FIQH OF MEDICINE
Question:
There are doctors who do emergency
surgeries, which sometimes means that he is sometimes too busy to pray until
the time of the prayer ends. What should he do?
Elaboration:
Predicting the duration of a
surgical case is a bit like predicting the duration of a sports competition.
For example, although you might know the average duration of a professional
basketball game, it is impossible to know, to the minute, how long the next
game will last. And just like a basketball game that is tied after 48 minutes,
a surgical case can go into overtime if unexpected findings force a change in
the surgical procedure that requires extra time. Moreover it can happen at any
time especially in emergency cases. One would find it hard to perform his daily
prayers if he is in the middle of a brain surgery.
Answer:
What a Muslim is obliged to do is to offer the prayer on
time and not let himself be distracted from it by anything, unless it is
something urgent that he cannot do anything about, such as saving a person from
drowning or rescuing people from a burning house, or warding off the attack of
an enemy that is feared. In such cases there is nothing wrong with delaying the
prayer for that reason, even if the time for the prayer ends. But with regard
to ordinary matters in which no danger is involved, it is not permissible to
delay the prayer because of them.
It is proven that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him), when the people of Makkah besieged Madeenah on the day of
al-Ahzaab, delayed Zuhr and ‘Asr prayer until after Maghrib. According to
another report, he delayed ‘Asr prayer until after Maghrib, because he was
preoccupied with fighting. It is also proven that when the Sahaabah besieged
Tastar, dawn came when the fighting was still going on and the people were
scaling the walls and were at the gates of the city, and they delayed Fajr
prayer until conquest was granted to them, then they prayed at the time of duha
(forenoon) so that they would not miss out on the opportunity to conquer the
city. In such situations it is permissible to delay the prayer. If there is a
fire in which Muslim people are trapped, it is permissible to focus on rescuing
them, even if that means that you will miss offering a prayer on time, because
saving Muslim lives which are protected by sharee’ah is very important, and
because it may not be possible to deal with this danger except by delaying the
prayer; the prayer is being missed for a valid reason, so it is permissible to
delay it.
A person may also delay the prayer and join prayers because
of sickness and travelling, so it is permissible to delay prayers until after
their time or to delay ‘Asr or Fajr prayers from their times in order to save
one who is drowning or burning and so on. End quote.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may
Allah have mercy on him)
Allah knows best.
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