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QUESTIONS ON FASTING IN RAMADAAN
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QUESTION 1️⃣2️⃣
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Some of the youth—may Allaah guide them—are lazy regarding their prayers during Ramadaan and other periods. However, they observe the fast in Ramadaan and bear the thirst and pangs of hunger. What is your advice for them and what is the ruling and status of their fasts?
My advice to them is to reflect deeply on their situation. They should know that the prayer is the most important pillar in Islām after the testimony of faith.
The one that does not pray and abandons the prayer out of laziness and negligence, he is—according to the correct opinion—a disbeliever, an apostate who has left the fold of Islām.
This affair is not to be treated lightly because the fasting, charity, or worship (in general) of the apostate is neither valid nor accepted. This is based on the statement of Allaah:
And nothing prevented their contributions from being accepted, except that due to their disbelief in Allaah and His Messenger (Muhammad ); and that they did not approach the prayer (as-Ṣalāh) except in a state of laziness; and they would never offer contributions except unwillingly.
(At Tawbah, 9:54)
So, Allaah has clarified that due to their disbelief, their charity is not accepted even though its monetary benefits extend to others.
And We shall bring forth whatever deeds they have done and make such turn them to scattered floating particles of dust.
(Al Furqaan, 25:23)
Those that fast, but abandon the prayer, their act of fasting will not be accepted. Rather, their deeds are rejected as long as they have been labeled as disbelievers based on evidence from the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (ﷺ).
Therefore, my advice to them is to fear Allaah (ﷻ), maintain and establish the prayer on time and in congregation. I guarantee that if they did this, by the power of Allaah (ﷻ), they will increase in their yearning for praying on time in congregation after Ramadaan.
This is because when an individual turns and repents to his Lord sincerely, the results could find him being a better Muslim than he was before his repentance. An example of this has been mentioned regarding Ādam after he ate from the tree.
