What is the ruling on greeting someone who is busy?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The student: There is a difficulty here, which is that some of the brothers will be sitting in a place reading or writing, and then a person needs something from another who passes by him and returns, so he fears that every time he passes by him and returns, he will interrupt him?
The Shaykh : First, if you see a person who is busy and you fear that if you greet him you will disturb him, do not greet him. Why? Because this is in his interest. For this reason, the jurists said: It is disliked to greet a person who is occupied with dhikr, eating, or something else. There is no harm, but I do not intend this specific situation, because perhaps the one who was not greeted is happier than the one who was greeted. But they meet while walking, or one is putting on his shoes and the person passes by him and goes past him without greeting. Why did he not greet? What harm does it do him? By Allah, one is almost torn apart seeing students of knowledge passing by one another without greeting.
The Shaykh : First, if you see a person who is busy and you fear that if you greet him you will disturb him, do not greet him. Why? Because this is in his interest. For this reason, the jurists said: It is disliked to greet a person who is occupied with dhikr, eating, or something else. There is no harm, but I do not intend this specific situation, because perhaps the one who was not greeted is happier than the one who was greeted. But they meet while walking, or one is putting on his shoes and the person passes by him and goes past him without greeting. Why did he not greet? What harm does it do him? By Allah, one is almost torn apart seeing students of knowledge passing by one another without greeting.