I heard the Prophet ﷺ say, "Between a man and polytheism and disbelief stands the abandonment of prayer."
سمعت النبي ﷺ يقول: إن بين الرجل وبين الشرك والكفر ترك الصلاة.
Muslim narrated it in the Book of Faith (82) through Abu Sufyan and Abu Zubayr, both from Jabir, who said, then he mentioned it. It has been said that its meaning is, they delay it past its proper time, and this is reported from Ibn Masud and others.On this subject there is also what is reported from Abu Saeed Khudri, who said, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, "There will come after sixty years a generation who neglect prayer and follow their desires, and they will meet ruin. Then there will come a generation who recite the Quran, but it does not pass beyond their collarbones, and the Quran will be recited by three types of people, a believer, a hypocrite, and a wicked person."Bashir said, I said to Walid, "Who are these three?" He said, "The hypocrite disbelieves in it, the wicked person makes his living by it, and the believer believes in it."Ahmad (11340), Ibn Hibban (755), and Hakim (2/374) all narrated it through Abu Abdul-Rahman Abdullah bin Yazid Muqri, who said, Haywa bin Shurayh related to us, Bashir bin Abu Amr Khawlani informed me, that Walid bin Qays told him that he heard Abu Saeed Khudri say, then he mentioned it.Hakim said, "This is a sahih hadith, its narrators are Hijazis and Syrians who are reliable."I say, in its chain of transmission is Walid bin Qays Tujibi, whom no one has affirmed as reliable. Ibn Hibban merely mentioned him among the reliable narrators, and for this reason Ibn Hajar said, "Acceptable," meaning if corroborated, and I have found no one corroborating him, so his hadith is weak.