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Further Issues Concerning the Eclipse Prayer Following on from what was previously written concerning the eclipse prayer, there are several further matters that are worth clarifying due to some questions and observations that have arisen. Among them are the Sunnah of lengthening the eclipse prayer, the purpose behind this lengthening, what should be done by someone who genuinely finds its length difficult, the relevance of astronomical predictions concerning its duration, and the ruling concerning the latecomer who misses part of the prayer. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Sunnah Is to Lengthen the Eclipse Prayer There should be no ambiguity concerning the basic Sunnah in this matter: the eclipse prayer is legislated as a lengthy prayer. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما described the prayer of the Prophet ﷺ during the eclipse, saying: “فقام قياما طويلا نحوا من سورة البقرة” “He stood for a lengthy standing, approximately the length of Sūrat al-Baqarah.” Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1052; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 907. The narration is explicit concerning the considerable length of the first standing. Likewise, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها narrated: “فقام فأطال القيام، ثم ركع فأطال الركوع، ثم قام فأطال القيام وهو دون القيام الأول، ثم ركع فأطال الركوع وهو دون الركوع الأول” “He stood and prolonged the standing, then bowed and prolonged the bowing. He then stood and prolonged the standing, although it was shorter than the first standing. He then bowed and prolonged the bowing, although it was shorter than the first bowing.” Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1046; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 901. Thus, lengthening was not confined merely to the recitation. The standing was lengthy, the rukūʿ was lengthy, and the authentic narrations also establish lengthening the prostration. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Scholars Explicitly Mentioned Reciting Sūrat al-Baqarah The scholars did not regard the lengthy recitation reported from the Prophet ﷺ as something exceptional which was subsequently to be abandoned. Ibn Qudāmah رحمه الله said when describing the recommended manner of Ṣalāt al-Kusūf: “وجملته أن المستحب في صلاة الكسوف أن يصلي ركعتين، يحرم بالأولى، ويستفتح، ويستعيذ، ويقرأ الفاتحة وسورة البقرة، أو قدرها في الطول” “In summary, what is recommended in the eclipse prayer is that he prays two rakʿahs. He begins the first, recites the opening supplication and seeks refuge in Allāh, then recites al-Fātiḥah and Sūrat al-Baqarah, or something equivalent to it in length.” Al-Mughnī (2/143). An-Nawawī رحمه الله likewise states: “والسنة أن يقرأ في القيام الأول بعد الفاتحة سورة البقرة أو قدرها” “The Sunnah is that in the first standing, after al-Fātiḥah, he recites Sūrat al-Baqarah or its equivalent.” Al-Majmūʿ Sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab (5/52–56). Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله said: “فإذا عظم الكسوف طول الصلاة حتى يقرأ بالبقرة ونحوها في أول ركعة” “When the eclipse is great, he lengthens the prayer, to the extent that he recites al-Baqarah or something similar to it in the first rakʿah.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (24/260). Therefore, reciting approximately Sūrat al-Baqarah in the first standing cannot properly be described as extremism or religious excess. It is a practice established by the authentic Sunnah and expressly mentioned by the scholars when describing the complete manner of the eclipse prayer. The fact that people may have become accustomed to considerably shorter prayers does not alter the Prophetic description of this particular prayer. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The State of the Prophet ﷺ When the Eclipse Occurred The manner in which the Prophet ﷺ responded to the eclipse also explains why the prayer was performed with such seriousness and length. Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī رضي الله عنه narrated: “خسفت الشمس فقام النبي ﷺ فزعا يخشى أن تكون الساعة، فأتى المسجد فصلى بأطول قيام وركوع وسجود رأيته قط يفعله” “The sun was eclipsed, so the Prophet ﷺ arose in alarm, fearing that it might be the Hour. He came to the mosque and prayed with the longest standing, bowing and prostration that I had ever seen him perform.” Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1059; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 912. The narration combines two important matters: the Prophet ﷺ was alarmed by what he witnessed, and his response was an exceptionally lengthy prayer. He ﷺ said: “فإذا رأيتم شيئا من ذلك فافزعوا إلى ذكره ودعائه واستغفاره” “When you see anything of that, then hasten in alarm to His remembrance, supplication and seeking His forgiveness.” Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 1059; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 912. The eclipse prayer is therefore a prayer of fear, humility, repentance, remembrance and turning to Allāh. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Objective Is to Remain Engaged in Worship Until the Eclipse Clears Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله said: “والمقصود أن تكون الصلاة وقت الكسوف إلى أن يتجلى، فإن فرغ من الصلاة قبل التجلي ذكر الله ودعاه إلى أن يتجلى” “The objective is that the prayer should take place during the eclipse until it clears. If he finishes the prayer before it clears, he remembers Allāh and supplicates to Him until it clears.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (24/260). This gives an important benefit concerning the reason for lengthening the prayer. If the congregation finishes the prayer while the eclipse remains, they do not begin another eclipse prayer. Rather, they occupy themselves with remembrance of Allāh, duʿāʾ, seeking forgiveness, charity and the other acts commanded by the Prophet ﷺ. Shaykh ʿAbdul-ʿAzīz ibn Bāz رحمه الله likewise stated that if the eclipse remains after the prayer, the people occupy themselves with dhikr, duʿāʾ and charity. Source: https://binbaz.org.sa/audios/3285/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D9%83%D8%B1-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%81 Thus, the considerable length of the Prophetic prayer is entirely consistent with the objective of remaining occupied with worship during this tremendous sign of Allāh. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ What About Astronomical Predictions of the Duration? Astronomical calculations concerning when an eclipse is expected to begin and how long it is expected to last do not in themselves contradict the Sharīʿah. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله stated: “الخسوف والكسوف لهما أوقات مقدرة” “Lunar and solar eclipses have determined times.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (24/258–260). He also said: “والكسوف يطول زمانه تارة ويقصر أخرى بحسب ما يكسف منها” “The eclipse sometimes lasts for a long time and at other times is shorter, according to how much of it is eclipsed.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (24/260). The issue, therefore, is not whether astronomical calculations can accurately predict an eclipse. The question is whether those calculations should replace the Sunnah as the criterion according to which the worship itself is performed. They should not. Knowing beforehand that an eclipse is expected to last a particular length of time may be useful information, but it does not transform a prayer which the Sunnah characterises by considerable length into an ordinary short prayer merely because a timetable has been produced. The calculations may inform the worshipper, but the Sunnah determines the nature of the worship. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If Someone Finds the Length of the Prayer Difficult Suppose the imam establishes the Sunnah and lengthens the eclipse prayer, but a particular worshipper genuinely finds himself unable to continue because of weakness, illness, considerable hardship, or an important matter which he must attend to. The Sharīʿah itself provides a solution. The worshipper may intend to cease following the imam and complete his prayer individually. The foundation for this is the well-known incident of Muʿādh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه. Muʿādh رضي الله عنه would pray ʿIshāʾ with the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and then return and lead his people. On one occasion he began reciting Sūrat al-Baqarah. One of the men separated and completed his prayer individually. When the matter reached the Prophet ﷺ, he did not condemn the man. Rather, he said to Muʿādh: “يا معاذ أفتان أنت؟” “O Muʿādh! Are you one who puts people to trial?” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 465. See also Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, nos. 705 and 6106. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ What the Scholars Derived from This