Accordingly, whoever gave precedence to these reports—owing to their greater number and their conformity to analogy (i.e., their agreement with the pattern of the other prayers)—concluded that the eclipse prayer is two rakʿahs.
The Qāḍī remarked: “Muslim included the ḥadīth of Samurah.”
Abū ʿUmar said: “In short, every group has simply followed whatever has come down to it from its predecessors. For that reason some scholars held that all of these forms are permissible, and among those who said so was al-Ṭabarī.”
The Qāḍī added: “That view is preferable, for reconciling the reports is better than preferring some of them over others.”
Abū ʿUmar continued: “It has also been transmitted—though only through weak chains—that the eclipse prayer contained ten bowings within two rakʿahs, eight bowings within two rakʿahs, six bowings within two rakʿahs, and four bowings within two rakʿahs.”
Abū Bakr ibn al-Mundhir, and likewise Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh, said: “All of these reports are consistent rather than contradictory, for what matters is when the obscuration clears; the added bowings simply correspond to the varying lengths of time the clearing took in the eclipses during which he prayed.”
It is related from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād that he held the view that the person praying should look at the sun each time he raises his head from bowing: if it has cleared he proceeds to prostrate and then adds the second rakʿah; if it has not yet cleared he performs a second bowing within that same rakʿah and then looks again. Should it have cleared, he prostrates and adds the second rakʿah; if not, he performs a third bowing within the first rakʿah, and so on until the sun becomes clear.
Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh used to say: “One must not exceed four bowings in each rakʿah, for nothing beyond that has been authentically established from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him.”
Abū Bakr ibn al-Mundhir said—and some of our companions likewise asserted—that there is latitude in the eclipse prayer: if he wishes, the worshiper may bow twice in each rakʿah, or three times, or four, yet he himself did not deem the evidence for this sound.
He went on to say: “This indicates that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—performed the eclipse prayer on many occasions.”
The Qāḍī commented: “What he has mentioned is exactly what Muslim recorded, and I do not understand how Abū ʿUmar could say that these reports rest on weak chains. As for ten bowings within two rakʿahs, that is found only in Abū Dāwūd.”
Second Issue
The jurists also disagreed about the manner of Qurʾānic recitation in this prayer. Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī held that it should be silent, whereas Abū Yūsuf, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, Aḥmad, and Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh held that the recitation should be aloud.