Solar & Lunar Eclipses - An Islamic Perspective
By Yasir Qadhi | 2026-01-08T15:40:03.004829+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Solar & Lunar Eclipses - An Islamic Perspective
Dr. Yasir Qadhi | 27th September 2015
Opening Praise and Declaration of Faith
We praise Him, we ask for His help and we ask for His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, no one is misguided, and whom He misguides, no one is guided. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, and no partner for Him.
And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.
The Eclipse During the Prophet's Life
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, there was only one time in the life of our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that an eclipse took place. And this eclipse took place when our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was around 61 years old. And it coincided with one of the most tragic events in the life of our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
The Birth and Life of Ibrahim
Because we learned that at the age of around 60, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was blessed to become a father for one more time. And realize that at this age, at the age of 60, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had already lost almost everybody who was near and dear to him.
His mother, his father, his grandfather, his uncle Abu Talib, his wife Khadija who was his confidant, and the one who really supported him. His two sons and his three daughters, one after the other. He only had one beloved left, and that is Fatima.
There was no other immediate family member. And none of the wives of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم blessed him with a child other than Khadija. Then, when he reached the age of 60, Allah جل جلاله blessed him to have another son, another child.
And this was through Marya al-Qibtiya. And Marya al-Qibtiya gave birth to Ibrahim. Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has reported in Sahih Bukhari that the Sahaba said one day the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم came and his face was shining bright.
His face was beaming. And he said, Allah جل جلاله blessed me with a child last night. And I shall name him after my father, Ibrahim.
And they would see Ibrahim with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. He would take him to the masjid. And they saw the happiness in his face that they had not seen. Because our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had not played with a child for his own child for many decades before this.
All of the other children, as I said already, passed away. He had buried his own daughters, Ruqayya and Ummi Kulthum. And as for in Makkah, he had at least one, maybe two sons. We're not sure whether there were two sons or one son for sure, Al-Qasim. And maybe another was there as well. And three daughters, all of them have passed away.
The Divine Decree About the Prophet's Sons
Now he has Ibrahim. And lo and behold, Allah جل جلاله had willed that Ibrahim is not going to live. And of course, this was the Qadr of Allah جل جلاله from before.
"Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the last of the prophets."
This ayah had come down in Ahzab. Three years ago, it had already come down. Allah جل جلاله has said, you are not going to be the father of any man. So no boy could live to be a man. Or else this ayah would be proven wrong. So Allah جل جلاله willed that the process be tested one more time.
The Death of Ibrahim
He enjoy the fatherhood. Ibrahim lived for a year and a half. And all of us who are parents, we know that this is the sweetest age. This is the most tender age. Where the child is crawling and walking and climbing on you. And the child has the utmost love and joy. This is the pinnacle of the love that the parent has for the child. It reaches that tenderness at the age of a year and a half. And then at that age, Ibrahim fell sick.
And again in Sahih Bukhari we learn, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم brought Ibrahim to the masjid. And he was wheezing and coughing. And you could tell that the child was on the throes of death. That he was wheezing and coughing. And can you imagine the pain? And the Sahaba, they saw the process and cried. As he's holding his son Ibrahim in his hands.
And Ibrahim is wheezing his last. And our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم knows that he's about to pass away. And he says (إِنَّا عَلَى فِرَاقِكَ يَا إِبْرَاهِيمٌ لَمَحْزُونُونَ) (Bukhari 1303) - "Verily Ibrahim, at your death we are very grieved."
We're very sad that you're about to die. And when Ibrahim died, Ibrahim passed away. Then our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said (إِنَّا لِلَّهِ مَا أَعْطَى وَلِلَّهِ مَا أَخَذَ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ) (Bukhari 1303) - "To Allah belongs what He gave and to Allah belongs what He has taken. We will not say anything except what pleases Allah."
The Prophet's Grief and the Solar Eclipse
And our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was in utter grief. Can you imagine? At the age of 61 now. And now his last child other than Fatima has been taken away. Allah tested him so many times. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم rarely cried in public. You can count the number of times on one hand that he cried in public.
You can count on the number of times on one hand he cried in public of them when he's visiting his mother's grave. And this is now at the death of Ibrahim. And this is perhaps the only time in public he is crying in front of all of the sahaba that they are there in the masjid.
And the whole sahaba are overwhelmed with grief because they love the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم so much. His grief is their grief. His pain is their pain. His suffering is their suffering. And as he is grieving and the sahaba are grieving, lo and behold Allah willed that at that time, the only time in the life of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم the sun eclipsed. Not even the moon, the sun.
The People's Superstition and the Prophet's Response
It was a full solar eclipse. A full solar eclipse. There is nothing more magnificent, more spectacular than the covering of the sun in the middle of the day. And right when the sahaba are crying and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is crying, the sun itself has become shaded. And of course the rumors spread. How could they not spread? When all of Medina is crying, then why shouldn't the rumors spread that even the skies are sad at the death of Ibrahim.
Even the sun is crying. Even the celestial objects are showing their huzun, their grief, at the death of the son of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. The world and all that is in it is sad with the sadness of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Why shouldn't they believe this? It's common sense to believe. But our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم on the day his son died, cannot but teach tawheed.
He cannot but preach Islam. We don't believe in superstitions. We are not a people that believe in bizarre rituals and mythologies. No, we are people who believe in Allah, and the power of Allah. So on the day he buries his son, he's barely come back from the graveyard, and he calls all of the people to the masjid. A crier is sent, As-salatu jami'ah, as-salatu jami'ah, come.
This is what you say when you want people to come to the masjid and you don't give adhan. Adhan is only given for the five salawat. For other than the five salawat, when they have to come, you say as-salatu jami'ah.
The Eclipse Prayer (Salat al-Khusuf)
So as-salatu jami'ah, everybody comes. And our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم then led them in a long salah, a long prayer. And as Aisha and others said, it was as if he recited all of qadr al-baqarah, the size of
surah al-baqarah.
And he did not finish until the eclipse itself disappeared. And as I said, this is indeed the sunnah, but it is difficult for us in this land, and when we have work tomorrow, to follow that sunnah. And of course, by the way, the salah and the khutbah is sunnah, it is not wajib. It is good to attend and it is sunnah, and it is not something that is wajib. So he prayed as long as the eclipse was in session. Then when the eclipse finished, then he stood up and he gave a khutbah.
The Prophet's Khutbah About Eclipses
And in that khutbah, he said that beautiful phrase (إِنَّ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ آيَتَانِ مِنْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى لَا يَنْكَسِفَانِ لِمَوْتِ أَحَدٍ وَلَا لِحَيَاتِهِ) (Bukhari 1043 Muslim 911) - "The sun and the moon are of the miracles of Allah. The eclipse is independent of the death and the life of anybody on this earth."
And I have said before and I will say it again, this one incident, wallahi, is one of the most powerful incidents that our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was a true prophet. As-Sadiq al-Amin. Had he, astaghfirullah, or anybody been a false prophet, had any person in his shoes who was a false prophet, this happens to him. What an amazing story. What an amazing mythology to extract, to concoct. Let the people speak.
It's not even as if he was spreading the rumor. It's not even as if he was saying, look, even the skies are crying because I am sad. No. He had to speak the truth. As-Sadiq al-Amin. As-Sadiq al-Masduq. He has to say the truth. So he calls the people and he says, the eclipse has nothing to do with the life and death of anybody in this world. These are of the creation of Allah.
So when the sun or the moon eclipses, then, sallu wa kabbiru wa tasaddaqu. That's pray and say takbir and give charity until the eclipse goes away.
The Spiritual Significance of Eclipses
And our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم during that salah, it was a very emotional time because realize brothers and sisters that before we had the advent of modern science, nobody knew when an eclipse was coming. And to see the eclipse, people did not understand what is going on.
And they felt this is the impending doom. They felt something evil is about to happen. They felt the punishment of Allah. They felt it might be the day of judgment coming close. And this fear that struck all of humanity, there's nothing wrong with this fear because this fear connects you with Allah. And you become cognizant of your own mortality, of your own sins, of your own, if you like, minuscule existence in front of the majesty and grandeur of Allah's creation.
So even the sahaba, they were indeed terrified. And there's nothing wrong with that terror because it is linked with Allah and the punishment of Allah. And our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, when you have
this fear, when you have this terror, then stand up in salah, say dhikr, make dua, give charity. These things, they are the things that cleanse your sins away. They are the ones that calm down. They are the ones that remove the anger of Allah.
The Prophet's Vision During the Eclipse Prayer
And in that salah, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he took a step back and he took a step forward. And he explained later on that while I was praying, Allah showed me heaven and hell. He showed me jannah and jahannam. So when I saw jannah, I took a step forward, wanting to pluck the grapes from jannah. And if I had plucked those grapes, then one bunch of grapes would have fed you all until the day of judgment. If I wanted to, I could bring it here, and then you would have had food until the day of judgment. One bunch would have fed all of you until yawm al qiyamah. And then before he could do that, other than Allah, Allah willed of course that these grapes should not be here, that's for the next life. Then before he could do that, jahannam was presented.
And our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم went back, because he could feel or he could see the jahannam. So he took a step back, and in that khutbah, he said to the sahaba (لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ مَا أَعْلَمْ لَضَحِكْتُمْ قَلِيلًا وَلَبَكَيْتُمْ كَثِيرًا) (Bukhari 4621, Tirmidhi 2312) - "If you know what I know, you would laugh very little, and you would weep very much." And when he said this to the sahaba, they began weeping the entire masjid, so much so that the masjid was overcome with sobs.
So much so that the sahaba took cover their mouths and their faces in their cloaks and their garments, out of the sobbing, because they could see. There was a very emotional day that day. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has lost his son. Now he leads them in a salah 2-3 hours. Can you imagine his qira'ah? How they must have been moved? He himself is seeing jannah and jahannam. Then he gives a powerful khutbah.
The Islamic Rulings on Eclipse Prayers
So that day was imprinted in the memory of the sahaba. And this is the only time the eclipse happened. From this, our scholars have derived that there's something called salatul khusuf and salatul khusuf. Salatul khusuf is for when the sun eclipses. Salatul khusuf, when the moon eclipses. And they are prayed in the same manner, except of course the khusuf is in the daytime, and khusuf is at night.
Modern Science and Divine Awe
And my dear brothers and sisters, unfortunately one of the problems of modern science, and this is a problem, is that modern science unfortunately has caused many of us to lose the awe that we should have when it comes to the creation of Allah. The fact of the matter is that even if we know there's gonna be an eclipse, and even if we have a hundred thousand pictures, and even if we can see it on YouTube
and our iPhones, and we know exactly when it will begin and end, this does not take away from the majesty, from the beauty, from the splendor, from the absolute amazement of this creation of Allah.
The Miraculous Nature of the Sun and Moon
Brothers and sisters, the sun and the moon are of the most miraculous creations of Allah.
Allah says, the sun and the moon have been placed in order.
"Of His miracles is the night and the day, and the sun and the moon."
Wallahi brothers and sisters, to think about it, it is mind-boggling, these massive objects, this ball of fire and gas and helium hurtling through space at tens of thousands of kilometers an hour, tens of thousands, and it is going on its own axis, and around it are going so many planets, and around the planets are going so many moons, and yet their coordination is so precise, that we do not time the eclipses, we do not time the sun and the moon, time comes from the movement of the sun and the moon.
Think about it, our time comes from the precision of the movements of the sun and the moon. Where do we get the 24 hours? Where do we get the day? Where do we get the night? Where do we get our seconds? Our time is based upon the precision of these massive objects hurtling through space, and that's what Allah says,
The sun and the moon, they are in a precise orbit.
"It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night come before the day, each one is in its own orbit."
Contemplating Divine Power
Who has the power to control these magnificent, huge creations? Who has the power to coordinate these structures such that we know exactly the timing of them, and we extract our day and our month and our year from the precision of their movements? Wallahi, that is indeed Allah, the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing, the Creator who has power over all things.
And when we look at these creations around us, they should bring us in awe, how insignificant we are, how puny we are in comparison to the creation. Allah says that, look around you, look around you,
"We will show them the miracles all around them, and inside of themselves." These are the miracles around us, brothers and sisters.
The Purpose of Reflecting on Creation
And the fact that we understand it should not diminish, should not eliminate the awe and the respect that we should have for the creation of Allah. Brothers and sisters, this is a time of introspection, of thinking about the purpose of creation. I conclude with the simple ayah that Allah reminds us in surah Al-Imran, that the purpose of all of these beautiful signs around us,
"Those who contemplate about the creation of the heavens and earth."
"Our Lord, you haven't created all of this for no reason. Glory be to You, so protect us from the punishment of the Fire."
Reflection on Life's Purpose
What is the purpose of this majestic creation? What is the purpose of everything around us? All of it is so that we know that Allah is true, His signs are true, the Qur'an is true, His speech is true, day of judgment is true, heaven and hell is true, and therefore, death and life as well is true. Brothers and sisters, it is a time to think about the purpose of life, to think about how insignificant we are in the grand scale of things, to think about the fact these creation have been here for millennia, and they shall continue to be for millennia.
We are the ones, our short lifespan, barely. It is said the next time this type of eclipse will occur, will be in around 30 years. Who amongst us will be here? Last time it occurred in the early 80s, then it will occur again in 30 years, goes on. We are the ones fleeting lifespan, let us take advantage, we can make our lives eternal in the eyes of Allah, if we take advantage of them.
Dua for the Ummah
Brothers and sisters in Islam, the ummah is going through much difficulty and trial as we know. Let us make sure that we are thankful for what we have, that we are generous to those who don't have. Let us make dua to Allah, Allahumma inni da'in fa amminoo. Oh Allah, as you have gathered us here today in
this masjid of yours, Oh Allah, gather us together on the day of judgment under your shade. Oh Allah, shelter us under your shade when there is no shade other than your shade.