It is said that the Prophet (pbuh) never yawned in his life; is it true?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Our Prophet (pbuh) has two aspects: being a prophet as the Messenger of Allah and being a servant as His slave. He conveyed to people what he took from Allah as a prophet and he himself practiced them first in the best way. Therefore, it cannot be thought that the Prophet, who did not regard yawning appropriate and who asked his ummah to avoid it, yawned.  

Yawning is not regarded appropriate especially while performing prayers; we are advised to prevent yawning in prayers.

If a person yawns or stretches while performing a prayer, it shows that he does not understand anything from the prayer and he does not know what he is doing. A prayer that is performed liked that without being conscious will disturb the people around and it will not prevent man from “shameful and unjust deeds” mentioned in the Quran. That is, it will not prevent a person from evil and ugly deeds. Therefore, a prayer needs to be performed as soon as its time starts without delaying it and without being affected by tiredness and laziness. As a matter of fact, it should not be forgotten that Satan detains man and makes him delay the prayer. A person who performs prayer in such a heedless and sluggish way needs to know whose presence he is in and perform his prayer in a conscious and active way. 

Thus, the Prophet (pbuh) warned people on different occasions and said that to yawn in a prayer was of Satan because he did not like people performing prayers heedlessly. As a matter of fact, in a hadith reported from Abu Hırayra, the Prophet (pbuh) stated that yawning even at other times is also of Satan:

“Yawning is of Satan. When one of you is about to yawn, he should hold it as much as he can.” [Muslim, Zuhd, 56, (2994); Tirmidhi, Salat, 273/370; A. Hanbal, Musnad, II/ 397, 517]

In a hadith reaching us through Abu Said all-Khudri, it is reported that the Messenger of Allah said,  

“When one of you is about to yawn in prayer, he should hold it as much as he can because Satan will enter through his mouth.” [Muslim, Zuhd, 57, (2995), 58, 59]

When the hadiths are studied, it will be seen that we are ordered to prevent and hold yawning both in a prayer and in a community, and to avoiding opening the mouth wide while yawning.

A Muslim needs to be a gentle and kind person who obeys the rules of good manners anywhere he is. For, when he does a good or a bad deed (especially a bad deed), it is associated with the religion he represents. Therefore, our Prophet (pbuh), who is the kindest and gentlest person, emphasized that a Muslim should act very carefully, control himself and should not open his mouth wide so as not to disgust people. In addition, he knows that a person who yawns by opening his mouth wide will be left partly defenseless; therefore, he warns people with this hadith against the microbes and other unwanted things that can enter his body through his mouth.

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