whoever applies non-excommunication is mistaken, and whoever applies excommunication is mistaken, and the correct approach is to differentiate. This truth is clear, so leave me from the diversions of the path. After that; what I fear most is that some ignorant zealots may rush to reject this authentic ḥadīth due to its explicit indication that one who abandons prayer out of laziness, while believing in its obligation, is included in the generality of His saying, the Exalted: "and He forgives whatever is less than that for whom He wills" (Sūrah al-Nisāʾ, verse 48); as some did recently in the year 1407 AH. Two students of knowledge collaborated: one Saudi and the other Egyptian, and they criticized me regarding some ḥadīths from the first hundred of "Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah"; among them is the ḥadīth of Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) mentioned earlier with the number 87, which states: "Islam will wear out as the embroidery of a garment wears out, until it will not be known what fasting is, nor prayer, nor ritual sacrifice, nor charity, and the Book of Allāh will be taken away in one night, and not a single verse will remain, and groups of people will remain: the elderly man and the old woman, saying: 'We found our forefathers upon this word: "There is no deity but Allāh," so we say it.'" Ṣilah ibn Zufar said to Ḥudhayfah: What benefit is "There is no deity but Allāh" to them when they do not know what prayer, fasting, ritual sacrifice, or charity are?! Ḥudhayfah turned away from him, and then he repeated it to him three times, each time Ḥudhayfah turned away from him. Then he turned to him on the third time and said: O Ṣilah! It will save them from the Fire (three times). I said: They filled three large pages in weakening this ḥadīth in response to my authentication of it, and they found nothing to hold onto to weaken it except that it is narrated by Abū Muʿāwiyah Muḥammad ibn Khāzim al-Ḍarīr, arguing that he held the view of irjāʾ! And that the ḥadīth agrees with the innovation of irjāʾ!!