I am a nineteen-year old young man and am keen to perform the five obligatory prayers in their due times. However, my problem is that I live with my brother in his home and his wife hates it. She took money from me and I informed my brother, thereupon I became the devil who sowed the seeds of discord between my brother and his wife! This incident gave rise to many problems between them and they stopped talking to each other because of me. I started abandoning prayer and stealing money from my brother's shop behind his back. I have taken about AED 1000 worth of money. Now, I need to put an end to this and am thinking of leaving my brother's home. Should I give him his money back or not, given that I have been working with him almost for an entire year and he never gave me any pay, not for a month, a week or even a day? This is the real reason behind me taking that money and I do not know whether this is considered stealing in the Islamic Sharee‘ah or not?
The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “He Whose Prayer did not restrain him from evil and indecent acts, offered no Prayer at all.”
Thank you.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

First of all, you should sincerely repent to Allaah The Exalted for your sin and immediately abstain from abandoning prayer. Indeed, giving up prayer is a grave sin. Prayer is the barrier and shield between a Muslim and disbelief. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: "What lies between a man and Shirk (i.e. polytheism) and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer." [Muslim, Abu Daawood and At-Tirmithi]

The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, also said:

·        “What lies between belief and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer.” [At-Tirmithi]

·        “The covenant between us and them (i.e. the hypocrites) is prayer so, if anyone abandons it, he has become a disbeliever.” [Ahmad in Al-Musnad, Al-Haakim in Al-Mustadrak and others]

There are other texts from the Quran and the Sunnah warning against abandoning prayer and being rather lax in performing it. Hence, you should repent to Allaah The Exalted and perform the due obligatory prayers as your Lord Has Commanded you.

Dear questioner, know that if you commit yourself to performing the obligatory prayers, all your problems will be solved. You will relish pleasure and happiness in this worldly life and in the Hereafter as well. Also, your prayers will shield you against committing sins and indecent acts.

You should come clean, admit that you stole that money and confess this to your brother while demanding your due right from him. However, this should be done while maintaining the kinship ties between the two of you and fostering brotherly love and tolerance. You should make sure that this does not undermine your brotherhood bonds, ties of kinship and the (mutual) obligations that they impose, as brotherhood is priceless and more vital than anything else in the entire world.

We would like to remind you that the Hadeeth you mentioned is not authentically proven to be the words of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, although its meaning is true. They are proven to be the words of Ibn Mas‘ood and Ibn ‘Abbaas as ibn Katheer stated in his Tafseer concerning the verse.

Allaah Knows best.