The second argument is that deeming it merely a sunnah disregards the many Prophetic commands concerning this prayer, with nothing to divert those commands from their original implication—obligation. Al-Shawkani inclined to this view in As-Sayl al-Jarrār 1/323, and Siddiq Khan endorsed it in al-Rawḍah al-Nadiyyah; this, God willing, is the correct position.
It is astonishing that Ibn Ḥazm, in his al-Muḥallā, made no mention of the legal ruling of this momentous prayer; he spoke only about its method in meticulous detail—introducing points perhaps never advanced before—which apparently distracted him from stating his position on its status.
He then says: “Abu Ḥanifah held that the eclipse prayer consists of two rakʿahs performed in the same manner as the ʿEid and Friday prayers, relying on the ḥadīth of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr who said: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in prayer during an eclipse much like your own prayer; he bowed and prostrated two by two and kept asking Allah until the sun cleared.’ Likewise, in the ḥadīth of Qabīṣah al-Hilālī the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘When you see that, then pray it as the most recent prescribed prayer you have performed.’ This was recorded by Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī.”
I say: This position is unsound, because the ḥadīth itself is not authentic; it is inconsistent, as will be shown, and it contradicts the sound reports in this chapter—two of which the author himself has already cited—so anything opposing them must be set aside.
I treated this matter in depth in my book How the Messenger of Allah ﷺ Performed the Eclipse Prayer, which I wrote some years ago. In it I gathered every report on the eclipse prayer that I could locate, traced their chains and wording, clarified which are sound and which are weak, and concluded by presenting a composite account of the authentic reports, woven together in the manner of my book The Prophet’s Prayer Described from the Opening Takbīr to the Taslīm. May Allah facilitate its final revision and publication.
Among the conclusions I reached there is that the reports of al-Nuʿmān and Qabīṣah are in fact a single ḥadīth.