Explanation of the Hadith of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami - may Allah be pleased with him

The Shaykh: Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam, Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami said: "I prayed one day behind the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him - and a man next to me sneezed, so I said to him: May Allah have mercy on you, while he was praying, so they looked at me like this - meaning: to silence me - and I raised my voice and said: Wathakala ummiya! What is it that you are looking at me for? So they began hitting their thighs"; as if they were saying: Be quiet, this is not the time for talking now.
Here, for the sake of jurisprudential benefit, I will pause for a moment: The hitting of the Companions of the Messenger on their thighs behind the Messenger is evidence among many evidences that meaningful gestures in prayer do not invalidate the prayer; because some of the schools of the people of the Sunnah say that if one makes a meaningful gesture in prayer, his prayer is invalid, because they considered the meaningful gesture like meaningful speech. For example: the boy or the girl or the mother enters and the man is praying, are you now praying the obligatory prayer or the voluntary one? Are you praying the obligatory one? It is understood that you are not? Then the prayer is invalid, are you praying the obligatory one? I am praying the obligatory one; so the questioner followed me, this is called a meaningful gesture, do I take the book? He took the book; understood, a meaningful gesture, this in the Hanafi school invalidates the prayer, in the other schools it does not invalidate the prayer, where did the Hanafis take this ruling from? From analogy, from derivation, do I take the book? Take the book, the prayer is invalid, it is clear because it is speech, well the meaningful gesture took the place of speech, they took this serious ruling from analogy, for that reason we say and we are in a matter we move to another; because this is the jurisprudence and this is the knowledge, incidentally some scientific benefits appear that the people, or rather the masses of people, may need.
Analogy is not resorted to except out of dire necessity, there is no dire necessity, we are now burdening the backs of Muslims with heavy jurisprudential issues, and especially if this derivation contradicts the Sunnah, the authentic Sunnah upon which the righteous Salaf proceeded, and we are now in such a Sunnah; that man whose name is Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami seems that he was new to Islam, so he heard a man sneeze in prayer and said to him: May Allah have mercy on you, this became speech, those around him knew that this speech is not permissible, so they looked at him with a meaningful look, a meaningful gesture with the eye, so he was fed up and shouted at the top of his voice, evidence that he was new to Islam and to prayer and its rulings, so he raised his voice and said: Wathakala ummiya! What does Wathakala ummiya mean? It means: My mother lost me, what did you do to me, why are you hitting your thighs and looking at me with your eyes, and so on.
When he heard the hitting on the thighs, he understood that he was wrong, but he did not know what the reason was, but his awareness that he had made a mistake remained, as I imagine from the hadith, he began to imagine what the Messenger would do with him now? He made a mistake in prayer, in the worship of Allah - Mighty and Majestic - and he might imagine, as some people imagine today, that if an imam notices a mistake by one of the worshippers behind him, he would scold him and perhaps humiliate him, and so on, he might imagine that the Messenger would do this with him, but his hope was disappointed; he did not see from the Messenger but every kindness; and therefore he expresses this reality by saying: "So when the Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him - finished the prayer, he turned to me", he turned to me, what would the Messenger do with him now, he said: "By Allah, he did not hit me, nor did he force me, nor did he compel me, nor did he insult me, but he only said to me: ". When this man found this kindness from the Messenger - peace be upon him - and everything from his nature is beautiful, he was encouraged to ask the Messenger and learn, as our companion asked just now, he said: O Messenger of Allah, some of us come to the fortune-tellers. He said: . And fortune-telling has types, I say now, fortune-telling has types, among them: summoning the jinn, except in the narrow limits that we mentioned to you, and there is nothing in it of the meaning of summoning at all, it is only ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation), "he said: ". He said: Some of us take omens. He said: . Taking omens is pessimism, known to you, and pessimism may happen to a person against his will without intention, so he is not held accountable, but he is held accountable if he responds to the omen and to the pessimism.
I give an example of the way the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance used to be pessimistic in the past, and it may happen in the present, in the past why was it called "Tayr" (omen), Tayr is derived from birds, the man of the pre-Islamic age would prepare himself for one, two, or three days, he would gather his provisions, prepare his mount, and so on, to travel, he would ride the mount and set out, the first bird that flies in front of him, if it flew to the right, he would turn right and feel reassured and look forward to good, if it flew to the left, this journey is ill-omened, he would return to his house, after all the long and extensive preparation, Glory be to Allah! If this bird knows good and evil; is it then more capable of that than this human being? This human being's intellect is more foolish than the bird's intellect because he believed in the bird more than he believed in himself, the bird is an animal, it saw the human coming to it, it wants to fly, right or left, without guidance, yet he considered it as guidance, as if the bird is saying to him: follow me, if I walk right, continue your path, if I fly left, do not continue your path, from here Tayr (omen) was derived. Today - for example - I say an example: a person prepares for travel, he takes his bag and goes out of the door, and there are two people quarreling with each other, one says to the other - who has no relation to this traveler - : "May Allah not make you successful", this enters his head, he turns it onto himself and becomes pessimistic about it and takes an omen and cancels what? He travels. So if he took an omen and proceeded on his way, there is no accountability on him, yes, he had a bit of a squeamishness like this when he heard the words "May Allah not make you successful", but he remembered the saying of the Messenger: , he proceeded on his way.
So Tayr (omen) is of two types: Tayr that a person is surprised by, so there is no accountability, but Tayr that a person responds to, so it is from the pre-Islamic age of ignorance; so it is not permissible.
Some of us take omens. He said: . He said: O Messenger of Allah, some of us draw lines; meaning drawing in the sand, and this exists to this day, he said: . This is called by the scholars "hanging on the impossible"; there was a prophet among the prophets who was given a prophetic miracle by drawing in the sand to discover some of the hidden things, like revelation from the sky descending upon him, revelation, he would say: such and such will happen, a special privilege from Allah for him, so Allah gave that prophet this knowledge of drawing in the sand, so the Messenger - peace be upon him - connects it in a very beautiful Arabic way: , and is it possible for a person who is not a prophet and not infallible to match the line of that infallible prophet?! This is called hanging on the impossible, the meaning of that: do not draw in the sand; because this - also - is a type of fortune-telling.