What is the ruling on speech required for necessity or obligation during prayer?

Chapter on the Two Prostrations of Forgetfulness

Al-Mughni

Book of Prayer

Book 3 · Issue 6 · Bab 7

Open in Qurani

Primary text

If a person speaks due to a necessary obligation, such as fearing a blind person or a child falling into peril, seeing a snake approaching an unwary person, or seeing a fire about to spread, and the warning cannot be given through glorification (tasbih), our colleagues (Ashabuna) hold that the prayer is invalidated. This aligns with some Ashafi'i scholars, based on the ruling concerning coerced speech. However, it is probable that the prayer is not invalidated, which appears to be the manifest view of Imam Ahmad, who reasoned that the Prophet and his Companions spoke because responding to them was obligatory upon the companions. This obligation is present in matters of necessity. The sound position among Ashafi'i scholars is that the prayer is not invalidated in all these categories because the speech is an obligatory utterance, similar to responding to the Prophet.

Supporting text

The sound opinion here is that the prayer is not invalidated, as the speech is an obligatory matter for the speaker, similar to the required speech of one responding to the Prophet.