Question:
Someone works 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?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
Answer:
Firstly, a medical doctor must take every means prior to starting their career to receive permission to break for the performance of their ṣalāh 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:
- 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 ṣalāh first, re-sterilize, and then tend to the patient.
- 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 ṣalāh first, re-sterilize, and then tend to the patient.
- 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 wājib (obligatory) for the doctor to tend to the patient, even if there is a chance that the time for ṣalāh will expire. One will be required to perform qaḍāʾ (make-up prayer) of that missed ṣalāh. 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 ṣalāh and save the patient’s life.
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.
And Allāh Taʿālā knows best
Siddiqa al-Farsiyyah (Muftiya)
Approved by Mufti Tosir Miah (ḥafiẓahullāh)
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (2:609-610), Bāb Idrak al-Farīḍah, Al-Maktabah 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
& Fatāwā Dār al-ʿUlūm Zakariyyah (2:765), ZamZam Publishers.
Hadithiyya 