The story of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami while he was praying behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

The Shaykh : Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami relates to us a story that happened to him while he was praying behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This story is not like the stories told for entertainment and to pass the time; rather, it is a story containing knowledge and jurisprudence in both its aspects: creed and rulings. He said: "One day I prayed behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and a man next to me sneezed. Imagine this story as if you are watching it, because the one who is telling it is the one who experienced it. He says: A man next to me sneezed, so I said to him: 'May Allah have mercy on you.' And he was praying. What does this indicate to us? That he was a recent convert to Islam, and that he had not yet become well-versed in the legal rulings, especially those related to prayer—what is permissible in it and what is not. Therefore, this mistake came from him. He said to the one who sneezed—and both of them were in prayer: 'May Allah have mercy on you.' Those around him were more knowledgeable than he was, so they looked at him with their eyes. He said, annoyed by these looks that made him feel he had made a mistake, he added one mistake to another when he raised his voice shouting while praying: 'Wathakal ummiah! Why are you looking at me?' He thought he had done nothing wrong in his opinion. So what did those around him do? This too is part of their jurisprudence. This verse was revealed to command people to remain silent and quiet in prayer, abolishing the practice they were accustomed to before, in the early days of Islam; for they used to speak in prayer. A man would enter the mosque and find the imam standing and the people around him, not knowing whether it was the first or second rak'ah. He would ask the one standing next to him: 'Which rak'ah is this?' He would say to him: 'This is the second or third rak'ah.' So what does he do? He performs the missed rak'ah or rak'ahs, and then? He completes the prayer with the imam. So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) abolished this speech and this questioning in prayer by the revelation of this verse ; meaning, be silent and humble. Those around Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami were well-versed in jurisprudence and influenced by this verse, so they could not silence him except as he described himself: 'So they began hitting their thighs, saying to him: Be silent, this is not a place for speech.'
This hitting of the thighs is a response to a jurisprudential issue in one of the four schools of jurisprudence that we mentioned earlier; where this school says: that a meaningful gesture from the one praying invalidates his prayer. For example, if you were standing in prayer, and your wife or son came and asked you: 'Are you praying the sunnah?' and you said to him: 'Yes.' Your prayer is invalid according to the opinion of this school which says that a meaningful gesture invalidates the prayer. What is a meaningful gesture more than hitting the thighs?
Be silent, this is not the time for speech in prayer; so he continued in the prayer after that, and he knew that he had made the greatest mistake. Therefore, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, various images and scenarios went through his mind, wondering what the Messenger (peace be upon him) would do with him for the mistakes he committed? He said—and here something of his character (peace be upon him) is revealed, which his Lord described in the Qur'an —he said: 'When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me.' What would one of you do if he did this with an imam from the imams you are afflicted with? What would happen to him? He would tremble. He said: '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 humiliate me, nor hit me, nor insult me, but rather he said to me: , there is no taking or giving in it, . The matter ended.'
And you see here that despite all the mistakes he made, he did not order him to repeat the prayer. So, a mistake in prayer does not invalidate it either. This is part of the jurisprudence of what? This hadith. The point of the hadith: after he came; but I think you feel with me that there is jurisprudence and benefit in it. This man, when he was surprised by something other than what he had imagined, surprised by the gentleness of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his good teaching of him, he hoped to learn; because he knew that he was in need of knowledge. So he began to throw question after question at the Messenger (peace be upon him), saying: 'O Messenger of Allah, some of us are superstitious.' Superstition is what is known today as pessimism, and both are known in the Arabic language. So Mu'awiyah said: 'Some of us are superstitious.' He (peace be upon him) said: , superstition should not prevent you, meaning: it should not be a cause that diverts you from what you are intending and heading toward. -- May Allah have mercy on you -- What does mean? We must fully feel that there is a great difference in this Prophetic expression from what he would have said if he had said: 'Do not be superstitious.' He did not say: 'Do not be superstitious.' He said: 'Some of us are superstitious.' It was supposed that superstition is not prescribed, do not be superstitious, people. He did not say to him: 'Do not be superstitious.' But he said: , what is the difference? Allah is the Greatest! The difference lies in His saying (the Exalted): , superstition surprises a person suddenly, but his response to it is from his will. Here the matter returns to choice. A person hears a word and becomes pessimistic about it, but his faith diverts him from it. For example, a person prepares his affairs, his provisions, and his journey... and so on, and opens the door after he has bid farewell to his family; and lo, he hears the voice of a person saying to him: 'May Allah not make you successful.' He imagines that it is directed at what? At him, while he is quarreling with a person. By chance, it falls on the ear of this traveler who is determined to travel, and he becomes pessimistic about it, and returns to his home; this is what is not permissible. As for the fact that he means sudden pessimism, a person is not held accountable for it, but his response to superstition is what the Messenger (peace be upon him) meant by his saying... He said: 'O Messenger of Allah, some of us draw lines.' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , meaning that drawing lines in the sand was a miracle for a previous prophet; so if the drawing of these people, the liars, matches the drawing of those truthful prophets, then so be it, meaning: he is correct. And this is called by the scholars 'conditioning on the impossible'; because it is impossible that the liar would coincide with the truth that was a miracle for the noble prophets.
Meaning: this phrase means; but this is the eloquent language of the Arabs, meaning that this is deception. Drawing lines in the sand is deception; because it is a claim of something that is the exclusive attribute of the prophets, as some of these liars do today who claim to have knowledge of the unseen, and they exploit this claim to gain the money of people and eat it by illicit and false means. And the unseen is among the attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and then He explicitly stated in the Noble Qur'an that ; so those who claim to have knowledge of the unseen claim as if they are being inspired from the sky, so they are liars. And the Messenger (peace be upon him) says: , so his saying (peace be upon him): this is called 'conditioning on the impossible', meaning that the use of drawing lines and astrology is misguidance upon misguidance.