Let me ask you something. And be honest—at least with yourself, if not with anyone else.
You know prayer is obligatory, right? You know it’s the second pillar of Islam. You know the Quran commands it. You know the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized it more than almost anything else. You know there are severe consequences for abandoning it.
So why aren’t you praying?
According to research documented by Islamic organizations and surveys of Muslim communities, millions of people who identify as Muslim don’t pray regularly. Some pray occasionally—Fridays maybe, or Ramadan. Some haven’t prayed in years. Some have never established the habit of five daily prayers despite calling themselves Muslim their entire lives.
And the excuses? According to what people say when confronted:
- “I’m too busy”
- “I’ll start soon, I just need to get my life together first”
- “I pray in my free time”
- “I’m not ready yet, I don’t want to be a hypocrite”
- “Allah knows my intention”
- “I do other good deeds”
But here’s the brutal truth: not praying isn’t a minor sin you can casually ignore. Abandoning prayer without a valid excuse is major disbelief that takes you outside the fold of Islam.
Not “you’re just a bad Muslim.” Not “you’ll get punished but you’re still Muslim.” According to the scholarly positions: if you don’t pray, you’re not actually Muslim, regardless of what you call yourself.
Let’s stop making excuses. Let’s stop pretending this isn’t serious. Let’s talk about why you’re not praying—is it negligence, arrogance, spiritual death, or something else? And let’s talk about what you need to do about it before it’s too late.
What the Prophet ﷺ Said: Prayer Is What Separates Muslims From Disbelievers
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ didn’t leave any ambiguity about prayer’s importance.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, as recorded in Sahih Muslim (Hadith 82): “Between a man and shirk and kufr there stands his neglect of the prayer.”
“Kufr” means disbelief—not minor sins, not being a “bad Muslim,” but actual disbelief that takes you out of Islam.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also said, as recorded in Sunan An-Nasa’i and authenticated by scholars: “The covenant between us and them is the prayer, so whoever abandons it has disbelieved.”
According to this statement, prayer is the distinguishing factor between Muslims and non-Muslims. It’s the covenant—the contract—that defines Islamic identity. Break that contract by abandoning prayer? You’ve broken your Islam.
And according to another hadith documented in authentic collections, the Prophet ﷺ said: “The first thing for which a person will be brought to account on the Day of Resurrection will be his prayer. If it is found to be complete, then it will be recorded as complete and he will prosper and succeed. If it is incomplete, then it will be recorded as incomplete and he will lose and be a failure.”
According to this teaching, prayer is the first thing you’ll be judged on. Not how much charity you gave. Not whether you were nice to people. Prayer. If your prayer is in order, according to this hadith, everything else will be in order. If your prayer is not in order, nothing else matters.
The Scholarly Consensus: This Isn’t a Light Matter
The ruling on someone who abandons prayer is severe.
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, held that abandoning prayer out of laziness (not denying it’s obligatory, just not doing it) is major disbelief that takes a person outside Islam.
Many scholars across all four madhhabs (schools of Islamic law), agree that someone who never prays—not one prayer, ever—is not a Muslim, regardless of what they claim.
Even among scholars who don’t say abandoning prayer is literal disbelief, they say it’s major sin—one of the absolute worst things a Muslim can do, worse than murder, worse than adultery, worse than theft.
Why You’re Really Not Praying: The Honest Diagnoses
Let’s get real about why you don’t pray. Here are the actual reasons:
1. Laziness and Love of Comfort
According to honest self-assessment, this is probably the most common reason. Prayer requires:
- Getting up (sometimes when you’re comfortable in bed)
- Making wudu (washing with cold water sometimes)
- Standing, bowing, prostrating (physical effort)
- Interrupting what you’re doing (work, entertainment, sleep)
- Doing it five times a day (consistency)
And according to human nature, humans naturally incline toward ease and resist effort. You’re not praying simply because not praying is easier than praying.
But here’s what that laziness reveals: you don’t actually believe in what you claim to believe. If you truly believed there’s a Hellfire, if you truly believed this is the difference between eternal Paradise and eternal punishment, if you truly believed Allah ﷻ is watching and judging—laziness wouldn’t stop you.
When someone truly believes something is life-or-death important, they act accordingly. If your house was on fire, laziness wouldn’t stop you from escaping. If someone offered you a million dollars to pray five times today, you’d find time. So the fact that you’re “too lazy” to pray reveals, that you don’t actually believe—not really, not in your heart.
2. Love of Sin More Than Love of Allah ﷻ
Some people don’t pray because prayer conflicts with their lifestyle of sin. There’s psychological discomfort in praying to Allah ﷻ while deliberately sinning against Him.
You’re watching haram content. Then prayer time comes. You feel awkward praying to Allah ﷻ when you were just watching His prohibition. So you skip prayer.
You’re in a haram relationship. Prayer reminds you that you’re accountable to Allah ﷻ. You don’t want that reminder. So you stop praying.
You’re earning through haram means. You’re lying, cheating, backbiting. Prayer brings you face-to-face with the One you’re disobeying. So you avoid it.
This is actually spiritual death in progress. You’ve chosen temporary sin over eternal reward. You’ve chosen to avoid Allah ﷻ rather than seek His forgiveness. And the longer you continue this pattern, the harder your heart becomes until eventually you can’t feel anything spiritual anymore.
3. Arrogance and Pride
Some people don’t pray because prayer requires something they’re not willing to give: submission.
Prayer is physical submission—you stand before Allah ﷻ, bow your body, put your face on the ground. This is deliberately humbling. It’s designed to break your arrogance and remind you who you actually are: a created being before your Creator.
Some people refuse to pray because they refuse to submit. Maybe they’re successful, educated, wealthy, attractive, talented—and somewhere in their heart is the arrogance that they don’t need to bow before anyone or anything.
This is Iblis (Satan’s) exact sin. Allah ﷻ commanded him to prostrate to Adam (peace be upon him). He refused out of pride. He was expelled from Paradise and became the accursed one.
If you’re not praying because deep down you feel you’re “above” this, or because you resent having to submit, or because you don’t like being told what to do even by your Creator—that’s arrogance. And arrogance is what prevents people from entering Paradise.
4. Gradual Spiritual Death
There’s a process that happens gradually. Every sin puts a black spot on your heart. Sin after sin, the darkness spreads.
You might have started praying once. But you missed one. Then missed more. Then stopped feeling guilty about missing them. Then stopped praying entirely. And now? You don’t even feel bad about it anymore. Your heart has become so dark that worship no longer matters to you.
The Quran describes this process:
[Surah Al-Munafiqun, Ayah 2-3]
“They believed, then they disbelieved, so their hearts were sealed, and they do not understand.”
Spiritual death happens gradually until your heart is sealed and you can no longer understand or feel spiritual realities. Prayer becomes meaningless. Allah ﷻ feels distant or nonexistent. Religion becomes just empty rituals you can’t connect with.
If that’s you—if you’ve reached a point where prayer means nothing to you emotionally or spiritually—according to Islamic diagnosis, you’re experiencing the sealed heart described in the Quran.
5. Procrastination: “I’ll Start Tomorrow”
According to perhaps the most common excuse, people say: “I know I need to pray. I will start. Just not today. I’m not ready yet. Let me get my life together first. I don’t want to be a hypocrite.”
But according to Islamic logic that exposes this excuse, you’re already being a hypocrite. You claim to be Muslim but don’t pray? That’s the definition of hypocrisy—outward claim contradicted by action.
And you don’t know if you’ll live until tomorrow. Death can come at any moment. If you die without prayer, according to scholarly positions, you die as a disbeliever. “I was going to start” won’t be accepted as an excuse.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught, as documented in hadith collections: “Whoever Allah wishes good for, He afflicts him [with tests].” And according to scholarly explanation, one of the worst afflictions is for Allah ﷻ to leave you comfortable in your sin, never giving you the push you need to change, until you die in that state.
So if you keep saying “tomorrow” and tomorrow never comes? That might be because Allah ﷻ has already sealed your heart and doesn’t want you to pray. That’s a terrifying possibility to consider.
The Consequences: What You’re Actually Risking
Let’s be explicitly clear about what abandoning prayer means:
In This Life
Spiritual darkness. When you don’t pray, your heart becomes dark. Life loses meaning. You feel empty even when you have everything materially. According to those who’ve experienced it, there’s a spiritual void that nothing worldly can fill.
Loss of divine protection. Prayer is your connection to Allah ﷻ. When you cut that connection, you’re on your own. According to this teaching, don’t expect Allah’s ﷻ help, guidance, or protection when you’ve deliberately abandoned the one obligation He emphasized most.
Punishment in this world. Allah ﷻ sometimes punishes people in this life. Difficulties, loss, anxiety, depression—according to Islamic understanding, these can be consequences of abandoning prayer.
At Death
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described, according to authenticated narrations, that the state in which you die is often the state you lived. If you lived without prayer, you’ll likely die without prayer. And dying without prayer means, dying as a disbeliever.
In the Grave (Barzakh)
According to Islamic teachings on Barzakh, those who didn’t pray face specific punishment. Their heads are crushed with rocks repeatedly—that’s the punishment specifically for abandoning prayer.
On the Day of Judgment
According to the hadith mentioned earlier, the first thing you’ll be judged on is prayer. If your prayer wasn’t in order, according to this teaching, nothing else will matter. All your other good deeds? Worthless without prayer.
In the Hereafter
According to the position of many scholars, someone who died without praying doesn’t enter Paradise. Even if they said the shahada, even if they fasted Ramadan, even if they gave charity—according to this position, abandoning prayer takes you outside Islam, and non-Muslims don’t enter Paradise.
The Quran describes the people in Hell:
[Surah Al-Muddaththir, Ayah 42-47]
“[The people in Paradise will] ask the sinners, ‘What put you in Hell?’ They will say: ‘We were not of those who prayed, nor did we feed the poor, and we used to indulge with those who indulged, and we denied the Day of Recompense, until the inevitable came upon us.'”
According to this Quranic testimony, the first thing the people of Hell mention about why they’re there is: “We were not of those who prayed.”
Not murder. Not adultery. Not theft. Not praying.
That’s how serious this is according to Allah ﷻ Himself.
“But I’m Not a Bad Person…” — The Excuse That Won’t Work
Let me address the excuse people give: “I don’t pray, but I’m not a bad person. I help people. I’m kind. I donate to charity. Shouldn’t that count?”
Here’s the brutal truth: good deeds without prayer don’t save you.
Why?:
Prayer is the foundation. Everything else builds on it. It’s like building a house without a foundation. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the house is; without foundation, it collapses.
Prayer is the minimum. Prayer is what you must do. Charity, kindness, good character—these are excellent, but they’re extra. You can’t skip the mandatory and think the optional compensates.
Prayer is about your relationship with Allah ﷻ, not humans. Being nice to people is great. But it doesn’t fix your relationship with your Creator if you’re ignoring Him directly five times daily.
According to a powerful analogy: imagine a child who helps their neighbors, gets good grades, volunteers in the community—but completely ignores their own parents, never speaks to them, acts like they don’t exist. Would the good deeds toward others make up for betraying their parents? That’s what you’re doing when you help others but ignore Allah ﷻ.
How to Start: The Path Back to Prayer
If you’re reading this and you’ve been convicted—if you realize you need to start praying—here’s what to do:
Repent immediately. Don’t wait. Make sincere tawbah (repentance) right now. Acknowledge that you’ve been wrong. Ask Allah ﷻ for forgiveness. Resolve never to abandon prayer again.
Start with the next prayer—right now. Don’t say “I’ll start tomorrow” or “I’ll start with Fajr.” Whatever prayer comes next, pray it. If it’s Dhuhr, pray Dhuhr. If it’s Asr, pray Asr. Start immediately.
Don’t worry about makeup prayers right now. According to some scholarly opinions, you should make up what you’ve missed. According to others, you can’t make up years of missed prayers—you just repent and start fresh. The scholars’ position you follow depends on who you ask. But according to practical advice from contemporary scholars, the most important thing is establishing the habit NOW. Don’t let the overwhelming debt of past prayers prevent you from starting current prayers.
Get accountability. Tell someone who’s religious that you’re starting to pray and ask them to check on you. Muslims are supposed to encourage each other toward good.
Use alarm/prayer apps. Use whatever technology helps. Set alarms. Download prayer apps that remind you. Remove obstacles.
Connect prayer to something bigger than yourself. Humans need meaning. Don’t think of prayer as just “rules I have to follow.” Think of it as: your conversation with your Creator, your purpose for existing, your preparation for eternity, your anchor in this chaotic world.
Start with quality over quantity if necessary. If you’re struggling to establish all five, according to some contemporary advice, start with one or two and do them properly, then add more. Though the ideal, according to Islamic obligation, is all five from day one, some scholars say it’s better to start somewhere than not start at all due to being overwhelmed.
The Bottom Line: This Isn’t a Game
Here’s what everything comes down to:
You’re not praying despite knowing you should. Whether that’s negligence, laziness, arrogance, spiritual death, or deliberate rebellion—it’s placing you in grave danger.
According to major scholars’ positions, you’re not actually Muslim if you abandon prayer. According to the Prophet’s ﷺ explicit statements, the covenant between Muslims and disbelievers is prayer—abandon it and you’ve disbelieved.
When you die, you’ll face the consequences of every prayer you abandoned. And according to Quranic testimony from those in Hell, the first thing they mention about why they’re there is: “We were not of those who prayed.”
You can make excuses. You can say you’re busy, you’re not ready, you’ll start later, you do other good things. None of them will work on the Day of Judgment. Allah ﷻ commanded prayer. You knew. You didn’t do it. That’s what will matter.
So ask yourself honestly: Why am I not praying?
And then ask yourself the more important question: Am I willing to risk my eternal soul because I’m too lazy to spend 5 minutes five times a day talking to the One who gave me everything?
You have a choice. You can continue as you are—not praying, making excuses, ignoring the warnings—and face the consequences when you die. Or you can start praying right now, repent for what you’ve missed, and establish the one obligation that defines whether you’re actually Muslim or not.
The next prayer time is coming. What are you going to do?
Disclaimer: This article is provided for general educational and informational purposes only. While every effort has been made to accurately present Islamic teachings on prayer’s importance and the consequences of abandoning it, readers are strongly advised to consult qualified Islamic scholars for specific religious guidance regarding their personal situations. The scholarly positions on abandoning prayer vary, with some considering it major disbelief and others considering it major sin while still maintaining the person’s Islam if they believe prayer is obligatory. This article presents the severity of this issue as documented in authentic Islamic sources, including the strongest scholarly positions, to emphasize prayer’s critical importance. The intention is not to judge any individual but to motivate Muslims who aren’t praying to take immediate action. If you’re struggling with prayer, please seek help from knowledgeable, compassionate scholars and Muslim communities who can support you in establishing this foundational pillar of Islam. May Allah ﷻ guide us all to establish prayer consistently and accept it from us.