Salam Mufti
I have been doing research on the topic of muslims who abandon salah do they qualify as muslims or not. Many prominent scholars like one salafi Shaykh Asim Al Hakeem say that muslims who refuse, seldom pray or do not pray at, all qualify as almost kafirs or even complete kafirs. For obvious reasons if such a muslim is declared a kafir since he does not pray salah, ulemas will also declare his nikah as invalid and children born in that relationship as illegitimate. Hence I have a few scenarios to discuss as below
1) If any person believes in islam and calls himself a muslim but has not prayed for few years will he qualify a muslim in those years when he did not pray salah at all?
2) If a muslim in a period of 1 year prayed occasionally like once in 2 months, though atleast seldom prayed in 1 year will he remain in islam or not?
3) If a muslim was having issues with certain rulings about islam like issue of tolerance towards non-muslims as a result was low in faith and did not wanted to pray until his questions are resolved, while this period lasted for 4 months in which he did not pray at all, will he qualify as a muslim in this brief period or not?
4) If a muslim couple though they believe in islam but pray very occasionally, what will be the status of their nikah and children, will they be legitimate or not?
I will await and request your reply.
Salam