Explanation of the hadith of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami when he was in prayer and a man next to him sneezed, so he said to him, "May Allah have mercy on you"

The Shaykh : And another example from what came in the Prophetic biography is the story of that other man whose name was Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami, , and they knew that this kind of response to a sneeze is not permissible in prayer because it falls under the category of conversation. And this was permissible in the early days of Islam, meaning it was permissible in the early days of Islam for the one who came to the mosque to speak to the man standing in prayer. For example, a man would enter the mosque and ask the one standing next to him, "Which rak'ah is this?" He would say, for example, "This is the second rak'ah," so he would pray one rak'ah and catch up with the imam in the second rak'ah and say the closing salam with the imam, until one day Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) came and found the imam standing in prayer. He did not say anything but followed him. When the imam said the salam, he stood up and made up what he had missed of the prayer. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , meaning there is no need anymore for you to sit and talk to each other; the one outside the prayer asks the one in the prayer which rak'ah it is, and when he alerts him, he stands up and prays what he missed previously, then joins the imam, not starting from the beginning as the imam is, which is the established ruling today. So when the imam says the salam and it becomes clear to the one who joined late that he owes one or two rak'ahs, he stands up and prays them, then says the salam. This was Mu'adh's practice, but the Messenger approved it and clarified that it was correct. This indicates that they used to talk in prayer in the early days of Islam. And from that also, a man would come to a man who was praying and greet him, and he (peace be upon him) would return the greeting verbally. A man would be praying and another would come to him and say, "Peace be upon you," and the one praying would say, "And upon you peace," and it was not a reprehensible matter in the early days of Islam, until this ruling was lifted and changed to returning the greeting with a gesture, and his verbal return was abrogated. And that was , so I was overwhelmed with thought, meaning I kept going back and forth, looking at what I did, what I did, what mistake I made with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) until he deprived me of returning the greeting to me, as was done before, where the one praying would return the greeting to the one who greeted him verbally. He said: So the speech that was permissible in the early days of Islam was abrogated, and among that was returning the greeting to the Muslim, responding to the sneezer, and the response of the one who responds, "May Allah guide you and set your affairs right." This was established in the early days of Islam. It seems that Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami had heard of this previous ruling, so when the man in front of him sneezed, he said to him, "May Allah have mercy on you," while he was praying. As for those around him, they knew that this kind of exchange of speech in prayer is not permissible, so they looked at him with the corners of their eyes, silencing him. But he became more agitated and angry, so he said while in prayer, raising his voice: "Woe to my mother, why are you looking at me?" He did not realize, the poor man, that everything he was doing was sinking him in error and deepening it. He did not realize, so when he felt that the group was hinting at him with their eyes to silence him, the matter became great for him, and he raised his voice and said, "Woe to my mother," which is an Arabic expression meaning "my mother buried me," like the common people say today, "May she bury me," in the sense of a prayer for good. As for him, he said, "May my mother be bereaved of me, woe to my mother, why are you looking at me?" This look accompanied by disapproval of what he did, and he thought he had done nothing but good. He said: "So they began striking their thighs with their hands to silence him, 'Be quiet.'" He said: "When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, and the witness here is that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to me. He said: 'By Allah, he did not humiliate me, nor dominate me, nor hit me, nor insult me, but he only said to me: what he said to that Bedouin who urinated in the mosque, despite the fact that he urinated in the mosque. He said to him: Similarly, here the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami after he spoke words that invalidate the prayer: Just as he said, and we add to it. He said, when he saw the Messenger coming toward him, let us imagine an incident happening today in a large or small mosque with an ignorant man, where such an incident occurs. What would be the position of the people, and foremost among them the imam of the mosque? It would be nothing but humiliation, scolding, reprimand, and contempt for him, and "O ignorant one, O such and such," and so on. He thought that when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) finished his prayer, he would come to him with such severe disapproval, but he was surprised by the opposite. So he says: "By Allah, ."