And in the same vein:
“It is related that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—performed the eclipse prayer. In each cycle (1) he recited a passage nearly the length of Sūrat al-Baqarah and then bowed; his bowing was almost as long as his standing, and his prostration likewise” (2).
For this reason we hold—according to the sounder of the two opinions—that the bowing and prostration in the eclipse prayer should be close in length to the standing, amounting to most of it, i.e., more than half.
Some of our scholars and others have said that if al-Baqarah is recited, one should glorify Allah in bowing and prostration for a period equal to reciting one hundred verses (3). This view is weak and contrary to the Sunnah.
Likewise, Muslim relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ, from Abū Saʿīd (5) and others (6), that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to utter, after rising from bowing, words of remembrance (7) that confirm the reports of Anas and al-Barāʾ (8).
The same pattern appears in the Messenger of Allah’s voluntary prayers: when he prayed at night (9)
(1) The printed edition adds the word “al-ula” (the first).
(2) This appears in a lengthy hadith recorded by Muslim in the Book of Eclipses, chapter “What was shown to the Prophet during the eclipse prayer concerning Paradise and Hell,” follow-up to hadith no. 904 (1:623). The narration includes: “Then he bowed for about the same length as he had stood,” and also: “his bowing was about the same length as his prostration.”
(3) See Ibn Qudama, al-Mughni with al-Sharh al-Kabir, 2:275.
(4) MS B reads: “and likewise.”
(5) The printed edition inserts “al-Khudri,” a clarification of the narrator’s name that ought to have been placed in the footnote.
(6) The words “and others” are absent from MSS B, J, and D, as well as from the printed edition.
(7) The phrase “of remembrance” is omitted in MS T.
(8) See Sahih Muslim, Book of Prayer, chapter “What one says when raising the head from bowing,” hadith no. 477 (1:347). It reads: on the authority of Abu Sa id al-Khudri, “Whenever the Messenger of Allah raised his head from bowing he would say: ‘Our Lord, to You belongs praise filling the heavens and the earth…,’” and the same wording is reported from Abd Allah ibn Abi Awfa and Abd Allah ibn Abbas. Refer to Sahih Muslim in the book and chapter cited above.
(9) The words “at night” are omitted in MS T.