414 – On the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both): “He performed, during an earthquake, six rakʿahs and four prostrations and said, ‘This is how the Prayer of the Signs (ṣalāt al-āyāt) is to be offered.’ ” Narrated by al-Bayhaqī (1). Al-Shāfiʿī also related from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him) a similar practice, minus its closing remark (2).

• Grade of the ḥadīth:
  The report is ḥasan (sound).
  Al-Bayhaqī recorded it and judged it authentic as a mawqūf report from Ibn ʿAbbās. Ibn Abī Shaybah (2/472) transmitted the same account in abridged form: “Ibn ʿAbbās led them in prayer during an earthquake with four prostrations in which he bowed six times,” and the wording suggests that he led them in congregation. Al-Shāfiʿī cited an unattributed report from ʿAlī with the same content but without the final statement, saying: “Had it been established from ʿAlī I would have adopted it, for they neither affirm it nor deny it.” In Muslim (904) it is related from Jābir: “He prayed six rakʿahs with four prostrations,” and that was for the eclipse, which is likewise one of the divine signs.

• Vocabulary:
  – al-zalzala (earthquake), plural zalāzil: a tremor that strikes the earth’s surface as a result of tension in parts of the earth’s crust, causing layers of rock to slide over one another. Other causes include volcanic eruptions.

• Points derived from the ḥadīth:
  1 – Ibn ʿAbbās prayed during an earthquake six rakʿahs and four prostrations, meaning that each