Suhaib Webb – Can Essential Health Care Providers Join Prayers
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You know, I haven't been able to do
q and a like I regularly do just
because the moment, the things that are happening,
but there's this one question that I keep
getting. I'm gonna try to do at least
1 question around 2 or 4 o'clock EST
and and put it here on Instagram
to these kind of practical issues that we're
all facing.
So feel free to send me questions.
But this question really struck me because
it came from what I consider this moment's
sheroes and heroes.
I keep getting a question about
if someone is
a health care provider,
whether a physician,
whether a nurse, or even staff
in the ICUs across the country, in the
emergency rooms, they are performing essential tasks
which are preserving and improving
people's lives and health
is it allowed for them to join prayers?
And I want you to step back with
me for a minute and imagine
the greatness of the Muslim community. We always
hear how bad we are, how you know,
everything's going going to the worst, but
what kind of people
who have spent say their entire day
under extremely stressful situations,
taxing situations like my man doctor Saqib in
New York,
like my my friend doctor Qadeer in DC,
like our uncle Bashaalata'ali
who died, subhanallah who dies inshallah and is
accepted as a shahid who was a doctor
who immediately jumped in to serving people with
this virus himself was impacted as an elderly
man and passed away, Rahimullah.
These people are still worried about praying.
Allahu Akbar,
so remember that there's great examples out there
and that the Muslim community is one known
historically for its resilience, its intelligence and its
nuance.
Now to the question and before I answer
it I just want to remind you guys
of a major principle in Sharia
that says
and this is also important for people answering
questions to remember
and we were taught this when we when
we trained in Dar Ifta in Egypt and
that is that the Sharia
is beneficial
for every time place community and situation and
individual subhanAllah.
That's why Sheikh Mohammed Khadr Hussain the great
as hari scholar who lived
a long long time ago wrote an entire
essay on this it's
incredible it's an incredible read and I say
that because sometimes maybe we answer
questions and the goal is not to help
the people
but is to preserve an opinion
or to strengthen a certain school
or educational
or legal philosophy we attend to, that's a
disaster.
You know, I studied with Shah Hamat Taharian
for 6 years.
It was a great 6 years.
The Muwata,
Nailah Autar, the Khalil,
Real Salihim,
parts of Bukhari.
And that sheikh,
one day one day I was sitting in
in his home underneath his home in his
and
I said to him I'm from America.
How should I answer questions to people in
America?
Should I just give the opinions of the
school? And he said, that country doesn't have
a Medhat first of all, then I said,
then
how do I answer?
And he said,
answer with Taysir,
answer what facilitates for people and keeps them
close to the haqq,
something I'll never forget Masha'Allah.
So our job is not to preserve our
school or our educational philosophy
or our Sheikh or our group,
if we're serving the people, we gotta serve
the people
and that's why Sufianna Tawri said that, you
know, the true job of scholars to facilitate
things for people, not anyone can make things
difficult for people.
And for those who are answering questions without
training,
we need to be also very careful because
Sayna Omar ibn Abdul Aziz said,
you know who tries to act well, knowledge
does more damage than good.
Now to the answer,
our job is to serve you to be
here for you to facilitate for you and
keep you close to the and to remind
you that the Muslim Ummah is my
full as the prophet said, you are protected
and loved community, a mercy community
and that is we look at all the
we find that
based on the hadith of Sayedne ibn Abbas
as found in the sunnah of imam atirmidi
in other books.
They said that there are eight reasons where
a person could join prayers. Maliki say 6,
the other madhabs have a lower number and
many people don't realize and I heard this
actually from Sheikh Ahmed Tarimihan too. The easiest
most beautiful Methab as far as Rojas, as
far as dispensation
is the Hambali Methab
and for a great resource in that, you
know, you can find lots of people online
teaching it.
But
in that situation, there are 8 times where
a person could potentially join prayers. Before we
talk about this, remind ourselves that prayers are.
The hadith says pray, pray on its time.
Allah says he has prescribed the prayers in
specific times for us.
You know, who the the agreement between us,
the covenant between us and them is prayer,
whoever leaves it has committed an act of
disbelief
Sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
So this is by no means like something
easy or haphazard,
but this is something where we take into
the consideration
life. Imam Ibn Rushd as well as Imam
Ibn Taymiyyah said that that
preserving life comes before even preserving the deen
in most situations because if people aren't alive
there's no one left to preserve the Deen
SubhanAllah.
A very very interesting position Masha'Allah.
So that being said, the Hanabi'ah
recognize
8 instances where a person could join prayers,
meaning that if you're a physician
or on the front lines in these situations,
and you are essential to someone's life and
health,
systematically
or specifically,
then you could join Thor and Asar, you
could join Maghrib and Isha. Of course, if
there's a situation where you can't join them,
then you would join them as soon as
you could without shortening
them. Now
what is that one important point that the
Hanabi'la
make is that if a person has a
or
right, if someone is caught up in work
like we're talking about now essential work or
someone has a legitimate excuse that keeps them
for whatever reason from being able to observe
their prayers in a proper time, then they're
allowed to do so. I heard from my
teacher Masha'Allah that one of those groups of
people are physicians,
nurses and essential staff that are working to
keep people alive. You guys are heroes and
sheroes,
may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless you and
we have your back as a community. I
see it today in New York city, people
raising money to support you. I see people
in DC doing the same thing. May Allah
bless you and remember that the sharia
is vast and wide. It's a beautiful thing
and it's not just about preserving an opinion.
It's about keeping people close to the truth
in a way that you read Allahu Bikum
May Yusr that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala facilitates
for them. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to bless us. Go ahead and feel free
to text me here on Instagram, DM me
like practical questions. If there are questions that
I know have already been answered all over
the internet or the kind of typical controversial
questions,
I'm not gonna answer those. I wanna stay
on things that are that
are current to this current situation. May Allah
bless us all with a cure for this
virus. Those of you who are sick, we
pray for you and remind you that you're
being forgiven every second of the day of
your sins. Those of you lost family members
inshallah, they are shahids. And those of us
who are struggling with anxiety and difficulty in
facing this challenge, that in itself as the
Prophet said even the
even something that causes anxiety to the believer
is a means of reward.
Be blessed. Assalamu alaykum.