How to repent from neglect of prayer and living on unlawful earnings
9-2-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
Salam. I hope u can answer my questions as I can’t find answers. I've never prayed before but believe in Allah & His Messenger. I've said the shahadah many times but never followed it up with acts of worship I believe are mandatory. I don’t know if I am considered a Muslim for saying the Shahadah & not ever praying. I was born in a Muslim family. I have done lots of bad things many of which I knew were bad Islamically. Some I didn’t know were bad & then I would find out but continue doing them! I lied to the state to get more benefit money than I was due & I knew it was haram, but I continued doing it for 4 years. I heard that if a person’s wealth is totally haram, he cannot borrow, eat or do business with others. All my wealth (spent, but a bit left over) was made by cheating lying fraud etc. How do I repent & become a real Muslim? I’m so sorry for all that I have done! 1. As one who has never prayed, will I be forgiven if I start to pray like one who enters Islam from anew? 2. What do I do with all the haram money I’ve spent & things I bought or earned with haram wealth i.e. driver’s license, books, laptop, clothes etc.? Give them away? If I use the laptop to make money will this be haram? 3. Should I earn from halal sources the equivalent amount I took unlawfully & give it back to them & how do I do this? 4. Even though my current left over wealth is haram & still with me, can I still borrow from another to help myself start a clean life of halal income? 5. Can I invest in some halal venture using a loan or earnings from a job, before I pay them back? 6. What do I do about a job I once had, but lied to get the job & lied about what time I started & finished? I broke my work agreement many times without them knowing! Should I go & pay them back? 7. Will my halal earnings be made haram if I’m living under another’s roof, whose earnings are haram along with food, use of facilities, savings etc. when I’m in need of their help? Thank you so much
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
May Allaah reward you for being keen to turn to Him in repentance. We ask Him to bless you with guidance and success. We will answer your inquires in the following points:
1) Abandoning prayer is a grave sin; some scholars even consider a Muslim who abandons the prayer a disbeliever, holding that such an act takes him out of the realm of Islam, especially if he deserts it completely. However, the majority of Muslim scholars maintain that such an act is not considered an act of disbelief that takes the doer out of the realm of Islam, yet it is a grave sin and someone endangers himself by doing so. (For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 84235.) Therefore, you should hasten to sincerely repent, observe the obligatory prayers and be resolved never to neglect it again.
Verily, it is a blessing from Allaah that He has given you a chance to turn to Him in repentance before your death so that you would not die while committing such a grave sin and have a bad end to your life. You should thank, praise and worship Allaah Almighty for that. Please, refer to Fatwa 86527 for the conditions of repentance.
Indeed, when a sinner repents from his sin, Allaah Almighty accepts his repentance, even if that sin was disbelief. No matter how grave the sin is, the pardon and mercy of Allaah Almighty are greater. Allaah Almighty says (what means): {Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allaah. Indeed, Allaah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful."}[Quran 39:53] The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: "When a person confessed a sin he had committed and then turned to Allaah in repentance, Allaah shall accept his repentance." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Scholars have held different opinions regarding whether it is incumbent on a person who neglects performance of prayer out of laziness to make up for the missed prayers or not. The majority of Muslim scholars maintain that he is obliged to make up for all the missed prayers, if he had abandoned prayer out of laziness as clarified in Fataawa 86918 and 93053. However, some scholars argue that he is not obliged to make up for them. We advise you to adopt this view so as to avoid hardship. Some scholars hold that it is permissible for a Muslim to adopt the easier scholarly opinion in order to avoid hardship, and not for sake of pursuing religious concessions. As-Subki 
said: "It is permissible for a layman, with no adequate religious knowledge, to occasionally avail himself of the religious concessions of the scholars in cases of necessity as long as he does not seek out concessions [as a habit]. Based on that, it can be said that the difference of opinion among scholars is a blessing and mercy; religious concessions are a manifestation of such mercy."
2) It is incumbent on you to repent to Allaah for acquiring unlawful money. Your repentance does not become complete until you do away with that unlawful money by returning it to its rightful owner - if known, or to the rightful owner's heirs if he is dead. However, if the rightful owner cannot be identified or there is no way to find him, the money should be spent on public services benefitting the Muslim community or in charity for the poor and the needy. You are not obliged to do anything regarding the unlawful money you have already spent. As for any unlawful money that you still have and you know who the owner is, it is impermissible for you to delay returning that money to him or to invest it without his permission. The Hanbali scholar Ibn Muflih wrote, "It is incumbent on someone who repents to dispose of the unlawfully acquired property immediately by returning it to the rightful owner or his heirs. If he does not know the rightful owner or cannot return it to him, then it should be given to the ruler ... the sin grows graver when the person delays returning the unlawfully gained property, whether he disposed of it or not." [Al-Furoo‘] For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 224164
3) If you do not possess enough wealth to return the money acquired unlawfully to its rightful owner, it is considered a debt for which you are liable and it should be paid off whenever you are financially able. In case of insolvency, the indebted person is not obliged to pay off his debts. The creditor should offer the insolvent a respite until the straitened circumstances end. Allaah Almighty says (what means): {And if someone is in hardship, then [let there be] postponement until [a time of] ease. But if you give [from your right as] charity, then it is better for you, if you only knew.}[Quran 2:280] You should work and earn a living in order to gain money and return all properties to their rightful owners.
4) It is permissible for you to use any items that you purchased with that unlawful money and whatever you earn through such possessions is lawful as well. The unlawfulness is related to your own liability and not the items bought by the ill-gotten money. Please, refer to Fatwa 168585.
5) It is permissible for you to borrow money if you need as long as it does not involve Riba (usury) or any other forbidden transactions.
6) If you lied in order to get that job, you should repent to Allaah. If you did your job diligently, your income is lawful. However, if you neglected your work and did not respect the work hours and violated the work regulations, it is incumbent on you to pay back some of your income in proportion to your neglect; you can return it in an indirect manner.
7) If you have a lawful source of income, the fact that you live with those who earn their living unlawfully does not affect you and it is not wrong for you to use their house or be in their company because the unlawfulness is related to their liabilities and not the money itself as mentioned above. However, it is better for a Muslim to avoid living with those who live on unlawful earnings so as to shield oneself against their peril. A person is influenced by his friends and companions, either positively or negatively. Therefore, Islam urges Muslims to keep the company of righteous people. Abu Sa‘eed 
narrated that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: "Do not accompany except a believer, and do not serve your food except to a pious person." [At-Tirmithi]
Allaah Knows best.