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The book Durr-ul-mukhtar, at the beginning of its discourse on the subject about namaz, and Ibni Abidin, while explaining it on the two hundred and thirty-fourth page of the book Radd-ul-mukhtar, state:

Since Adam (Alaihissalam), there was namaz once a day in every Shariat. All that had been performed were brought together and were made fard for us. Although performing namaz is not a pillar of iman, it is a pillar of iman to believe that namaz is fard. 'Namaz' means 'dua'. The ibadat that is commanded by the Shariat and which we all know was named 'namaz' (salat). Performing the five daily prayers of namaz is fard-i 'ayn for every Muslim who has reached the age of puberty. That it is fard is openly stated in the Qur'an and hadiths. Five daily prayers of namaz became a commandment on the Miraj night. The Miraj happened on the twenty-seventh night of the month of Rajab a year before the Hegira. Before the Miraj, only the morning and afternoon prayers were performed.

A child must be ordered to perform namaz at the age of seven, and should be beaten if it does not perform it at the age of ten. The teacher at the school, too, may beat the student three times with his hands with the view of making the student study. He cannot beat him more than that. Nor can he beat him with a stick. [There cannot be bastinados in Islamic schools. Cudgeling may have taken place in a police station or in a jail. It will be a slander against Islam for the enemies of Islam, for the purpose of estranging the younger generations from Islam, to represent Muslim teachers (hodjas) as inflicting bastinado on students in theaters and movies and to say that the youth were saved from bastinado and cudgelling by the abolition of Islamic lessons and schools. It is openly written in Islamic books that Islam forbids beating the student with a stick. Our Prophet strictly prohibited even beating more than three times with the hand.] It is also necessary to teach other ibadats to children at this age, to make them get used to doing them, and to prevent them from sins.

With the view of showing the importance of fard namaz, Muhammad Rabhami (rahmatullahi alaih) wrote the Persian book Riyad-un-nasihin, a collection from four hundred and forty-four books, in India in 853 A.H., in the twelfth chapter of the first section of the second part of which he said:

" In the two fundamental books of Islam called Sahihayn [Bukhari and Muslim], Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) asked in a hadith ash-Sharif reported by Jabir bin Abdullah (radiallahu 'anh): "If there were a river in front of one's house and if he washed himself in this river five times every day, would there be any dirt left on him?" We [Jabir ibn Abdullah and other Sahabis present there] said, "No, o Rasulallah." The Prophet said, "Likewise, minor sins of those who perform the five daily prayers are forgiven." [Some ignorant people, upon hearing this hadith, say, "Then, I will both perform namaz and amuse myself as I wish. My sins will be forgiven anyhow." This thought is not correct, because a namaz that is performed observing its conditions and adab and is accepted will cancel sins. In fact, even if minor sins are forgiven, continuing to commit or insisting on minor sins will become grave sins. And insisting on committing grave sins will cause kufr (disbelief.)] Ibn Jawzi wrote in his tafsir Almugni: Abu Bakr-i Siddiq (radiallahu 'anh) said that, when the time of a daily prayer of namaz comes, the angels say, 'O the sons of Adam, stand up! Extinguish the fire prepared to burn human beings by performing namaz.' " In a hadith ash- Sharif, it was said, "The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is namaz," that is, the believer performs namaz, and the unbeliever does not. Munafiqs, however, sometimes perform it and sometimes do not. Munafiqs will undergo very bitter torment in Hell. Abdullah ibn Abbas (radiallahu 'anh), the leader of mufassirs, said that he heard Rasulullah say, "Those who do not perform namaz will find Allahu ta'ala angry on the Day of Resurrection."

The imams of hadith unanimously said, "A person who does not perform a namaz in its due time intentionally, that is, if he is not sorry for not performing a namaz while its due time is ending, will become a kafir or will lose his iman during his death. What will become of those who do not remember namaz or see namaz as a duty?" The Ahl as-Sunnat savants unanimously said, "Ibadat are not a part of iman." But there was not a unanimity concerning namaz. The fiqh imams Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Ishaq ibn Rahiwayh, Abdullah ibn Mubarak, Ibrahim Nahai, Hakam ibn Hutayba, Ayyub Sahtiyani, Dawud Tai, Abu Bakr ibn Shayba and Zubair ibn Harb and many other great savants said that one who does not perform a namaz intentionally becomes a kafir. Then, o Muslim Brother, do not miss any namaz and do not be slack; perform it with love! If Allahu ta'ala punishes according to the ijtihad of these savants on the Day of Judgement, what will you do? Tafsir-i Mugni says, "One of the superiors asked the devil what he should do to become damned like him. The devil was pleased and said, 'If you want to be like me, do not pay attention to namaz and take an oath on everything right or wrong, that is take an oath very much!' That person said, 'I will never neglect namaz and will not take any oath from now on. ' " In the Hanbali Madhhab, a Muslim who does not perform a namaz without an excuse will be put to death like a murtad, and his corpse will not be washed or shrouded, nor will his janaza namaz be performed. He will not be buried in Muslims' cemetery, and his grave will not be made distinguishable. He will be put in a hollow on the mountain. In the Shafi'i Madhhab, one who persists in not performing namaz does not become a murtad, but the punishment will be death. That the Maliki Madhhab is the same as the Shafi'i in this respect is written in Ibni 'Abidin and on the sixty-third page of the translation of Milal-nihal. And in the Hanafi Madhhab, he is imprisoned until he begins namaz or beaten until bleeding. [However, he who attaches no importance to namaz or who does not know it as a duty will be a kafir in all the four Madhhabs. It is written in the subject of the afflictions incurred by the tongue in Al-Hadiqa that he becomes a kafir according to the Hanafi Madhhab, too, if he neglects namaz intentionally and does not think of performing its qada and does not fear that he will be tormented for this.] Allahu ta'ala did not order non-Muslims to perform namaz or to fast. They are not honored with the commandments of Allahu ta'ala. They are not punished for not performing namaz or for not fasting. They only deserve Hell, which is the punishment for kufr. In the book Zad-ul-muqwin, it is said: "Early savants wrote that he who does not do five things is deprived of five things:

1) He who does not give the zakat of his property does not get any benefit from his property.

2) In the land and earning of a person who does not give his 'ushr, there is no abundance left.

3) Health is absent in the body of a person who does not give alms.

4) Person who does not pray will not attain to his wish.

5) Person who does not want to perform a namaz when its time comes cannot say the kalima-i shahadat at his last breath. A person who does not perform namaz because of laziness although he believes that it is the first duty, is a fasiq. He is not the peer of a saliha girl, that is, he does not deserve and is not suitable for her."

As it is seen, not performing the fard namaz causes one to die without iman. Continuing to perform namaz causes the enlightenment of the heart and the attainment of endless bliss. Our Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) declared, "Namaz is nur," that is, it brightens the heart in the world and illuminates the Sirat in the next world. Do you know what happens to Allah's beloved ones in namaz and how they attain to their wishes in namaz?

Story: Abdullah Ibn Tahir, the Governor of Khurasan, was very just. His gendarmes captured some thieves and reported them to the Governor. One of the thieves escaped. A blacksmith from Hirat was caught on his way back from Nishapur at night. He was brought to the presence of the Governor with the thieves. The Governor said, "Imprison them!" The blacksmith performed an ablution and namaz. He stretched his hands and supplicated, "O my Allah! You alone know that I am innocent. Only You can free me from this jail. O my Allah! Protect me!" That night, the Governor woke up just as four strong men were about to turn his throne upside-down in his dream. He immediately performed an ablution and two rakats of namaz. He went to sleep again. He again woke up upon dreaming that those four men were about to pull his throne down. He realized that he oppressed someone. As a matter of fact,

the poem says:

Thousands of cannons and rifles can never make,
What the tears have made at the time of dawn,

The bayonets that make the enemy flee,
Are usually made into dust by a believer's prayer.

O Allah! Only You are Great! You are so great that superiors and inferiors, when in trouble, entreat only You. Those who entreat only You can attain their wish.

The Governor immediately called the director of the jail at that night and asked him whether there was a prisoner kept unjustly. When the director said, "I cannot know him. But there is someone who performs namaz, prays much and sheds tears." The blacksmith was brought to the presence of the Governor, who asked him questions, realized that he was innocent, begged his pardon and said, "Please forgive me for having done an injustice to you, accept my gift of one thousand silver coins and come to me whenever you have a wish!" The blacksmith said, "I forgive you and accept your gift. But I cannot come to ask my affairs or wish from you." When he was asked its reason, he said, "Does it befit a slave like me, a humble person, to take my wishes to someone other than my Proprietor who several times overturned the throne of a Sultan like you? He made me attain so many wishes of mine. How could I take refuge in someone else? While my Rabb has opened the door of His Treasure of Endless Mercy and spread His Table of Infinite Endowment for every body, how can I have recourse to others? Who has asked and He has not given? Who has come to Him and returned empty-handed? One cannot attain if one does not know how to ask. If one does not enter His Presence with proper manners, one cannot attain His Mercy.

Poem:
Whoever puts his head on the threshold of worship one night;
The Darling's Kindness certainly opens thousands of doors for him.

Rabiat-ul-Adwiyya 'rahmatullahi alaiha', one of the great awliya, heard a man pray, "Oh Allah! Open Your door of Mercy!" She said to him, "O you ignorant person! Has Allahu ta'ala's door of Mercy been closed up to now so that you want it to be opened now?" [Though the source of Mercy is always open, the hearts, the receivers, are not open in everybody. We should pray so that they may open!]

Oh Allah! You, alone, are the One who relieves everybody from distress. Do not leave us in distress in this and the next worlds! Only You are the One who sends everything to the needy! Send auspicious, useful things to us in this and the next worlds! Do not leave us in need of anybody in this and the next worlds! Amin." Translation from Riyad-un-nasihin is completed here.

While beginning its subject about namaz, the book Kitab-ul-fiqh 'alal-madhahib-il-arba'a says: "Namaz is the most important of the arch-stones of Islam. Allahu ta'ala made namaz fard so that His slaves would worship Him only. The hundred and third ayat of Surat an- Nisa' purports that namaz became fard, the times of which are definite, for the believers. A hadith ash-Sharif declares, 'Allahu ta'ala has made it fard to perform namaz five times each day. Allahu ta'ala has promised that He will send to Paradise a person who performs namaz five times each day esteeming it highly and observing its conditions.' Namaz is the most valuable of worships. A hadith declares, 'He who does not perform namaz has no share from Islam!' A hadith ash-Sharif quoted in Mishkat, and in Kunuz-ud-daqaiq, and in Sahihayn, and in Halabi declares, "Difference between man and disbelief is to give up namaz!" It does not mean, "Men and disbelief are two separate beings. Between them lies not to perform namaz. When not to perform namaz goes away from between them, that is, when a person performs namaz, the connection between him and disbelief goes up, the two can not be united, and man will not be a disbeliever." But it means, "Disbelief is a property. It does not exist alone. It exists with some people. People who have disbelief have ' (not performing namaz)'. But people who do not have disbelief do not have ' (not performing namaz)'. Difference between a person who has disbelief and one who does not have disbelief is not performing or performing namaz." This hadith ash-Sharif is like the saying, "Difference between man and death is 'not to breathe.' " A person who has death does not breathe. But a person who does not have death, does not have (the property) "not breathing." When a person does not breathe, it will be understood that he is dead. This hadith vehemently threatens those who are lazy in performing namaz. To perform namaz is to realize one's inferiority before Allahu ta'ala, thinking of His greatness. A person who realizes this always does what is good. He can never do evils. The namaz which is performed by a person who follows his nafs is fruitless, even if it may be accepted. The heart of a person who intends that he is in the Audience of his Rabb five times each day gets filled with ikhlas. Every action that one has been commanded to do in namaz provides uses for one's heart and body. Performing namaz in jamaat in mosques attaches Muslims' hearts to one another. It provides love between them. Thus they realize that they are brethren. The elder become merciful towards the younger. And the younger become respectful towards the elder. The rich become helpers for the poor and the powerful for the weak. The healthy, not seeing the sick in the mosque, visit them in their homes. They race with one another for attaining the glad tidings in the hadith, 'Allahu ta'ala is the helper of a person who runs to the aid of his brother in Islam'."

A hadith ash-Sharif, quoted in the book Qurratul'uyun, declares, "If a person does not perform namaz though he has no good excuse, Allahu ta'ala will give him fifteen kinds of plague. Six of them will come in the world, three will come at the time of death, three will come in the grave, and three will come when rising from the grave. The six plagues in the world are:

1 - Person who does not perform namaz will not have barakat in his lifetime.

2 - He will not have the beauty, the loveableness peculiar to those who are loved by Allahu ta'ala.

3 - He will not be given thawab for any good he does. [This hadith ash-Sharif shows that the sunnats of those who do not perform the fard prayers in time are not acceptable. That is, they will not be given thawab for their sunnats].

4 - His prayers (duas) will not be accepted.

5 - No one will like him.

6 - Blessings that (other) Muslims invoked on him will do him no good.

Kinds of torment he will suffer when dying are:

1 - He will expire in an abhorrent, unsightly, repugnant manner.

2 - He will die hungry.

3 - Much water as he may have, he will die with painful thirst.

Kinds of torment he will suffer in the grave are:

1 - The grave will squeeze him. His bones will intertwine.

2 - His grave will be filled with fire, which will scorch him day and night.

3 - Allahu ta'ala will send a huge serpent to his grave. It is not like terrestrial serpents. It will sting him at every prayer time each day. It will never leave him alone any moment.

Kinds of torment he will suffer after rising are:

1 - Angels of torment that will drag him to Hell will never leave him alone.

2 - Allahu ta'ala will meet him with wrath.

3 - His account will be settled in a very vehement manner, and he will be flung into Hell."