Ruling on interrupting prayer when an important matter occurs
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Q: If I am praying and the doorbell is ringing, and there is no one in the house but me, what should I do? And if I leave the prayer, is there a sin on me?
A: If the prayer is voluntary, the matter is more lenient; there is no harm in interrupting it to find out who is ringing the doorbell. As for the obligatory prayer, it is not permissible to interrupt it unless there is something important that one fears will be missed. If it is possible to signal by saying tasbih in the case of a man, or clapping in the case of a woman, so that the person at the door knows that the homeowner is busy with prayer, that is sufficient to avoid interrupting the prayer. This is based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):Sunan Abi Dawud 940Sahih (Al-Albani) agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
If it is possible to inform the person ringing the doorbell that the homeowner is busy with prayer by clapping in the case of a woman, and saying tasbih in the case of a man during the prayer, then do that and rely on it instead of interrupting. If this does not help due to distance or because he does not hear it, there is no harm in interrupting the prayer out of need, especially in the case of a voluntary prayer. As for the obligatory prayer, if the matter is important or urgent and one fears it will be missed, there is no harm in interrupting it, and then one should repeat it from the beginning. And praise be to Allah.
A: If the prayer is voluntary, the matter is more lenient; there is no harm in interrupting it to find out who is ringing the doorbell. As for the obligatory prayer, it is not permissible to interrupt it unless there is something important that one fears will be missed. If it is possible to signal by saying tasbih in the case of a man, or clapping in the case of a woman, so that the person at the door knows that the homeowner is busy with prayer, that is sufficient to avoid interrupting the prayer. This is based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
If anything happens to someone during prayer, he should say “Glory be to Allah,” for when he glorifies Allah. He pays attention to him. Clapping applies only to women.
من نابه شيء في صلاته فليسبح الرجال ولتصفق النساءIf it is possible to inform the person ringing the doorbell that the homeowner is busy with prayer by clapping in the case of a woman, and saying tasbih in the case of a man during the prayer, then do that and rely on it instead of interrupting. If this does not help due to distance or because he does not hear it, there is no harm in interrupting the prayer out of need, especially in the case of a voluntary prayer. As for the obligatory prayer, if the matter is important or urgent and one fears it will be missed, there is no harm in interrupting it, and then one should repeat it from the beginning. And praise be to Allah.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.