عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَالَ حَدِّثِ النَّاسَ، كُلَّ جُمُعَةٍ مَرَّةً، فَإِنْ أَبَيْتَ فَمَرَّتَيْنِ، فَإِنَّ أَكْثَرْتَ فَثَلاَثَ مِرَارٍ وَلاَ تُمِلَّ النَّاسَ هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ، وَلاَ أُلْفِيَنَّكَ تَأْتِي الْقَوْمَ وَهُمْ فِي حَدِيثٍ مِنْ حَدِيثِهِمْ فَتَقُصُّ عَلَيْهِمْ، فَتَقْطَعُ عَلَيْهِمْ حَدِيثَهُمْ فَتُمِلُّهُمْ، وَلَكِنْ أَنْصِتْ، فَإِذَا أَمَرُوكَ فَحَدِّثْهُمْ وَهُمْ يَشْتَهُونَهُ، فَانْظُرِ السَّجْعَ مِنَ الدُّعَاءِ فَاجْتَنِبْهُ، فَإِنِّي عَهِدْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَأَصْحَابَهُ لاَ يَفْعَلُونَ إِلاَّ ذَلِكَ‏.‏ يَعْنِي لاَ يَفْعَلُونَ إِلاَّ ذَلِكَ الاِجْتِنَابَ‏

Narrated `Ikrima:
Ibn `Abbas (radiallahu anhu) said, “Preach to the people once a week, and if you won’t, then preach them twice, but if you want to preach more, then let it be three times (a week only), and do not make the people fed-up with this Qur’an.If you come to some people who are engaged in a talk, don’t start interrupting their talk by preaching, lest you should cause them to be bored. You should rather keep quiet, and if they ask you, then preach to them at the time when they are eager to hear what you say. And avoid the use of rhymed prose in invocation for I noticed that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) and his companions always avoided it” [Bukhari no. 6337].

Hafdih Ibn Hajr rahimahullah:

“In this Hadith is the dislike to preach to one who will not accept it and the prohibition to interrupt the speech of another and that it is not necessary to spread knowledge to one who is not eager for it…”

[Fathul-Bari (11/139)]

And Aisha radiallahu anha said:

إِذَا رَأَيْتَ قَوْمًا يَتَحَدَّثُونَ فَلا تَقْطَعْ حَدِيثَهُمْ

“If you see people speaking, then do not interrupt their speech”

[Reported by al-Kharaaiti in Musaawi ul-Akhlaaq no. 545 pg.243 and gradedSaheeh by the Muhaqiq of the book]

Translated by

Faisal Ibn Abdul Qaadir Ibn Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan