Fatwa ID: 04153

Answered by: Alimah Sabrina al-Faarsiyyah

Question:

Someone asks me, they work in the hospital, and sometimes for 5-6 hours, they cannot leave the room and they have to remain sterilized (meaning they can’t touch anything that is not sterile) so what should they do if prayer time comes in?

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Answer

Firstly, a medical doctor must take every means prior to starting their career to receive permission to break for the performance of their Salah throughout the day in the hospital. However, considering that some medical doctors are required to carry out long hours of surgeries and tend to patients regularly, they must consider the following in order:

1)    If the patient is not in need of urgent medical help, and can wait for the duration of time it would take the doctor to complete their prayer, a doctor must perform their Salah first, re-sterilize, and then tend to the patient.

2)    If the patient is in urgent need of medical help, but there is another qualified doctor available who can tend to the patient, in this case too, a doctor must perform their Salah first, re-sterilize, and then tend to the patient.

3)    However, if the patient is in urgent need of medical help or is in the middle of delicate surgery, and no other qualified doctor is available who can substitute, then it would be wajib (obligatory) for the doctor to tend to the patient, even if there is a chance that the time for Salah will finish. One will be required to perform qadha (make-up prayer) of that missed Salah. This is also the same if the doctor is in the middle of their prayer, and the patient’s life is at risk. The doctor will be required to break their Salah and save the patient’s life.^[1]

To conclude, if the patient’s life is at risk and they are the only doctor available who can carry out the medical procedure, then they must tend to the patient and make up for the prayer(s) they miss.

Only Allāh Ta’ālā knows best

Written by Alimah Sabrina al-Faarsiyyah

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Dārul Iftā Birmingham

^[1] Ibnu Abidin, Raddul Muhtar 2/609-610, Babu Idrakil Faridha, Al-Ashrafiyyah:

وَالْحَاصِلُ أَنَّ الْمُصَلِّيَ مَتَى سَمِعَ أَحَدًا يَسْتَغِيثُ وَإِنْ لَمْ يَقْصِدْهُ بِالنِّدَاءِ، أَوْ كَانَ أَجْنَبِيًّا وَإِنْ لَمْ يَعْلَمْ مَا حَلَّ بِهِ أَوْ عَلِمَ وَكَانَ لَهُ قُدْرَةٌ عَلَى إغَاثَتِهِ وَتَخْلِيصِهِ وَجَبَ عَلَيْهِ إغَاثَتُهُ وَقَطَعَ الصَّلَاةَ فَرْضًا كَانَتْ أَوْ غَيْرَهُ

[تَتِمَّةٌ] نُقِلَ عَنْ خَطِّ صَاحِبِ الْبَحْرِ عَلَى هَامِشِهِ أَنَّ الْقَطْعَ يَكُونُ حَرَامًا وَمُبَاحًا وَمُسْتَحَبًّا وَوَاجِبًا، فَالْحَرَامُ لِغَيْرِ عُذْرٍ وَالْمُبَاحُ إذَا خَافَ فَوْتَ مَالٍ، وَالْمُسْتَحَبُّ الْقَطْعُ لِلْإِكْمَالِ، وَالْوَاجِبُ لِإِحْيَاءِ نَفْسٍ

Fatawa Darul Ulum Zakariyyah 2/765, ZamZam