Or if the sun rises while the moon is eclipsed, or if there is a sign other than an earthquake, no prayer is to be performed.

His statement, “Or if the sun rises while the moon is eclipsed”: Is it possible for the sun to rise while the moon is eclipsed?

The answer is: Yes, it is possible. In the middle of the month, the moon is in the west and the sun in the east, so the moon may be eclipsed after the sun has risen. This has in fact occurred.

Thus, if the sun rises while the moon is eclipsed, one does not pray, because its period of authority has passed: the moon’s authority is the night—just as when the sun sets while it is eclipsed.

Question: If dawn breaks and the moon is eclipsed before sunrise, is the prayer performed?

The answer is: We may say that the implication of his statement, “Or if the sun rises while the moon is eclipsed,” is that the prayer should be performed. However, the well-known position of the school is that the prayer is not performed after dawn has broken if the moon is eclipsed, because it is a prohibited time.

The correct view is that it is performed if the moon would have given light were it not eclipsed. But if daylight has already spread and only a little time remains before sunrise, then its period of authority has passed, and people derive no benefit from it, whether it is eclipsed or full.

His statement, “Or if there is a sign other than an earthquake, no prayer is to be performed,” means that if an alarming sign occurs—such as thunderbolts, violent winds, the night becoming white, the day becoming dark, lava, and the like—the eclipse prayer is not performed, except in the case of an earthquake. If the earth shakes, they perform the eclipse prayer until it ceases. What is meant by an earthquake is a continuing earthquake.

The scholars have differed over this issue into three views: