It was established in Legends sources (I think the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels was one, but I seem to have lost my copy) that every hyperdrive has a built-in failsafe that cuts it off when too close to a large gravitational body (such as a planet or star). It is supposed to be dangerous and difficult or impossible to override this failsafe, which is why the Interdictor-class Star Destroyers are possible (see http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperdrive/Legends )
However, in A New Hope, Han mentions in reference to hyperspace travel, "Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star", suggesting that either these failsafes don't exist in movie canon, or that he has managed to disable the failsafe on the Falcon (not too hard to believe given how heavily he has modified other aspects of the ship).
Alternatively, we see evidence throughout The Force Awakens that technology has advanced in the three decades since ROTJ, so perhaps the failsafes have gotten more precise.
A more difficult question is how Han manages to deactivate the hyperdrive manually (we see him pull the lever!) while traveling faster than the speed of light with such precise timing that he ends up meters from the surface.
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