Nasai

Hadith Commentary: Benefits and Issues:
The people of Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic ignorance) believed that the stars themselves were inherently effective, that is, they considered them to be the direct cause, agent, and doer of bringing down rain, and did not regard Allah Ta’ala as the true effective cause and bringer of rain. Therefore, even now, whoever holds such a belief will be a disbeliever (kafir).

However, if a person believes that Allah Ta’ala is the true effective cause (mu’aththir haqiqi) and holds the conviction that causing and withholding rain is the work of Allah Ta’ala—if He wills and bestows His grace and mercy, He will send down the rain of mercy, otherwise there will be no rain—but considers the rising and setting of certain stars as a sign and indication of rain, or, just as He has placed the effect of burning in fire and the effect of quenching thirst in water, He has placed some effect in a star as well, then such a person will not be a disbeliever.

However, due to not attributing the rain to the true effective cause and to the One whose grace and mercy resulted in the rain, and instead attributing it to an apparent sign, he will be guilty of ingratitude and thanklessness, and his statement will resemble the statement of the disbelievers.

Benefit:
From such ahadith, one should not misunderstand that no matter how many sins a person who prays commits, there is no harm. Because a deficiency in the etiquettes of prayer and in humility and submissiveness (khushu‘ and khudu‘) also results in a deficiency in the forgiveness of sins.
And it is also possible that due to some grave sin, a person is not even granted the ability (tawfiq) to perform prayer at all. In fact, sometimes the prayer is so deficient that instead of bringing a person closer to Allah Ta‘ala, it causes Allah Ta‘ala to become even more displeased with him.