A:
It is impermissible
to delay prayer after its due time without a legal excuse, e.g. Combining prayer for a person who is legally permitted to do that. As for a person who neglects Salah until its due time is over, he disobeys Allah (Exalted be He) and commits a great sin. Accordingly, he should be reprimanded and asked to repent to Allah and to offer Salah on its due time in congregation. However, if he insists on his heedlessness and negligence of the religious rulings, he should not be befriended but rather abandoned. The Muslim ruler should be informed to punish this person. Regarding his sleep, it is not an excuse to neglect or delay Salah after its due time, because he deliberately sleeps at the due time of an obligatory Salah or a short period before it. A group of scholars held the view that such a person is considered a Kafir (disbeliever) if he intentionally delays Salah after its due time without a legal excuse, for the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
What makes one a disbeliever and a polytheist is abandoning prayers.
(Related by Imam
Muslim in his Sahih) The Prophet (peace be upon him) also said:
That which differentiates us from the disbelievers and hypocrites is our performance of Salah. He who abandons it, becomes a disbeliever.
(Related by
Imam Ahmad and Ahl-ul-Sunan [authors of Hadith compilations classified by jurisprudential themes] with a Sahih [authentic] Sanad [chain of narrators] on the authority of
Buraydah ibn Al-Hasib [may Allah be pleased with him])May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.