Is it a breach of the etiquette of the gathering to interrupt the speaker by greeting him and shaking hands?

The questioner : ... I have noticed that some ... greet and say "As-salamu alaykum," then shake hands and interrupt his speech. I mean, is this part of the etiquette of the gathering ...?

The Shaykh : He says, and others say the same, that it is not permissible to offer the greeting while a lesson is in progress, because the greeting interrupts the gathering. And we, as Salafis, do not employ our minds or apply them to the hadiths of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). If the indication of the hadith is clear, then to speak in a way that contradicts this indication is akin to philosophy. Perhaps you all know the hadiths regarding the permissibility of greeting the one who is praying. This prescribed act is met with a philosophical, intellectual argument that says, "My brother, when you greet the one who is praying, you distract him. Then you burden him with the obligation to return your greeting with a gesture of his hand or head. So you have distracted him from his prayer." I answer this with two responses. The first is ... "When the report (athar) comes, the opinion (nazar) is void" "And when the river of Allah comes, the river of Ma'qil is void". The second point is that our assumption that offering the greeting to the one who is praying distracts him from his prayer is based on the idea that prayer means a state of unconsciousness regarding reality. It is reported about some people that they are not aware of those around them. This may be the case, or it may be an exaggeration regarding humility and submission, which is certainly a good thing. But this does not mean that the one who is praying must always be in that state, unaware of what is happening around him, for this is contrary to the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) with certainty. Just as if someone were to say, and it has been mentioned in some books of jurisprudence ... regarding closing the eyes in prayer, is it part of the etiquette of prayer or not? Many who have a share of Sufism say that closing the eyes in prayer is recommended because it brings humility. The response to this was that the Master of the Humble (peace and blessings be upon him) did not close his eyes in prayer; he saw what was happening around him. Nor was he completely absorbed in his prayer, as we mentioned about some people. Rather, he was alert; 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. In fact, it reached the point with him (peace and blessings be upon him) that at times he would change the plan of the prayer he was in and had planned, by shortening the recitation or shortening the bowing and prostration, due to a matter that arose. For example, there is a hadith in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad with a sound chain that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prostrated one day in the 'Asr prayer in a prostration that he lengthened. His prostrations were always long compared to the prostrations ... but that prostration was longer than the usual long one, which caused some of the Companions praying behind him to wonder what was the matter with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) lengthening the prostration in this unusual way. Perhaps death had come to him. So he raised his head from the prostration and looked like this to reassure his Prophet, and behold, he saw a strange sight: he saw al-Hasan or al-Husayn riding on the back of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). In the Shami expression, "How is the boy?" And the Prophet was not moving, nor ... like this, nor like this with his hand, until the boy dismounted. The important thing is that this Companion did not know that the Prophet 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 (peace and blessings be upon him) said, This is certainly humility, and this gentleness and softness from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is not strange, for he is the one about whom our Lord praised him in the Qur'an, saying The point of this sound hadith is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was not completely absorbed in his prayer, otherwise he would not have felt his son riding on his back, and consequently he would not have lengthened the prostration more than usual. But he felt that one of his small children, a son of his daughter, had ridden on him, so he did not want to dismount him. Therefore, he said with all humility, meaning, "He took me as a mount." He could have said, "He rode me, and that was the end of it." He said, Let him ride until he is satisfied, and when he was satisfied ... he raised his head from the prostration. Also, in Sahih al-Bukhari and others, it is reported that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say, So notice in this hadith what happened: first, the Prophet heard the voice of the boy, then he acted, of course ... logically and very quickly. The voice of this boy indicates that his mother was with him in the mosque. So the meaning of the judgment is that this mother would be distracted and her mind occupied with her boy. Therefore, I must shorten the prayer so that the mother is free for the boy. And so he would decide in the Fajr prayer to recite at least thirty verses in the rak'ah, but he would recite a few verses and shorten the bowing and prostration, all of this to free the mother for the boy! All of this, without offense, is an introduction, and even if it is long, it is not devoid of benefit. If a man is praying and a Muslim offers him the greeting, it is said, "My brother, this distracts him." We will say, did we distract him with good or with evil? When his son al-Hasan or al-Husayn rode on him, did he distract him with good or with evil? We do not know good and evil except through the path of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). So as long as he approved it, this is from his affection and mercy for the young ones, as you heard in the previous hadith, So as long as the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) has legislated for us offering the greeting to the one who is praying, we do not say that this offering distracts him ... because we say that there may be things in prayer that people consider to be part of the prayer, and the example is before you when he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in that incident, And of the same category as this hadith is the hadith of al-Bukhari in his Sahih that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out one day with his granddaughter, Ummah bint Zaynab, on his shoulder. The prayer time came while she was on his shoulder. When it was time to bow, he took her gently and placed her on the ground. When he stood up for the second rak'ah, he put her back where she was ... (peace and blessings be upon him) and so on until he finished the prayer. So we cannot say that these movements contradict the prayer, and that response with a gesture does not contradict the prayer. Rather, we say that this and that are all part of the prayer, but by the Prophetic understanding, not by the later understanding. Finally, I say, if the one who enters the gathering ... and the orator is delivering the sermon, or the teacher is teaching, or the jurist is speaking, there is no obstacle to saying "As-salamu alaykum," because the fact that this jurist is explaining things to people or teaching them is not greater than the imam in prayer or the congregation following the imam. For he (peace and blessings be upon him) legislated from his Lord offering the greeting to this one who is praying ... as he also legislated offering the greeting to those sitting in the circle studying the Qur'an or studying knowledge, as in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad. Finally, regarding the handshake, which the question was directed to: I said that if a handshake is feasible, then that is part of the completion of the greeting. He enters and gives one greeting, as he shakes hands with the sitters one by one. But if the number of people is, may Allah bless them, and they are many, and there is some difficulty ... everyone knows how to eat the head (i.e., how to handle the situation). As long as there is difficulty, and difficulty removes what is more than this virtue. The point of all this is that the handshake is distributed in some cases and not in all cases. I am speaking now in jurisprudence: the one who enters greets, and I returned the greeting to him ... the matter is this: this one who entered was able to, as is the case now, greet and continue with the handshake ... the gathering at all. So there is no completion of the handshake ... there is no difficulty. It supports the scientific benefit. Rather, in this handshake, the hadith I mentioned earlier is realized, which is the hadith of Abu Dharr, who said, "We never met the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) except that we shook hands with him" And this is what I have regarding what you asked.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And you as well.