wa`alaikum salaam warahmatullaah, ukhty.
When discussion about this topic happened amongst my relatives later on, there was quite a lot of disagreements.
Subhaanallaah, that happens all the time. And they never end up coming to an agreement.
Now the topic of taarikus-Salaah is pretty clear. Salaat, as we know, is one of the five conditions of being a Muslim. And to *really* submit and become a Muslim, all five must be established. It is also what distinguishes a Muslim from a non-Muslim.
“Whoever deliberately does not pray and denies that it is obligatory is a kaafir, according to scholarly consensus. If he does not pray because he is neglectful and lazy, then he is a kaafir according to the correct scholarly view. Based on that, it is not permissible to sit with those people, rather they should be shunned and ties broken off with them, after explaining to them that their not praying constitutes kufr, if you think that they are unaware of this ruling. It was narrated in a saheeh report that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The covenant that differentiates between us and them is prayer; whoever neglects it is a kaafir.” This includes both the one who denies that it is obligatory and the one who does not do it because he is lazy. And Allaah is the Source of strength. May Allaah send blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family.”
From Fataawa Islamiyyah, 1/373
Another related question which came up - there are some people who are constantly saying zakah can be given to non-muslims because there are only eight categories of people listed in the Quran who it can be given to, and 'muslim' is not a criteria. Anyone have any daleel on this?
There's a difference between Sadaqah and Zakaat. The Obligatory zakaat cannot be given to them.
The eight categories explained:
http://islamqa.info/en/ref/46209
Can sadaqah be given to non-Muslims:
http://islamqa.info/en/ref/3854/
http://islamqa.info/en/ref/3238
and 'muslim' is not a criteria.
Hm. This is quite a strange way of thinking. I thought 'Muslims' wasn't mentioned specifically because it should be obvious... Ayah number 60 is an answer to Ayah 58 when some of the hypocrites (among the Muslims) criticized the prophet
for the way he distributed the Zakaah among them (the Muslims).
