#534: Terminating Salāt for Mother`s Call
QUESTION
” As salaam ‘alaykum wa rahmatullAah wabarakaatuh…Yaa ustadh, please is there any hadeeth that says when our mother calls us while we are praying, we should break the solaah and respond to her call?”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh!
If the Prayer you were in when any of your parents call upon you is the Obligatory One, then the vast majority of the Ulamā mentioned that it is Harām for you to terminate it to attend to the call of your parents.
The exemption is if the Parent (Father or Mother) is in a very dire state and only the Child can help in that situation.
There is though, a minority position in the Shāfi’ī school to the contrary, holding that it is permissible for him to terminate his Salāt to attend to any of his Parents provided he won’t go out of the Prayer Time.
If it were a Nāfil Salāt, then the Ulamā differed on this.
The Hanafis hold that it would only be permissible that he attends to them if they are unaware that he was in Salāt.
The Mālikī Imāms posit that it was better that he attended to his Parents than he should continue his Nāfil Salāt, while some of them restrict this to only the call of the Mother.
The Shāfi’īs and the Hanbalis hold that he may only respond to their calls if it would hurt them that he didn’t respond to them.
The evidence used in this regard is the Story of Jurayj the Monk as was recorded in the Sahihayn.
From Abū Hurayrah – radiyallāhu ‘anhu – that the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:
كَانَ جُرَيْجٌ يَتَعَبَّدُ فِي صَوْمَعَةٍ فَجَاءَتْ أُمُّهُ فَقَالَتْ : يَا جُرَيْجُ أَنَا أُمُّكَ كَلِّمْنِي . فَصَادَفَتْهُ يُصَلِّي فَقَالَ : اللَّهُمَّ أُمِّي وَصَلَاتِي ، فَاخْتَارَ صَلَاتَهُ ، فَرَجَعَتْ ثُمَّ عَادَتْ فِي الثَّانِيَةِ فَقَالَتْ : يَا جُرَيْجُ أَنَا أُمُّكَ فَكَلِّمْنِي . قَالَ اللَّهُمَّ أُمِّي وَصَلَاتِي ، فَاخْتَارَ صَلَاتَهُ . فَقَالَتْ : اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّ هَذَا جُرَيْجٌ وَهُوَ ابْنِي وَإِنِّي كَلَّمْتُهُ فَأَبَى أَنْ يُكَلِّمَنِي ، اللَّهُمَّ فَلَا تُمِتْهُ حَتَّى تُرِيَهُ الْمُومِسَاتِ . قَالَ : وَلَوْ دَعَتْ عَلَيْهِ أَنْ يُفْتَنَ لَفُتِنَ …
“Jurayj was once observing his Worship in the Monastery then came his mother and said: O Jurayj, I am your mother so speak to me. So he was confused on what to do in his Salāt and said: O Allāh, My mother and my Salāt! So he chose his Salāt. She went away and came a second time and said: O Jurayj, I am your mother so speak to me. He said: O Allah! My mother and my Salāt. So he chose his Salāt. Then she said: ‘O Allāh, this is Jurayj and he is my Son and I have spoken to him and he refused to speak to me. O Allāh! Do not take his life until he has met with the (fitnah) of prostitutes’. He (salallāhu alayhi wasallam ) said: and had she prayed that a great fitnah should befall him then it would have befallen him..”
Imām An-Nawawī – rahimahullāh – said in his Sharh of the Sahih Muslim:
“The Ulamā have said: What is right for him in that situation is that he responds to her because he was in a Supererogatory Salāt. And to continue in that is Optional, not Wājib. But to respond to the mother and to be good to her is Wājib. And to be rebellious to her is Harām. And he could lighten his prayer and respond to her and then return to his Salāt..”
The position of the Shāfi’īs and the Hanbalis as we have mentioned earlier is the strongest and Allāh knows best.
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
📚 IslamNode
