Hadith Eleven

14 – With the same chain up to Abū Ḥanīfah; from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib; from his father; from ⦗26⦘ ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who said:

“The sun was eclipsed on the day Ibrāhīm, the son of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—died. Some people said that it eclipsed because of Ibrāhīm’s death. The Prophet ﷺ then rose and prayed; he lengthened the standing until we thought he would never bow. When he finally bowed, his bowing lasted as long as his standing. He then raised his head, and the standing that followed was equal in length to the bowing. Then he prostrated, and his prostration lasted as long as that standing; he performed the second prostration in the same manner. He completed the second rakʿah exactly as he had the first.

While he was in the final prostration he wept, and his weeping intensified, and we heard him saying, ‘O Allah, did You not promise me that You would not punish them while I am among them?’

He then sat, recited the tashahhud, concluded the prayer, and turned to face us. He said:

‘The sun and the moon are two signs among the signs of Allah; they do not eclipse because of the death or life of anyone. Whenever you see that, hasten to prayer. I was shown Paradise so close that, had I wished, I could have plucked a branch from it, and I was shown the Fire so near that I began shielding myself—and you—from its flames. In it I saw the pilgrim thief who stole with the hook of his staff: when the owners did not notice he would carry things off, and if they noticed he would say, “It only clung to my hook.” I also saw a tall, dark-skinned woman from Ḥimyar being tormented on account of a cat she had tied up; she neither fed nor gave it water, nor did she let it loose to eat the insects of the earth.’”}