Phenomenon of Eclipse
Phenomenon of Eclipse
Egypt, Arab region, North Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia have witnessed a Total solar eclipse on Friday, 29th of May 1436 A.H, corresponding to 20/3/2015 A.D. It started around the time of Friday prayers and reached its peak shortly before the call of Friday, and almost continued to the end of Friday prayer in Cairo.
Solar and lunar eclipses have two reasons:
First: Moral reason; it is caused by Allah willing, in order to intimidate His slaves to return to Him. This is confirmed in two authentic books .i.e. Bukhari and Muslim, in the Hadith of Abu Masud Al-Ansari, may Allah be pleased with him, who narrated that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: “The sun and the moon are two signs from Allah to intimidate His slaves …etc” .
Second: Sensory reason; It is the occurrence of the moon between the sun and the earth, in this case, the moon obscures the Sunlight away of the earth to cause the solar eclipse or to obscure the Sunlight away of the moon because of the occurrence of the land between the sun and the moon, and in that case the lunar eclipse becomes apparent. Some people believe only in the second reason, which lead them to deny the power of Allah and His will, and ignore the verses of Allah, Almighty, in the universe.
The believer is indeed aware that there is a sensory reason for this phenomenon, but in the same time, this reason happens by the will of Allah and His permission. The main objective, why the sensory reason happens, is that Allah frightens His slaves to return to Him and obey Him.
What shall we do if the eclipse happened!?
If we confirmed that the eclipse has actually happened, people have to hasten to prayer, repent, and seek forgiveness and charity.
Aisha, May Allah be pleased with her, narrated that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: “The sun and the moon are two signs from Allah to intimidate His slaves. So, death or life of someone never be a cause to eclipse them. But, if you have seen that phenomenon, supplicate Allah, glorify Him, pray, and give charity”. “Agreed uponby Al-Bukhari and Muslim”
During the era of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), the sun was eclipsed. After few minutes of its rise –on the day of Ibrahim’s death, son of the prophet, the prophet (PBUH) went out to the masjed “Mosque”. A caller announced people to come to prayer saying” it is the time to pray”, then, the prophet mentioned the previous hadith and led the prayer.
So, dear beloved, on that case, prayer is the Sunna.
Hasten to prayer
How to perform eclipse prayer according to the majority of scholars?
It is a long prayer, consists of two units ” rakaa”, in the first one, the imam has to recite much after the opening “Al-fatiha” chapter, then down to kneel, then stand up, then recite the opening chapter, then recite less than what he has recited before, then down to kneel, then stand up again, then down to prostrate twice, then pray the second unit as such as the first one exactly. So, each unit of this prayer has two kneeling and two prostrations.
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References : www.r-islam.com
