those things which are useful in this world and in the next! Make us need none [but Thee] in this world and the next! Amin. Translation from Riyad-un-nasikhin ends here.
It is written at the beginning of the chapter about namaz in Kitab-ul-fiqh-alal-madhahib- il-arba'a, "Namaz is the most important of the pillars of the Islamic din. Allahu ta'ala made namaz a fard so that His slaves will worship Him only. The hundred and second ayat of Nisa Sura means, 'It has become fard to perform namaz at certain times.' A hadith-i Sharif declares: 'Allahu ta'ala has promised that He shall put in Paradise the person who performs namaz respectfully and observing the conditions five times every day.' Namaz is the most valuable of worships. A hadith ash-Sharif declares: 'Person who does not perform namaz has not had a share from Islam.' Another hadith ash-Sharif, which is quoted in Mishkat, in Kunuz-ud-daqaiq and in the Sahihayn, declares: 'The difference between man and disbelief is to omit namaz.' Its meaning is not that 'Man and disbelief are two separate beings. Between them is not performing namaz. When (the case of) not performing namaz goes away from between them, that is, if a person performs namaz, there will no longer be a curtain between this person and disbelief. The two will come together.' Its meaning is, 'Disbelief is an attribute. It does not exist by itself. It exists in a person. A person who has disbelief also has "not performing namaz." A person who does not have disbelief does not have not performing namaz. The difference between a person who has disbelief and one who does not have disbelief is to perform namaz or not.' This hadith ash-Sharif is like the saying, 'The difference between man and death is not to breathe.' A person who has death does not breathe. A person who does not have death does not have (the case of) not breathing. If a person has (the case of) not breathing, it will be understood that he is dead. This hadith ash-Sharif vehemently threatens those who are too lazy to perform namaz. To perform namaz is to consider the greatness of Allahu ta'ala and to realize one's own inferiority before Him. A person who realizes this will always do good. He will never do evil. Even if the namaz of a person who follows his nafs is sahih, it will never give its fruits. If a person intends to be in the presence of his Rab (Allah) five times every day, his heart will be filled with ikhlas. Every act commanded to be done in namaz gives various benefits to the heart and body. Performing namaz in jamaat in mosques will attach Muslims' hearts to one another. It will bring about love between them. They will realize that they are brothers. The seniors will be affable with the juniors. And the juniors will be respectful to the seniors. The rich will be helpful to the poor, and the powerful to the weak. The healthy will visit the sick in their homes as they will miss them in the mosque. For being blessed with the glad tidings given in the hadith, 'Allah is the helper of a person who runs to help his brother-in-Islam,' they will race one another."
A hadith in the book Qurratul-uyun declares: "Allahu ta'ala will give fifteen different troubles to the person who neglects namaz without any excuse. Of these, six are in the world, three are at the time of death, three in the grave, and three during the resurrection from the grave. The six troubles in the world are:
1 - There will not be abundance in the life of a person who does not perform namaz.
2 - He will not have the beauty, the geniality peculiar to those whom Allahu ta'ala loves.
3 - He will not be given thawab for any of his favors. [This hadith shows that those who do not perform the fard worships within their prescribed times will not be given thawab for their sunnat worships. That is, their sunnats will not be accepted.]
4 - His prayers will not be accepted.
5 - No one will like him.
6 - Muslims' prayers for him will do him no good.
The troubles which he will suffer when dying are:
1 - He will die in a contemptible, bad and disgusting way.
2 - He will die hungry.
3 - However much water he drinks, he will die suffering thirst. The disasters which he will suffer in grave are:
1 - The grave will squeeze him. His bones will intertwine.
2 - His grave will be filled with fire, which will burn him day and night.
3 - Allahu ta'ala will send a big serpent to his grave. It is unlike worldly serpents. It will sting him at each time of namaz every day. It will never let him rest. The torments which he will suffer in the next world are:
1 - The angels of torment which will drag him to Hell will not leave him alone.
2 - Allahu ta'ala will meet him wrathfully.
3 - His accounting will be very hard, and he will be hurled into Hell."
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