Can you inform us about the Importance of Prayer by considering these two Hadiths?

The Details of the Question
In a Hadith of Rasulullah (SAW)said: "Whoever says: there is no god but Allah enters Paradise." and in another Hadith he said "What lies between a man and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer." Can you clarify this?
The Answer

Dear Brother / Sister,

As it is known, a believer is going to enter Paradise. Those who will eternally remain in the hell are the people of unbelievers. According to the belief held by ahl al sunnah ( the people who follow the acts and deeds of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)), a person not performing the five daily compulsory prayers does not become an unbeliever but he commits a major sin. The second hadith does not mean that the people failing to perform the five daily obligatory prayers are going to be idol worshipers. Rather, it implies that, by doing so, the person not performing the prayers is not fulfilling one of the obligations of Islam. For example, telling lies is one of the sings of munafiqs (hypocrites). A Muslim does not become a munafiq if he tells lies. He just has one of the characteristics peculiar to munafiqs. The mushriks (a person who assigns partners to Allah) do not perform prayers. A Muslim bears resemblance to them by not fulfilling obligatory prayers. He does not become an unbeliever in terms of belief.

When we go over the hadiths relating to salah (prayers), we will find out that all the time the merits and benefits of prayers are mentioned. The scholars of Islam interpreted the following hadiths “between man and between polytheism and unbelief is the negligence of prayer, “The difference between us and munafiqs is the salah” as denying the obligation of prayer and considering not performing prayer as halal."

Ibn Abidin says at the beginning of the chapter salah in his work entitled Raddu’l-Mukhtar that those denying the obligation of salah become unbelievers. However, those giving it up just because of their ignorance and laziness turn out to be fasiq (a person who engages in evil talks and deeds) and sinful.

That is to say, failing to perform daily obligatory prayers is one of the major sins. The only group of people claming that those not performing prayers become unbelievers is the Mutazila school, which is a deviant madhhab. However, considering the truth that “within each sin, there is a path leading to unbelief” and behaving accordingly, we need to point out that the faith of a person not performing prayers constantly is certain to encounter dangers in the course of time.

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