Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
In a medical emergency during prayer, it is not only allowed but obligatory for those nearby to break their Salah and assist. If a doctor is seen in another row, one can walk through the lines, tap them, and ask them to break their prayer to help. Preserving a life is more important than completing the prayer at that moment.
In response to this question, Dr. Yasir Qadhi — the Dean of The Islamic Seminary of America and the resident scholar at the East Plano Islamic Center — states:
This is a very good question, and actually, this is a very necessary question. So if somebody faints in the Salah, the one or two people next to that person should immediately break their Salah and see if it’s something like they recover and it was just a fainting spell and help them up, or if it is an actual legitimate emergency.
If it is an actual emergency, they will call 911. If they see a doctor—because our community knows each other—if they see a doctor in the masjid, they have every right to walk through the Sufuf (rows) and tap the person on the shoulder and say, “Akhi, please break your Salah, there’s an emergency back here.” And that person should break the Salah and come and examine. It is completely not just allowed, it is obligatory, brothers. Your Salah is not more important than a life. You can pray later on.
So when a medical emergency happens, the people—not everybody, again, another thing is too many people break their Salah, no—if you see a person is taking care of the person who’s fainted, that is enough, the job is done unless you’re a doctor. The job is done. If you cannot find another doctor there, call 911, take the person outside if you can. If you need more people, say to somebody there, “I need your help, can you break your Salah?” You can speak to the person, get the help you need, two people carry the person outside. Whatever the medical emergency needs to be done.
But without a doubt, this is something the Shari`ah wants you to do, and understand not only is there no sin, it is obligatory to do so.
Almighty Allah knows best.