Ṣalāt al-Kusūf: The Solar Eclipse Prayer

Kusūf is the solar eclipse. Ṣalāt al-kusūf is sunnah: two rakaʿāt, with no adhān, no iqāmah, and no khuṭbah. The recitation is silent and the prayer is performed in jamāʿah, in the jāmiʿ mosque. The imām makes duʿāʾ after the ṣalāh.

Is ṣalāt al-kusūf wājib or sunnah?

Imām Muḥammad treats ṣalāt al-kusūf as nafl, observing that the only two nawāfil prayed in jamāʿah are the qiyām of Ramaḍān and ṣalāt al-kusūf. He also points to the choice given in performing it: Ḥasan b. Ziyād narrates from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah that one may pray two rakaʿāt, four, or more. The argument runs that since choice is a feature of nawāfil rather than wājibāt, the prayer is nafl.

The riwāyah of Ḥasan b. Ziyād does not negate wujūb, however, because choice is also possible within wājib acts. The Qurʾān itself supplies an example:

When a man swears an oath, fulfilling it is wājib on him; if he cannot, he must pay kaffārah, with a choice between feeding ten people, clothing them, or freeing a slave. Choice within wājib acts is therefore well established.

Others hold ṣalāt al-kusūf to be wājib on the strength of the ḥadīth:

This narration, alongside the report of Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī and others, is a direct command of the Prophet ﷺ to pray, and so on Ḥanafī uṣūl indicates wujūb.

ʿAllāmah al-Kāsānī, in Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ, reconciles the two positions as a difference of wording. The word nafl means "additional"; whatever lies outside farḍ may, by stretch, be called nafl. Imām Muḥammad's labelling of ṣalāt al-kusūf as nafl does not therefore mark a substantive disagreement; it is parallel to his calling the qiyām of Ramaḍān (tarāwīḥ) nafl, when in substance it is a sunnah muʾakkadah, and so close in meaning to wājib.

ʿAllāmah Ibn al-Humām states in Fatḥ al-Qadīr that ṣalāt al-kusūf is sunnah without ikhtilāf among the jamhūr, while some hold it wājib, as set out above.

How to pray ṣalāt al-kusūf according to the Aḥnāf

Ṣalāt al-kusūf resembles the prayers of ʿĪd and istisqāʾ in having no adhān, iqāmah or khuṭbah. It is performed like an ordinary prayer, with one rukūʿ per rakʿah.

Number of rakʿah according to the Aḥnāf

For the Aḥnāf, ṣalāt al-kusūf matches the ordinary ṣalāh in form: each rakʿah has one rukūʿ and two sajdah.

The school cites the ḥadīth of Abū Bakrah:

The narrations of ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar, Nuʿmān b. Bashīr, Abū Bakrah⁴ and Samurah b. Jundub all show the Prophet ﷺ praying two rakʿah in the ordinary fashion for ṣalāt al-kusūf.⁵

Number of rakʿah according to the Shawāfiʿ

The Shawāfiʿ also hold the prayer to be two rakʿah, but they hold each rakʿah to comprise two rukūʿ, two standings (qawmah) and two sajdah.

For them, ṣalāt al-kusūf thus contains four rukūʿ in all. They cite reports from ʿĀʾishah⁶ and ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAbbās⁷ as their evidence⁸.

The reports they cite typically resemble this one:

How the Aḥnāf reconcile the differing narrations

Many of the ḥadīth differ in the number of rakʿah. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim alone preserves narrations giving:

• 3 rukūʿ¹⁰
• 6 rukūʿ¹¹
• 8 rukūʿ¹²

For the Ḥanābilah, the standard is two rukūʿ per rakʿah, but they admit three, four or even five.¹³

Since the narrations differ, even between ʿĀʾishah and Ibn ʿAbbās, the Aḥnāf return to the default form: an ordinary ṣalāh of two rakʿah, with two rukūʿ and two sajdah in total.

The Aḥnāf also offer a reconciliation. The Prophet ﷺ prolonged the prayer well beyond the ordinary length. While he was in sajdah, those in the front row may have thought he had raised his head and lifted their own heads to check; finding he had not, they returned to rukūʿ. When he then rose from rukūʿ, those in the front row rose with him. The front row therefore knew that he had performed only one rukūʿ; from the rows behind, however, it would have looked as though the front row had performed two (or more).

The reports of differing rukūʿ counts come mainly through ʿĀʾishah and Ibn ʿAbbās. ʿĀʾishah would have stood in the women's row at the back, and Ibn ʿAbbās, then a child, in the children's row behind the men. Each, on this reading, narrated what they perceived from where they stood, which need not match what actually occurred.

Ṣalāt al-kusūf is to be prayed silently according to the Aḥnāf

Imām Abū Ḥanīfah holds that the recitation in ṣalāt al-kusūf is silent. Imām Abū Yūsuf holds it should be aloud. Most narrations place Imām Muḥammad with Imām Abū Ḥanīfah.

Those who hold the recitation should be aloud cite the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah:

Those who hold it silent cite the ḥadīth of Samurah b. Jundub¹⁵, that the Prophet ﷺ prayed silently:

Ibn ʿAbbās likewise reports that he did not hear the Prophet ﷺ. With the narrations diverging, the Aḥnāf return to the default: prayers of the day are silent. Some parts of the prayer may have been recited aloud, since the Prophet ﷺ would at times recite a verse or two aloud even in day prayers.

There is no iqāmah for ṣalāt al-kusūf

There is no adhān or iqāmah for either ṣalāt al-kusūf or ṣalāt al-khusūf; both are reserved for the ordained prayers. The summons is simply "al-ṣalāta jāmiʿatan".¹⁷

No khuṭbah according to the Aḥnāf

For the Aḥnāf, neither ṣalāt al-kusūf nor ṣalāt al-khusūf has a khuṭbah.

The Shawāfiʿ hold that ṣalāt al-kusūf has two khuṭbah,¹⁸ citing the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, kitāb al-Kusūf, ch. 4 ("A khuṭbah delivered by the imām on the eclipse"), and the report of Asmāʾ in the same book, ch. 16 ("The saying of 'ammā baʿdu' during the khuṭbah of the eclipse").

The Aḥnāf reply that what is reported here was not a formal khuṭbah but only a brief address, sufficient to refute the people's claim that the eclipse had occurred because of the death of the Prophet's son Ibrāhīm.

Duʿāʾ

After the ṣalāh the imām may make duʿāʾ facing the qiblah, standing or sitting, or facing the people; al-Ḥulwānī judges the last to be best. The congregation says āmīn until the eclipse passes.

Ṣalāt al-kusūf is to be prayed in jamāʿah

There is consensus that ṣalāt al-kusūf is prayed in jamāʿah, on the precedent of the Prophet ﷺ. It is held in the masjid jāmiʿ (where Jumuʿah is held) or at the place where the ʿĪd prayers are performed. The usual imām for ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah leads.

When to pray ṣalāt al-kusūf

Ṣalāt al-kusūf is performed during the times in which prayer is ordinarily performed. Neither ṣalāt al-kusūf nor ṣalāt al-khusūf is performed during the makrūh times.

Footnotes

1. Qurʾān 5:89. ↩

2. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1041. ↩

3. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1063. ↩

4. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1040. ↩

5. Cf. Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ. ↩

6. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1044, 1046, 1047, 1049, 1050, 1055, 1056, 1058, 1064, 1065, 1066; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 901a, 901c, 901d, 901e, 902a. ↩

7. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 907a. ↩

8. As well as others. ↩

9. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1052. ↩

10. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 901f. ↩

11. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 901g, 904c. ↩

12. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 908. ↩

13. Zād al-Mustaqniʿ. ↩

14. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1065, 1066. ↩

15. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1184 and others. ↩

16. Sunan al-Nasāʾī 1495. ↩

17. Nūr al-Īḍāḥ. ↩

18. ʿUmdat al-Sālik. ↩