There is a video making the rounds which depicts an imam, apparently named Talha, dying while leading Fajr prayer in a masjid in Egypt/ He collapses before coming up from ruku’ and then someone steps forward from the saff to take his place leading the Salah, and when they make taslim, everyone tends to him, and he is dead.
OK, I honestly don’t know if this is real of staged — most likely staged — but I don’t know what is worse: leaving a man to die or teaching people that they are supposed to do that.
The first few moments are crucial when someone collapses, and resuscitation attempts need to be made as soon as possible. If you just ignore a dying man because you want to finish your Salah, sorry, but you are guilty of criminal negligence. Prayer is stopped by a dog or a donkey, but not by the keeling over of the imam?
When ‘Umar bin Al Khattab was stabbed, the men in the first rows rushed to help him, and fought to catch the killer. Does anyone need to be told that they should do this? SubhanAllah!
This reminds me of a dodgy story I read when I first came to Islam about Abdullah bin Bishr, when he was on lookout one night, decided to pray tahajjud, and came under attack. The story goes that he was struck 3 times by arrows, but did not awaken his companion until he completed his prayer. That story gets told a lot, and presumably we are supposed to be in awe of his iman. But, come on; first of all, if you are on lookout duty, you are on lookout duty — you do not decide to immerse yourself in Salah instead of remaining vigilant. Secondly, if you fail to alert your companions when you come under attack, you are endangering them. I’ve no idea what the source is for this story, but on the face of it, it cannot be authentic.
Obviously, being in Salah is a sacred and solemn thing, but Wallahi, I cannot see how it can be acceptable to leave a Muslim dying on the floor just because you do not want to repeat your prayer!