Jabir ibn Abdillah (RA) said that he heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) said:” Between a man and shirk and disbelief is the abandonment of salah (formal prayer).” (Muslim and Ahmad)
This hadith establishes that the barrier between a person and polytheism/disbelief is the performance of the five daily required prayers. This demonstrates how dangerous it is to abandon the salah. Salah, indeed, represents a clear division between a Muslim and a non-Muslim; it differentiates between those who are grateful to Allah (SWT) and those who are ungrateful.
In the Muslim society there may be people who are unable to work, and who have no well-off relatives who can spend on them. What can these poor and weak people do? What can the needy who are unable to work, such as orphans and widows, the elderly, the mentally and physically handicapped, the blind, and the sick?
Islam warns the one who withholds zakah of a severe punishment in this world and in the Herefater. His punishment in the Hereafter is depicted in the most eloquent terms in the verse in which Allah (SWT) says:” And those who hoard up gold and silver {Al-Kanz: the money, the zakah of which has not been paid} and spend them not in the way of Allah, announce unto them a painful torment. On the Day when that {hoarded gold and silver, the zakah of which has not been paid} will be heated in the fire of Hell and with it will be branded their foreheads, their flanks, and their backs, {and it will be said unto them}:’ This is the treasure which you hoarded for yourselves. Now teste of what you used to hoard.”’ (Qur’an 9: 34-35)