The mention of the hadith of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami, who said: "While I was praying with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), a man from among the people sneezed"

The Shaykh : And another point: advice—as we mentioned in the recent past lesson—must be given in a good manner, as we told you the story of Ibn 'Umar with the one who sneezed and praised Allah, but he added to his praise what Allah did not prescribe on the tongue of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) when he said: "Praise be to Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah"; Ibn 'Umar said: "I say with you: Praise be to Allah, and prayers upon the Messenger of Allah, but this is not how the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) taught us"; so in this manner that Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father 'Umar) adopted is the ultimate in gentleness and the ultimate in impact on the one being advised; therefore, this advice that the Messenger (peace be upon him) commanded in this hadith specifically when seeking advice, and in that hadith generally, should always and forever be accompanied by a good manner, as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: , but we must add to this rule something: many people are dominated by this rule and try to enforce it, enforcing it and continuing with it always and forever, even if there is something that requires the manner to change; I say this to clarify the truth and to understand the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his hadiths that combined both manners, not just one manner.
The first manner is what we mentioned at the beginning of this speech and in the past lesson; it is being gentle with the people who are to be advised, while the other manner sometimes requires strictness, and perhaps requires scolding, not always with soft and gentle words; this is the principle, and this is the rule, but as the scholars of usul al-fiqh said: "There is no general rule that has not been specified"; this general principle is wisdom and gentleness, but wisdom is not always and forever accompanied by gentleness.
We mention, for example, from the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that support the first manner, a great deal and a great deal, and we do not want to elaborate on this as long as all people know this truth and prefer it, and indeed do not exclude anything from it, but I mention a story by way of reminder and teaching for those who may not know it; Imam Muslim narrated in his "Sahih" that beautiful and interesting story, which clarifies for Muslims how the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) treated people with gentleness; this story is narrated by Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami, and I do not want to quote the hadith as it came, but rather I take from it the point; he prayed one day behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so a man next to him sneezed, and he said to him: May Allah have mercy on you. A man stood next to Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami, both of them in prayer, that man sneezed and Mu'awiyah said to him: May Allah have mercy on you; while he was praying like him, so those around him looked at him to silence him, so he became more annoyed and grumbled; because he was not aware of the knowledge and jurisprudence, so he called out at the top of his voice: "Woe to my mother! Why are you looking at me?!" They found no way to silence him because they were in prayer, silent, reciting the Qur'an, remembering Allah, they found no way except to hit their thighs, saying to him: Be quiet; this is not a place for responding to a sneeze; because this is speech.
The point: he says—he is telling about himself—that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) finished the prayer, he turned to me. Imagine the state of a person who, after a scolding, realized that he was wrong; what does he imagine the Messenger (peace be upon him), who is coming to him, will do to him? In our time, if something like this happened, we would see the Shaykh coming toward us, of course he would beat us and curse us and attribute us to ignorance and so on, but the Messenger (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) naturally did not do any of that at all, and this is what the narrator of the story describes, saying: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me, and by Allah he did not overpower me, nor did he humiliate me, nor did he beat me, nor did he curse me, but rather he said to me: , when he was surprised by this gentleness and this teaching, the man hoped to learn from him in that session, so he took him asking, he kept asking the Messenger question after question, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) answered him about every question without any restlessness or annoyance, and I will not prolong this on you as I said; especially since I have mentioned the hadith more than once.