(1) Ibn Khuzaymah and others transmit this report. It is the opinion adopted by Abu Hanifah’s two leading students, by Ahmad, Ishaq, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn al-Mundhir and several other Shafi‘i traditionists, as well as by Ibn al-Arabi among the Malikis. The three imams—Abu Hanifah, Malik and Ahmad—state that one recites silently during a solar eclipse and aloud during a lunar eclipse. Al-Shafi‘i argued to the contrary, citing Ibn Abbas’s remark: “He recited about the length of Surah al-Baqara.” Al-Shafi‘i reasoned that, had the recitation been audible, there would have been no need for Ibn Abbas to estimate its length. This inference has been challenged on the ground that Ibn Abbas may simply have been standing at some distance. Al-Shafi‘i himself also relates from Ibn Abbas that he prayed beside the Prophet ﷺ during an eclipse yet “did not hear from him a single word.” Al-Bayhaqi supplies three isnads for this wording, but all are weak. Even were they sound, the report that affirms audible recitation contains additional information, so it deserves precedence; and if both versions are authentic, the Prophet’s differing practice would only show that both modes are permissible. The same answer applies to the hadith of Samurah in Ibn Khuzaymah and al-Tirmidhi that “he did not hear any voice from him”: even if established, it does not negate the option of audible recitation. Ibn al-Arabi comments: “In my judgment reciting aloud is preferable, because this is a congregational prayer for which people are summoned and a sermon is delivered; it therefore resembles the ‘Id prayer and the prayer for rain (salat al-istisqa).” I add: For precisely this reason al-Tahawi likewise judged audible recitation to be superior. Al-Hafiz indicated that the hadith of Samurah is not sound, and that is indeed the case, for its chain contains Thalabah ibn ‘Ibad al-Basri, who is unknown, as I have shown in al-Ta‘liqat al-Jiyad and in Naqd al-Taj, no. 240. A marfu narration to the same effect is also reported from Ibn Abbas through several routes, all of them weak because each passes through ‘Ikrimah; these have been discussed in the works just cited. As for the narration from Ali to which Ibn Hajar alluded, al-Tahawi also records it as a mawquf report with a sound chain.