Responding to the sneezer: Is it obligatory for everyone who hears it, or is it a collective obligation?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. When someone sneezes, is it required for everyone who hears his praise of Allah to respond to him, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith that it was a rightJami` at-Tirmidhi 2747Sahih (Darussalam), or is the matter a collective obligation?
Answer:
The obligatory act is fulfilled by the action of one person. As for the recommended practice, it is that they all respond to him; this is the recommended practice. However, if one person responds to him, the obligatory act is fulfilled, and it remains a recommended practice for the rest.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. When someone sneezes, is it required for everyone who hears his praise of Allah to respond to him, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith that it was a right
it is a right due from every one who hears him to say: 'Yarhamukallah (May Allah have mercy upon you)'
على كل من سمعه أن يقول له يرحمك اللهAnswer:
The obligatory act is fulfilled by the action of one person. As for the recommended practice, it is that they all respond to him; this is the recommended practice. However, if one person responds to him, the obligatory act is fulfilled, and it remains a recommended practice for the rest.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/138 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (1:09:30)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.