Fasting is
not accepted if one doesn’t pray
Is it permissible to fast without praying?.
Praise be to Allaah.
No good deeds will be accepted from
one who does not pray – no zakaah, no fasting,
no Hajj or anything else.
Al-Bukhaari (520) narrated that
Buraydah said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever
does not pray ‘Asr, his good deeds will be
annulled.”
What is meant by “his good
deeds will be annulled” is that they will
be rendered invalid and will be of no benefit to
him. This hadeeth indicates that Allaah will not
accept any good deed from one who does not pray,
so the one who does not pray will not benefit at
all from his good deeds and no good deed of his
will be taken up to Allaah.
It seems from the hadeeth that there
are two types of those who do not pray: those who
do not pray at all, which annuls all their good
deeds, and those who do not offer a particular prayer
on a particular day, which annuls the good deeds
of that day. So annulment of all good deeds happens
to those who forsake all the prayers, and annulment
of the good deeds of a particular day happens to
the one who omits a particular prayer.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen was
asked in Fataawa al-Siyaam (p. 87) about the ruling
on the fasting of one who does not pray.
He replied:
The fast of one who does not pray
is not valid and is not accepted, because the one
who does not pray is a kaafir and an apostate, because
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“But if they repent
[by rejecting Shirk (polytheism) and accept Islamic
Monotheism], perform As-Salaah (Iqaamat-as-Salaah)
and give Zakaah, then they are your brethren in
religion”
[al-Tawbah 9:11]
And the Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) said: “Between a man
and shirk and kufr stands his giving up prayer.”
Narrated by Muslim, 82. And he (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) said: “The
covenant that separates us from them is prayer;
whoever gives up prayer is a kaafir.”
Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 2621; classed as saheeh
by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Tirmidhi.
This is also the view of most of
the Sahaabah, if not their consensus. ‘Abd-Allaah
ibn Shaqeeq (may Allaah have mercy on him), who
was one of the well-known Taabi’een, said:
The companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) did not think that omitting
any action made a person a kaafir, except for prayer.
Based on this, if a person fasts but he does not
pray, then his fast is rejected and not accepted,
and it will not avail him anything before Allaah
on the Day of Resurrection. We say to him: Pray
then fast, because if you fast but do not pray,
then your fast will be rejected, because acts of
worship are not accepted from a kaafir.
The Standing Committee (10/140)
was asked: if a person is keen to fast in Ramadaan
and to pray in Ramadaan only, but he stops praying
as soon as Ramadaan is over, does his fasting count?
They replied:
Prayer is one of the pillars of
Islam, and it is the most important pillar after
the Shahaadatayn. It is an individual obligation
(fard ‘ayn), and whoever does not do it because
he denies that it is obligatory, or he does not
do it because he is careless and lazy, is a kaafir.
With regard to those who fast Ramadaan and pray
in Ramadaan only, this is trying to cheat Allaah,
and unfortunate indeed are those who only acknowledge
Allaah in Ramadaan. Their fasting is not valid if
they do not pray at times other than Ramadaan, rather
this makes them kaafirs in the sense of major kufr
(kufr akbar), even if they do not deny that prayer
is obligatory, according to the more sound of the
two scholarly opinions.
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