Prayer and Charity: The Quranic Path to Salvation

And when the proof was established and made clear, every soul is held accountable for its deeds and taken for its sins.

Except those whom He guided beforehand and who followed His pleasure.

And they are the companions of the right hand who believed in God and confirmed the messengers and followed paths other than those of the criminals.

Those who are not among those who pray, nor among those who feed the poor.

And they are among those who engage in vain talk along with those who deny the Day of Judgment.

So, these are four traits that removed them from the group of the successful and placed them among the doomed.

The first is abandoning prayer, which is the pillar of devotion to the worshiped.

The second is abandoning feeding the poor, which is among the ranks of benevolence to the servants.

There is neither devotion to the Creator nor benevolence to the creation.

As He, the Almighty, said, 'Those who show off and withhold simple assistance.'

And He said, 'They do not approach prayer except lazily, and they do not spend except reluctantly.'

This contrasts with the description of the companions of the right hand, about whom it is said, 'They establish prayer and spend from what We have provided them.'

And He said, 'Their sides shun their beds as they call upon their Lord in fear and hope, and from what We have provided them, they spend.'

And Allah associated these two principles in various places in His Book.

He commanded them at times, praised those who perform them at other times, and warned of woe and punishment for those who abandon them at other times.