What are the Sharia rulings concerning an ignorant, illiterate man who could neither read nor write, who grew up and died in a country that adheres to the Maliki school of thought, which does not deem the ترك صلاة (abandonment of prayer) as kufr (disbelief), and this man died without ever praying?

It has been previously explained that the preponderant view is that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever, even though the majority of scholars do not consider him a disbeliever unless he denies its obligatory nature. As for the rulings that follow from this, they depend on the judgment of the town's qadi (judge). If the qadi is a Maliki and rules that the one who abandons prayer is a Muslim, then another qadi is not permitted to overturn this ruling, because a qadi's judgment, based on strong evidence, makes a disputed matter as if it were agreed upon. Thus, a ruler's judgment in matters of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) is not overturned unless it contravenes a text (from the Qur'an or Sunnah), a consensus (ijma'), a clear analogy (qiyas jali), or the general comprehensive principles (al-qawa'id al-kulliyah).