Lord of the worlds, and may prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his Companions

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his Companions:
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted, in the context of the hadiths in the chapter on admonition and moderation therein: "From Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:

While I was praying with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), a man from among the people sneezed, and I said: "May Allah have mercy on you." The people cast their eyes at me! I said: "O that my mother had died! What is the matter with you that you are looking at me?" They began to strike their hands on their thighs! When I saw them silencing me, I remained silent. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished his prayer, by my father and my mother, I had never seen a teacher before him or after him who was better at teaching than he. By Allah, he did not rebuke me, nor strike me, nor insult me. He said: "Indeed, in this prayer, nothing of the speech of people is appropriate; it is only glorification, saying Allahu akbar, and recitation of the Qur'an - or as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, I am a recent convert from the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, and Allah has brought Islam, and there are men among us who visit the fortune-tellers?" He said: "Do not visit them." I said: "And there are men among us who take omens?" He said: "That is something they find in their hearts, so let it not deter them"

بينا أصلي مع رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، إذ عطس رجل من القوم فقلت: يرحمك الله، فرماني القوم بأبصارهم! فقلت: واثكل أُمِّياه ! ما شأنكم تنظرون إليّ ؟ فجعلوا يضربون بأيديهم على أفخاذهم ! فلما رأيتهم يصمتونني لكني سكت.
فلمَّا صلى رسولُ الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، فبأبي هو وأمي، ما رأيتُ مُعلّمًا قبله ولا بعده أحسن تعليمًا منه، فوالله ما كَهَرني ولا ضربني ولا شتمني، قال: إن هذه الصلاة لا يصلحُ فيها شيء من كلام الناس، إنما هي التسبيح والتكبير، وقراءةُ القرآن -أو كما قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم- قلتُ: يا رسول الله، إني حديث عهد بجاهلية، وقد جاء الله بالإسلام، وإنا منا رجالًا يأتون الكُهان؟ قال: فلا تأتهم، قلت: ومنا رجال يتطيرون؟ قال: ذاك شيء يجدونه في صدورهم، فلا يصدّهم

Narrated by Muslim".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
The author al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said in *Riyad al-Salihin*, in the chapter: Admonition and moderation therein, in the context of the hadith of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam (may Allah be pleased with him), regarding which we have already discussed its beginning until we reached his saying (may Allah be pleased with him): : He said this to clarify his state before and his state after, and to speak of Allah's blessing upon him, for he was in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance where they did not recognize what is right or forbid what is wrong except what was customary among them, and Allah came to us with this Islam, the clear light and the great criterion, which clarified the truth from falsehood, the beneficial from the harmful, faith from disbelief, and the oneness of Allah from associating partners with Allah, among other things by which Allah has bestowed upon this Muslim community through Islam.
Then he said (may Allah be pleased with him): : The fortune-tellers were men upon whom the jinn devils would descend with what they heard of news from the heavens, then they would tell the people what the devils had informed them of, and they would add to the true news!