How to return salaams to one who offers his hand in greeting during the khutbah
Question If the imaam is preaching and someone greets you and offers his hand, what is the ruling? Praise be to Allah. Gesture to him if it is the time of the khutbah, and put your hand in his, without speaking, because the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) commanded…
Question
Praise be to Allah.
Gesture to him if it is the time of the khutbah, and
put your hand in his, without speaking, because the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) commanded us to listen to
the khutbah. He said, “If you say to your companion on Friday, ‘Listen!’
when the imaam is preaching, then you have engaged in idle speech.”
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, al-Jumu’ah, 882; Muslim, al-Jumu’ah,
1404. Agreed upon).
He described his enjoining something good as being “idle
speech” (laghw) at the time of the khutbah, so how about other
kinds of speech? And the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, according to a saheeh
hadeeth, “Whoever plays with the pebbles (on the ground) has engaged
in idle speech (laghw).” (Narrated by Muslim, al-Jumu’ah,
1419)
At Jumu’ah prayers, the believer should listen to the
khutbah and be humble and solemn, he should beware of playing with pebbles
on the ground or anything else. If someone greets him he should gesture
to him without speaking. If he puts his hand in his when he offers his
hand, without speaking, that is OK, as stated above. He should tell
him after the khutbah that he should not have done that, and that which
is prescribed if one comes in when the imaam is preaching is to pray
two rak’ahs to “greet the mosque” and not to say salaams to anyone until
after the khutbah has ended. If he sneezes he should praise Allaah (say
“al-hamdu Lillah”) to himself without speaking out loud.
