Never did any good

Question

It was narrated from Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah will say: ‘The angels have interceded, the Prophets have interceded and there is no one left but the Most Merciful of those who show mercy.’ Then He will take a handful from Hell, and will bring out people who never did any good and who will have turned into charcoal. He will throw them into a river on the outskirts of Paradise that is called the River of Life, and they will emerge like seeds in the silt carried by a flood. … They will emerge like pearls with jewels around their necks, and the people of Paradise will recognize them. These are the ones ransomed by Allaah, whom Allaah admitted to Paradise with no good deed that they did or sent on ahead. Then He will say: ‘Enter Paradise, and whatever you see is yours.’ They will say: ‘Our Lord, You have given us what You have never given to anyone else in creation.’ He will say: ‘You will have something better than that with Me.’ They will say, ‘O Lord, what could be better than this?’ He will say, ‘My good pleasure, for I will never be angry with you again.’”

Above hadith says those who never did any good deeds will enter Jannah, my question is does it means who never did salah, fast, paid zakah,hajj?

Answer 1

According to Islamweb (source), it does include those who never prayed, etc.

"This Hadeeth shows that those people did not do any good deeds or perform prayers, because people who performed prayers, payed Zakah and did good deeds, had left Hell before them. However, this does not mean that it is possible to neglect prayers relying on this intercession. Abandoning prayers is one of the gravest sins, and some scholars deem the Muslim who abandons it a disbeliever based on some authentic Hadeeths. Persistence on committing misdeeds may cause their doer to die on other than the religion of Islam – may Allaah forbid"

As they also pointed out, you cannot use this as an excuse to not pray/fast/etc and just rely on the intercession. Because it could be that such actions (i.e., severe sins) cause you to leave Islam altogether (if we assume that abandoning prayer is not disbelief in itself). The pillars of Islam are the teeth on the key to Paradise (faith).

We also see from hadith that various people who 'never did any good' had some redeeming quality.

Some examples:

• Case#1, the Prophet (ﷺ) told us of a man who never did any good deed but he used to lend money to people to help them through their troubles; Allah (ﷻ) forgave him as a result.
• Case#2, the Prophet (ﷺ) told us of a man who never did any good deed and asked to be cremated; when asked why, he said he did it out of fear of Allah (ﷻ) [but was ignorant] so Allah (ﷻ) forgave him due to that fear.
• Case #3 , the Prophet (ﷺ) told us of a man who never did a good deed but removed a thorny branch from the road [protecting people from harm], so Allah (ﷻ) forgave him because of it.

These were particular cases and Allah (ﷻ) liked their sincerity. It doesn't mean He will always forgive based on any deed you do. He forgives who He wills. So the bottom line is, you have no guarantee that you will be saved/forgiven if you sin. The only people to whom Paradise is guaranteed is those who sincerely believe and do good deeds (including prayer, fasting, etc).