705 – Abū al-Yaqẓān ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “When a man lengthens the prayer but shortens the sermon, that is a sign of his understanding of the religion; so lengthen the prayer and shorten the sermon.” Narrated by Muslim.
“Mithna” – with an open mīm, a kasrah on the hamzah, and a doubled nūn – means: a mark indicating his grasp of the Law.

706 – Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Ḥakam al-Sulamī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: While I was praying with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, a man in the congregation sneezed,(1) so I said, “May Allah have mercy on you.” The people stared at me, and I exclaimed, “May my mother be bereaved of me! Why are you looking at me?” They began striking their thighs with their hands,(2) and when I realized they wanted me to be silent, I kept quiet. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finished the prayer—may my father and mother be ransomed for him(3)—I have never seen a teacher before him or after him whose instruction was finer. By Allah, he did not scold me, strike me, or revile me. He simply said, “This prayer is not suitable for any ordinary human speech; it is only glorification (tasbīḥ), declaration of Allah’s greatness (takbīr), and recitation of the Quran,” or words close to that.
I then said, “Messenger of Allah, I have only recently left the time of ignorance, and Allah has brought us Islam. There are men among us who visit soothsayers.”(4) He replied, “Do not go to them.” I said, “And some of us are given to superstition.”(5) He said, “That is something they merely sense within their breasts; let it not hold them back.”(6) Narrated by Muslim.
“Thukl”—with a ḍammah on the initial thā’—means a calamity or affliction. “He did not kahranī me” means: he did not rebuke me.

(1) I.e., one of the worshippers present.
(2) A gesture instructing him to keep silent.
(3) An Arabic idiom expressing deep love and veneration.
(4) Soothsayers who claim knowledge of the unseen.
(5) Tatayyur: taking omens, seeing events or creatures as good or bad luck.
(6) Meaning: such thoughts should not deter them from what they intend to do.