₦airaland Forum

Interrupting the prayer to rescue a life from danger


Question

I was praying while my young son was playing in front of me. When I noticed him approaching the stove where I had left [a pot], I broke off my prayer to save him, fearing for his safety. What is the ruling on this?

Answer
It is permissible in Islamic law to break an obligatory prayer for important and legitimate matters, whether religious or mundane, that cannot be deferred. In fact, this may even be obligatory if the matter involves saving someone from drowning or rescuing a person in distress, as opposed to a minor matter or one that can be deferred until after, or even by shortening, the prayer.

The premise for this is the report of al-Azraq Ibn Qays who said, “We were in Ahwaz fighting against the Haruriyyah [the Kharijites]. While I was by the bank of a river, I saw a man praying, holding the reins of his mount, which began pulling away, so he broke off the prayer to follow it. Shu‘bah said, ‘He is Abu Barzah al-Aslami, may Allah be pleased with him.’ Then a man from the Kharijites said, ‘O Allah, punish this old man!’ When the man returned and completed his prayer, he said, ‘I heard what you said. I fought alongside the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, in six campaigns, or seven, or eight, and I witnessed his leniency. If I were to return with my mount, it would be more beloved to me than leaving it to go back to its usual resting place, for that would cause me hardship’” (recorded by Imams al-Bukhari in his Sahih, Ahmad in his Musnad, Ibn Khuzaymah in his Sahih, and al-Hakem in his Mustadrak). Imam Bukhari dedicated a chapter in his Sahih titled ‘If an animal runs away while one is in prayer.’

Ibn Battal, the Maliki scholar, noted in Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari (3/203), “This serves as evidence for jurists that whenever something is at risk of being lost — whether belongings, money, or anything people may need — it is permissible to break one’s prayer to retrieve it. This is analogous to breaking the prayer to stop a runaway animal.”

The Shafi’i scholar, Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani stated in Fath Al-Bari (3/82), “This serves as evidence for jurists in their ruling that anything that is feared to be lost, whether property or otherwise, permits breaking the prayer to attend to it.”

As for breaking the prayer to save a life that is sacrosanct under Islamic law, it is obligatory and whoever neglects it is sinful.
Imam ‘Izz al-Din Ibn ‘Abd al-Salam, the Shafi‘i scholar, said in Qawa‘id Al-Ahkam fi Masalih Al-Anam (1/66), “Saving the lives of innocent drowning individuals takes precedence over performing prayer, because rescuing them is better in the sight of Allah than offering prayer. Both benefits can be achieved by performing the rescue and then making up the prayer afterward. It is well known that the benefit lost by missing a prayer does not compare to saving the life of a Muslim from death.”

The ruling

Based on the above, breaking your prayer to save your young son from danger or harm is obligatory in Islamic law. You must repeat the prayer from its beginning afterwards.

And Allah Almighty knows best.

ola20ng:
https://www.dar-alifta.org/en/fatwa/details/22209/interrupting-the-prayer-to-rescue-a-life-from-danger

FxMasterz:
I can say it confidently that the OP wouldn't flinch at all if the baby in reference was a stranger's baby. People who don't value human life. As we are here typing, many of them out there are right now holding a knife around the throat of a person they call infidel.

Blue86:
A religion without sympathy and empathy for a fellow can not be the true faith. Isn't empathy and sympathy for people's lives the basis for preaching God to them. And not a forceful coercion?

FxMasterz:
Exactly.

Imagine someone going to hell - their Quran says so. Says every Muslim would taste hell mandatorilly. Yet, he wants to take your life for not agreeing to follow him there.

Antiiislam:
So the life ot this Abdul is not important to his fellow abduls that abandoned him

Blue86:
Lobatan
Is it even allowed to post my diagreement in their section?

FxMasterz:
They hate the truth.

If you.post anything straight from the Quran or hadith and pin point faults, the I'll ban you. You didn't have to abuse anybody. Just tell them the truth in that section. That's enough for a ban. The other day I posted about Mohammed splitting the moon in halves, and asked if anybody else saw it, or it was Mohammed who was the only witness to his own miracle. I was lucky not be banned that day. You know what they did? They moved the thread to the Christianity section.

The thread is here,: https://www.nairaland.com/8711757/moon-split-challenge-muhammad-split

Lithiumite:
Sorry guys,I remember this funny story that happened when we were kids in lagos,very early 90s.

There was this alhaji who owned a house in the area and sold tap water to the public as was a major trend then in several communities........he was very strict and would never give water to anyone for free notveven thirsty school kids trekking home from school under the hot sun nor allowed wastage,though he was a very pious man and stuck to his 5 daily prayers steadfastly.

There was a day we caught him praying and snock up to his taps and turned them on to drink and just allowed the water throw away wastefully........he was trying to wave us of with his hand and facial gestures but he was deep in prayers and couldn't come to us,we really miffed the man and ran away,this happened the second time,same thing but on the 3rd time,we never saw it coming ........we already knew his prayer routine and went on to do our usual taunts not knowing alhaji was ready for us,he watched us come again but pretended he wasn't paying any heed to us,we were also over confident he was at his most vulnerable state..........while deep in our revel,he leapt up and chased us right in the middle of his prayers with a cane,we lept away but one kid was unlucky as he was caught by him......the kid was yelling like a lion just caught him,he got the beating of his life and even I fell down while trying to run and got bruises all over my knees and elbow.

We never went back again after then but we still joke about it till this day and the yelling of wasiu still resonates in my brain till this day and also the mad burning pain of the iodine syrup my mum applied on me when she saw my bruises.......who ever invented that iodine must have been the devil himself.

Lithiumite:
Sorry guys,I remember this funny story that happened when we were kids in lagos,very early 90s.

There was this alhaji who owned a house in the area and sold tap water to the public as was a major trend then in several communities........he was very strict and would never give water to anyone for free notveven thirsty school kids trekking home from school under the hot sun nor allowed wastage,though he was a very pious man and stuck to his 5 daily prayers steadfastly.

There was a day we caught him praying and snock up to his taps and turned them on to drink and just allowed the water throw away wastefully........he was trying to wave us of with his hand and facial gestures but he was deep in prayers and couldn't come to us,we really miffed the man and ran away,this happened the second time,same thing but on the 3rd time,we never saw it coming ........we already knew his prayer routine and went on to do our usual taunts not knowing alhaji was ready for us,he watched us come again but pretended he wasn't paying any heed to us,we were also over confident he was at his most vulnerable state..........while deep in our revel,he leapt up and chased us right in the middle of his prayers with a cane,we lept away but one kid was unlucky as he was caught by him......the kid was yelling like a lion just caught him,he got the beating of his life and even I fell down while trying to run and got bruises all over my knees and elbow.

We never went back again after then but we still joke about it till this day and the yelling of wasiu still resonates in my brain till this day and also the mad burning pain of the iodine syrup my mum applied on me when she saw my bruises.......who ever invented that iodine must have been the devil himself.

fredoooooo:
Life first .. its pure common sense

Blue86:
So the reason why that guy died praying while others looked on and continued with their praying is that they do not have to repeat their prayers again?

Ha!

VanuatuWycombe:
You can see that it’s ignorance on the parts of those praying. No religion teaches cruelty. That’s the truth.

They ought to have stopped the solaat and attend to the fallen man to see I
How he could be revived.

A lot of uninformed commenters where already forming opinions that it’s what the religion teaches.

Even egungun worshipers are not allowed to leave their people in danger.

Antiiislam:
So the life ot this Abdul is not important to his fellow abduls that abandoned him