Abu Dawud

1192. Commentary: Since prayer (salah) is, in reality, whispering to Allah, to be distracted or to engage in idle actions while conversing with someone is a sign of inattentiveness. It is evident that when a person is inattentive to Allah during prayer, Allah also turns away from him, and that person is deprived of Allah’s mercy. However, if there is a need—for example, to smooth the place for prostration (sajdah)—then he may smooth the pebbles only once; otherwise, he will remain restless throughout the prostration and the humility (khushu‘) of the prayer will be lost.

Commentary:
1:
The reason for this prohibition is that the person performing prayer should not turn his attention to anything other than the prayer itself, because Allah’s mercy is directed towards him. If he turns his attention to other things, there is a fear that Allah’s mercy may turn away from him and he may be deprived of it; therefore, this has been prohibited.

Note:
(Abu’l-Ahwas is lenient in hadith narration)

Lexical Explanation:
«فَلَا يَمْسَح» means not to remove pebbles from the place where the forehead is placed or where prostration (sujud) is performed.
«اَلْحُصٰي» refers to small pebbles, tiny stones.
«زَادَ أَحْمَدُ» Imam Ahmad has narrated an additional point that if there is an extreme need to remove the pebbles, then one may remove them once or leave them, and should not touch them with the hand.
«بِغَيْرِ تَعْلِيلِ» The reason, cause, or wisdom is not mentioned in this narration, i.e., it is not stated here that Allah’s mercy turns towards him.

Benefits and Issues:
➊ This hadith guides that one should not level or clean the place of prostration during prayer; if there is a need for this, it should be done before the prayer.
➋ The reason for this prohibition seems to be that during prayer, one should not be concerned with anything other than the prayer itself. If, due to prostration, the forehead becomes dusty, it should not be cleaned with the hand or cloth during the prayer, because at that moment Allah’s mercy is directed towards the worshipper. If the worshipper performs such an act, there is a fear of being deprived of mercy; however, in case of severe necessity, it is permissible.

Hadith Narrator:
(Sayyiduna Mu’ayqib radi Allahu anhu) The “mim” has a dammah and the “ayn” has a fathah. Mu’ayqib bin Abu Fatimah was called Dusi due to his affiliation with the tribe of Daws. He was among the early Muslims of Makkah. He participated in the second migration to Abyssinia. He took part in the Battle of Badr. The ring of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to be with him; he was appointed over the seal of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr and Sayyiduna Umar radi Allahu anhuma appointed him as the treasurer of the Bayt al-Mal. He passed away during the caliphate of Sayyiduna Uthman radi Allahu anhu.