Is it part of the etiquette of the gathering to interrupt the speaker with a greeting and a handshake?

The questioner : ...In observation, I mean, some of the brothers sit and talk, like this session of ours now. One of them enters and greets, saying: "Peace be upon you," then he shakes hands and interrupts their conversation; I mean, is this part of the etiquette of the gathering?

Another questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
He says, and others say more than this, saying: It is not permissible to offer the greeting while the lesson is in progress; because the greeting interrupts the gathering. And we, considering ourselves Salafis, do not employ our minds or direct them at the hadiths of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So if the indication of the hadith is clear, then continuing to speak about what contradicts this indication is most akin to philosophy. For example, perhaps you all know the hadiths regarding the permissibility of greeting the one who is praying. This prescribed act is met with mental philosophy, saying: "My brother, when you greet the one who is praying, you occupy his mind. Then you burden him with returning your greeting with a gesture of his hand or head, so you have distracted him from the prayer." So I answer this with two answers:
The first: I say, "My brother, 'When the report (athar) comes, the reasoning (nazr) is void,' and 'When the river of Allah comes, the river of Ma'qil is void.'" The second thing: Our conception that offering the greeting to the one who is praying is a distraction for him from the prayer is based on the idea that prayer means a state of unconsciousness regarding reality, as is reported about some of them that they do not feel what is happening around them. It may be so, or it may be due to being absorbed in humility and submission, which is a good thing without a doubt. But this does not mean that the one who is praying must always be in that state, forever, not feeling what happens around him; because this is contrary to the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him) certainly. Just as if someone were to say—and it has been said in some books of jurisprudence—regarding the issue of closing the eyes in prayer: Is it part of the etiquette of prayer or not? Many of those who have a share of Sufism say that closing the eyes in prayer is recommended (mustahabb); because it brings humility. The response comes that the Master of the Humble (peace and blessings be upon him) did not close his eyes in prayer. So he saw what was happening around him. And likewise, he was not absorbed in the prayer to the full extent as we mentioned about some people. Rather, he was awake. He observed the mistakes happening behind him, to his right, and to his left, and he would teach them after the prayer.

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Indeed.
-- Welcome, welcome ... --
Indeed, the matter reached with him (peace and blessings be upon him) at times to changing the plan of the prayer he was in, and he had planned it by lengthening the recitation or lightening the bowing and prostration for a matter that arose. So there is, for example, a hadith of Imam Ahmad in his "Musnad" with a valid chain that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) prostrated in the 'Asr prayer one day a prostration that he lengthened. He was always long in his prostrations compared to our prostrations, but that prostration was longer than the long ones, which made some of the Companions who were praying behind him wonder in their minds what was the matter with the Messenger (peace be upon him) that he lengthened the prostration in this unusual way? Perhaps death had come to him. So he raised his head from the prostration and looked up like this to reassure himself about his Prophet, and behold, he saw a wondrous sight; he saw al-Hasan or al-Husayn had mounted the back of the Messenger (peace be upon him), and in the Shami expression, "the child is riding him"!! And the Messenger did not move or lean like this or like this, or with his hand, until he put him down. The important thing is that this Companion was reassured that the Messenger was alive, so he returned to his prostration. And when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, they said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, you prostrated in the middle of your prayer a prostration that you lengthened?" He said (peace and blessings be upon him): . This undoubtedly means that this humility and gentleness and softness from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is not strange, and it is He whom our Lord praised in the Qur'an, saying: .
And the point of this authentic hadith is that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was not absorbed in his prayer to the full extent, otherwise he would not have felt his son mounting his back, and consequently would not have lengthened the prostration more than usual. But he felt that there was a child, one of his small children, the children of his daughter, who had mounted him, so he did not want to disturb him; and therefore he said with all humility: ; meaning he took me as a mount. He could have said: "He mounted me and the matter was over." Here he says: , , let him ride until he is full, and when he is full he will get down. He raised his head from the prostration.
Likewise, in "Sahih al-Bukhari" and others, that the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to say: . So observe in this hadith what? First, the Messenger heard the voice of the child, then he naturally performed a very quick logical assessment. The voice of this child indicates that his mother is with him in the mosque. So the meaning of the assessment is that this mother's mind and thoughts will be occupied behind her child; therefore, I must lighten the prayer so as to free the mother for the child; and therefore it was established—for example—in the Fajr prayer that he would recite at least thirty verses in the rak'ah, and behold, he would recite a few verses and lighten the prostration and bowing. All of this, why? To free the mother for the child! All of this—and no offense—is an introduction, even if it was long; it is not devoid of benefit: that if a man is praying and the greeter (peace be upon him) offers the greeting, it is said: "My brother, this is a distraction for him." We will say: Did we distract him with good or with evil? When his son al-Hasan or al-Husayn mounted him, did he distract him with good or with evil? We do not know good and evil except through the path of Muhammad (peace be upon him); so as long as he approved it, this is from his compassion and mercy for the small ones, as you heard in the previous hadith: ; so as long as the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) has prescribed for us offering the greeting to the one who is praying; we do not say that this offering is a distraction for him from what he is engaged in; because we say that there may be things of the prayer that people do not know are part of the prayer, and the example is before you when he (peace be upon him) said in that incident: .
And of this kind is also the hadith of al-Bukhari in his "Sahih" that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) went out one day with his daughter's daughter on his shoulder, and she was Ummah bint Zaynab ... praying while she was on his shoulder. And when the time for bowing came, he took her gently and placed her on the ground. And when he stood for the second rak'ah, he returned her to where she was on his shoulders (peace be upon him), and so on until he finished the prayer. So we cannot say that these movements contradict the prayer, and that the response with a gesture contradicts the prayer. Rather, we say: this and that and all of this is part of the prayer, but by the Prophetic concept, not by this later concept.
Finally: I say: If the one who enters finds the gathering for knowledge, and the orator is giving a sermon, or a teacher is teaching them, or the jurist is speaking; then there is no obstacle to saying: "Peace be upon you"; because the fact that this jurist is teaching the people or educating them is not greater than the imam in the prayer or the congregation following the imam. He (peace and blessings be upon him) prescribed from his Lord offering the greeting to this one who is praying and that one. As he also prescribed offering the greeting to those sitting in the circle studying the Qur'an or studying knowledge, as in "Musnad Imam Ahmad."
What remains finally is the handshake, which the question was directed to. So I said that if there is an easy handshake, then that is part of the completion of the greeting. He enters and greets with one greeting, as he shakes hands with the sitters one by one. But if the number is, may Allah bless them, and they are many, and there is some difficulty, then at that time, naturally, every person knows how the shoulder is eaten, so he will not shake hands with them as long as there is difficulty, and difficulty removes what is more than this virtue.
I bear witness from all of this that shaking hands is sometimes distributed, and not in all cases. I am speaking now in terms of jurisprudence. The person who entered greeted me, and I returned his greeting, and nothing was harmed regarding the matter. This person who entered was able to, as is the current reality, greet and continue shaking hands, and nothing was harmed regarding the gathering at all. So, completing the handshake when there is no embarrassment is not a waste of the scholarly benefit; rather, in this handshake, that hadith I mentioned earlier is realized, which is the hadith of Abu Dharr, who said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) never met us without shaking our hands."
And this is what I have regarding what you asked.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.