Question: According to a hadith reported by Imam al-Daylami, it is stated:
“In the time period close to Doomsday, more than a thousand people will perform the salat in a mosque, yet there will not be a single believer among them.”
If these people are not believers and their salats are not accepted, then why do they come to the mosque at all?
ANSWER
These are people who consider themselves Muslims but have fallen into disbelief. For example, the rationalist Mu’tazilah sect, which denied qadar, maintained that “a person determines their own destiny,” and held that deeds constitute an integral part of faith, fell into disbelief. Our Master the Prophet is reported to have said concerning this sect: 

(The Qadariyyah [Mu’tazilah], who say that evil has not been decreed, has no share in Islam.) [Bayhaqi]

Likewise, the sect Murjiyyah, that is Jabriyyah, who said that Allah compels us to sin, fell into disbelief, too. Our Master the Prophet said about them:

(Murjiyyah [Jabriyyah] and Qadariyyah [Mu'tazilah] have no share in Islam.) [Bukhari]

Anyone who rejects even one of the six articles of faith affirmed in the Amantu creed has likewise fallen into disbelief. For example, those who say, “It is sufficient to profess La ilaha illa Allah; there is no need to say Muḥammadun Rasulullah,” or those who claim that “unbelieving Christians and Jews will also enter Paradise,” as well as those who fall into disbelief in any other manner, will be among the more than one thousand people gathered in that mosque.

Among the foremost causes that lead people toward disbelief (kufr) is religious innovation (bid’ah). Bid’ah refers to introducing new religious rulings on the grounds that the commands of Allah and His Messenger are somehow inadequate, saying, “Given the circumstances of our time, it would be better for things to be this way.” Many of the sects associated with religious innovations have followed this approach. Since their faith is considered unsound, their deeds are not accepted. The meanings of four hadiths are as follows:

(The salat, fasting, pilgrimage, minor pilgrimage, jihad, repentance, obligatory or voluntary acts of worship, and no other good deed of one who introduces a religious innovation will be accepted. It will be easy for them to leave the religion, just as a hair slips easily out of oil.) [Ibn Majah]

(Allah Most High does not accept the supplication, zakat, pilgrimage, or salat of one who follows religious innovations.) [Daylami]

(None of the deeds of a person who follows religious innovations will be accepted until they abandon their innovation for the sake of Allah.) [Daylami, Ibn al-Najjar, Abu Nasr, Ibn AbiʿAsim]

(Allah curses those who recite the Qur’an with mizmar [instruments by which music is also played] accompaniment.) [Musamara]

It is therefore stated in a hadith that, because those who follow religious innovations may lose their faith through their innovations, “More than a thousand people will perform the salat in a mosque, yet there will not be a single believer among them.” For this reason, one should keep as far away from religious innovations as possible. Acts of worship should be performed as the Messenger of Allah performed them, and the salat should be offered in the manner he taught. One should not say, “That may have been appropriate in those days, but today it is better to perform the salat in this way. Even the Messenger of Allah would have performed it in this manner if he were here.” Nor should one introduce innovations into acts of worship and thereby risk falling into disbelief (kufr).

In India, screens have reportedly been installed in some mosques, with worshipers performing the salat by following the image of the imam displayed from the central mosque. Even in Türkiye today, some people have suggested, “Let us turn on the television and follow the imam in Mecca.”

One should therefore be extremely cautious about religious innovations and should not become among those whose faith is unsound and whose salats in the mosque are not accepted.

Question: From the time of the first human being, have those who believed in all the prophets sent and in the religions they brought always been few, while those who did not believe have always been many?
ANSWER
Allah Most High created Paradise and Hell. He willed in pre-eternity to fill both of them with human beings and genies, and He informed people of this in the books He sent through His prophets. Since Adam alaihissalam, there have been believing and good people who will enter Paradise, as well as faithless and evil people who commit deeds that lead to Hell. There will continue to be such people until the Day of Judgment.

The number of angels is incomparably greater than that of human beings, and all of them are believers and always obedient. As for human beings, at all times, only a small number of them are believers, while most are faithless, rebellious, and transgressing.
Throughout history, people of good and evil have continually sought to overcome one another. The wicked have also turned against one another, and, throughout the ages, have lived in conditions marked by hardship and unrest. The unbelievers have established dictatorial regimes and oppressed the weak and the young so that a small group might indulge excessively in pleasure and luxury and satisfy their base desires and passions. In order to conceal their wrongdoing, harm, and the calamities they have caused, and thereby deceive the people, they have attacked the prophets alaihimussalam, who established the principles of morality, virtue, honesty, and justice, as well as the religions they brought. At certain points in history, these attacks took the form of armed warfare and struggles for survival. At other times, they took the form of false propaganda, the fomenting of discord and corruption, the undermining of religions from within, and the destruction of Muslim states through internal subversion.

Thus, throughout the ages, unbelievers and those enslaved to their lower desires have sought to undermine the noble religion of Muhammad alaihissalam, the final and greatest of the prophets, whom Allah Most High created as the most excellent, beautiful, and honored of all people and chose and sent as a prophet to all nations. His radiant religion shows the way to salvation and spiritual advancement and provides guidance for progress in both material and spiritual matters.

Just as they attacked his religion in every age through the Crusades, oppression, and persecution, they also sought to undermine it from within by assuming the outward appearance of Muslims and attempting to deceive people through false and deceptive words and writings, setting brother against brother. In doing so, they caused great harm.