Abandoning the prayer is of two situations. The first is denial of its obligation — by consensus this is kufr that expels from Islam, regardless of whether the person prays or not. The second is leaving it out of laziness while affirming its obligation. Concerning this case the Companions had unanimous agreement, as Abdullah ibn Shaqiq al-''Uqayli (a major Tabi''i) said: "The Companions of Muhammad (ﷺ) did not consider the abandonment of any deed to be disbelief except the prayer." ([at-Tirmidhi 2622](/hadith/tirmidhi/2622), sahih). The strongest position — and the one we hold — is that the deliberate abandoner of prayer commits major kufr that expels from Islam, on the apparent meaning of the texts: "Between a man and shirk and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer" (Muslim 82) and "The covenant between us and them is the prayer; whoever abandons it has disbelieved" ([at-Tirmidhi 2621](/hadith/tirmidhi/2621), sahih). The matter is therefore extremely grave: the one who deliberately abandons it must repent immediately, return to it, and there is no qada (making up) for what he abandoned without excuse — rather he repents and increases in voluntary prayers.