Explanation of the Book of Prayer-12

The Shaykh :" And 'Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said:

I asked God’s Messenger about looking to the side during prayer and he said, “It is something which the devil snatches from a servant’s prayer.”

سألت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم عن الالتفات في الصلاة؟ فقال: هو اختلاس يختلسه الشيطان من صلاة العبد

Mishkat al-Masabih 982

. Al-Bukhari narrated it, and al-Tirmidhi narrated it from Anas and graded it authentic:

Avoid looking around when you are engaged in prayer, for looking around is destruction. And if you must do it, do so in the voluntary prayers.

إياك والالتفات في الصلاة فإنه هلكة، فإن كان لابد ففي التطوع

Bulugh al-Maram 2:113

".
Yes, "theft" means taking something secretly. It is as if when Satan wants to diminish a person's prayer, he whispers to him to turn around. His statement that "turning around" here is general, covering turning of the body and turning of the heart. Turning of the body is of two types: turning that invalidates the prayer and turning that diminishes it. This will be discussed in the benefits, if Allah wills.
That is, taking secretly what Satan steals from the prayer of the servant. In al-Tirmidhi's narration, the reason given is that it is destruction, meaning the loss of much good. This requires checking the chain of narration to see if this addition is authentic. Because the principle is that the obligatory and the voluntary are the same, so it needs to be established. I was not able to check it, so let it be checked. Yes.
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Okay, I think you have a reference that says ..., okay.
" I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about turning around " The questioner is 'Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her).