"O you who have believed, do not take as allies those who have taken your religion in ridicule and amusement, [whether] from among those who were given the Scripture before you and the disbelievers. And fear Allah, if you should be believers." (Al-Ma'idah, 57-58) And when you call to prayer, they take it in ridicule and amusement. That is because they are a people who do not reason." Allah has established for them the disbelief and called them disbelievers for their taking prayer in ridicule and amusement and their abandonment of it. And among them is what Muslim narrated from the path of Jabir bin Abdullah that the Messenger of Allah said: "The covenant between us and them is the prayer, so whoever abandaves it has disbelieved." (Narrated by Muslim in the Book of Faith.) And among them is what Al-Nasa'i narrated from the path of Sulhan bin Buraydah that the Messenger of Allah said: "The covenant between us and them is the prayer, so whoever abandaves it has disbelieved." (Narrated by Al-Nasa'i in the Book of Prayer.) Al-Mahdi concludes from these evidences that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever, but on the basis of preference, not on the basis of certainty, due to the existence of other evidences that contradict it, but they are not equal to it in strength. However, this disbelief is only specific to the major sin of abandoning prayer. This is what we infer from Al-Mahdi's reasoning for the disbelief of the one who abandons prayer based on consensus, as mentioned by Al-Tirmidhi that the companions of the Messenger of Allah used not to consider anyone a disbeliever for any sin except for abandoning prayer. (See: Ibn Tumart, Risalah fi al-Salah: 84-85) So the hadith is clear in indicating the specification of disbelief to the one who abandons prayer among those who commit major sins. What then is the case of those who commit major sins from other transgressions? It seems that Al-Mahdi interprets the nullification of the element of action, represented by the perpetrator of a major sin, to the degree of فسق (fusuq - wickedness/immorality). This is the term that the Sharia has limited it to. This is implied by his saying in the hadith about the wicked: "The Sharia has limited it to those who persist in sins and indecencies. So whoever persists in a sin is wicked." (See: Ibn Tumart, Risalah fi Usul al-Fiqh: 186) This statement implies that committing a major sin leads to the invalidation of faith. Among the opposing hadiths that he mentioned is the hadith of Ubadah bin Al-Samit, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: "Five prayers that Allah has enjoined upon His servants. Whoever performs them and does not lose anything of them out of disregard for their rights, Allah has a covenant to admit him to Paradise. And whoever does not perform them, Allah has no covenant with him. If He wills, He will punish him, and if He wills, He will admit him to Paradise." (Narrated by Abu Dawud in the Book of Prayer, Chapter on Whoever Does Not Pray Witr.) See: The same source and page. 259