Is dereliction of Duty a sacrosanct ritual in religion and prayer?

When someone is said to be religious, what do we mean by it? The way they conduct themselves or the way they practise the rituals? When doctors and nurses in the emergency rooms of hospitals abandon their posts to pray, are they being religious or not? These incidents and reports may be about Egypt, but they also hold universal relevance.

Last summer a friend driving his elderly mother from the north coast to Cairo, when his mother, a diabetic, suddenly felt ill. He found a pharmacy ,and a bearded pharmacist. He asked him to give his mother an insulin injection. Amazingly, the pharmacist answered, "Sorry, but I don't give injections to women because that's against Sharia. Go find a female doctor."

He tried persuade the pharmacist, stating they were in a remote area and it’s difficult to find a female doctor, his mother, seventy years old, was not a sexual temptation to the pharmacist. He refused.

Hospitals in Ramadan where employees working in the intensive care, emergency and accident units left work after breaking their fast and wouldn't return for two hours, so that they could say the taraweeh prayers in the mosque. They left their poor patients alone during this time. They considered performing the taraweeh prayers much more important than anything else, even the life of an innocent patient for whom they were responsible. The patients' conditions might deteriorate and they might even die while the doctors and nurses worshiped in the mosque.
True religion requires us to defend human values: truth, justice and freedom. This is the essence of religion and it is much more important than growing beards or giving the call to prayer in the Mosque or Parliament chamber. -Alaa Al Aswany-