The ruling on returning after knocking three times
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
If one reaches the door of the house and knocks three times, is that from the Sunnah?
The Shaykh:
Yes. He is permitted to return, because he is permitted not to return.
The questioner:
If he does not find anyone, he knocks three times, meaning that is from the Sunnah, and then he returns.
The Shaykh:
He does not annoy them; they may have business to attend to.
If one reaches the door of the house and knocks three times, is that from the Sunnah?
The Shaykh:
Yes. He is permitted to return, because he is permitted not to return.
The questioner:
If he does not find anyone, he knocks three times, meaning that is from the Sunnah, and then he returns.
The Shaykh:
He does not annoy them; they may have business to attend to.
Source
التعليق على رياض الصالحين، باب الاستئذان وآدابه : الأحاديث : [ 872 - 875 ] — islamhouse.com (3:27)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.