What is the ruling on leaving Prayer? ما حكم ترك الصلاة؟

Praise be to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family and his companions.
As to what follows:
With regards to answering your question we say, success is by Allah Almighty.
There is a consensus that leaving Prayer out of disbelieving that it is obligatory renders the one who leaves it a disbeliever if that person is not ignorant of that. The scholars have agreed that leaving Prayer out of laziness or negligence is a major sin and a great crime but they went on to differ regarding the ruling on a person who does this.
The majority of scholars from the Malikite, Shafite and Hanbalite schools of thought are of the view that the person who does this should be killed if he keeps on insisting on leaving it though they differed on whether he is killed as a disbeliever or not.

The Hanbalites are of the opinion that he is killed as a disbeliever, this view is also held by a group of scholars from among them Hasan al-Basri, al-Nukhai, Ibn al-Mubarak and Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan because of a hadith narrated by Muslim (82) on the authority of Jabir who said that he heard The Prophet (peace be on him) saying:
“Between man and polytheism and unbelief is the abandonment of prayer.”
There are many proofs besides this hadith. It is said that: he is killed as hadd ( a prescribed penalty by Allah), this is the opinion of many jurists from the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi schools of thought as well as a second narration by Ahmad.
In any case it is obligatory to take caution from being negligent to this great act of worship.
In relation to this matter, the scholars also differed on whether he should be killed by leaving one Prayer or three? What is apparent is that this (penalty) is only for one who is accustomed to leaving Prayer, as for the one performs some obligatory prayers and leaves others is not killed or said to be a disbeliever
And Allah knows best.

Your brother,
Dr. Khalid al-Muslih
14 / 03 / 1425 AH