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Fatwa CenterInterrupting obligatory prayer to be checked up by the doctor
Question
Salam Alaikoum, I was in the hospital in the US for few weeks and couldn't move from my hospital bed. I was interrupted during my salat couple of times by my doctor or nurses who come to check on me and I had to break my salat to let them do a check up or run tests. Was breaking my salat haram in this case?. After they left my room , was I supposed to repeat my salat or just continue where I stopped. Please advise. Salam Alikoum
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is not permissible for someone who has started the obligatory prayer to interrupt it without a sound Islamic reason. The Fiqh Encyclopedia reads: "It is not permissible to discontinue an obligatory act of worship after having started it without a sound reason according to the agreement of the jurists, because discontinuing it consists of improper action, which contravenes the sanctity of the act of worship, as there is an Islamic text about the prohibition of spoiling an act of worship; Allaah says (what means): {…and do not invalidate your deeds.}[Quran 47:33]" [End of quote]
Therefore, if you interrupted your prayer while the doctor could have waited for you to finish or while he could have come back to you after you finished, then you were wrong in interrupting it. But if this is not the case, then we hope that you are not sinful by interrupting it. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 42955.
In any case, you are obliged to repeat it from the beginning and not continue from where you stopped as it became void by interrupting it, so it is an obligation that you repeat it from the beginning.
Allaah Knows best.
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