Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Third Fascicle

they were not unanimous on namâz. Of the savants of Fiqh,
Imâm-i Ahmad ibni Hanbal, Is’hâq ibni Râhawaih, ’Abdullah ibni
Mubârak, Ibrâhim Nahâî, Hakam bin Utayba, Ayyûb Sakhtiyânî,
Dâwûd Tâî, Abû Bakr ibni Shayba, Zubayr bin Harb and many
other great savants said that a person who omitted one namâz
knowingly, would become a disbeliever. Now, o my brother-in-
Islam, do not omit even one namâz, nor perform it slackly; do it
willingly! What will you do if Allâhu ta’âlâ punishes in the next
world in accordance with the ijtihâd of these savants? It is written
in Tafsîr-i Mughnî: “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 namâz, 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 namâz or
swear.” In the Hanbalî Madhhab, if a person omits any prayer of
namâz without any (good excuse called) ’udhr, he will be killed
like an apostate, he will not be washed or wrapped in a shroud,
nor will the janâza namâz 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 Shâfi’î
Madhhab, he who insists on not performing namâz does not
become an apostate, but his punishment is death. It is written in
Ibni ’Âbidîn and in the sixty-third page of the translation of Milal-
Nihal that the Mâlikî Madhhab is like the Shâfi’î Madhhab in this
respect. And in the Hanafî Madhhab, he will be imprisoned until
he resumes performing namâz, or he will be thrashed till his body
bleeds. [However, a person who slights namâz 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-Hadîqa that a person who omits a namâz
knowingly, 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 Hanafî Madhhab, too.] Allâhu ta’âlâ did not
command non-Muslims to perform namâz or to fast. They have
not been honoured with being commanded by Allâhu ta’âlâ. They
will not be punished for not performing namâz or for not fasting.
They have deserved one thing only: Hell, which is the punishment
for disbelief. The book Zâd-ul-muqwîn 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 pay the zakât of his property will not
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