Q: Why do we pray the eclipse prayer?

The eclipse prayer and the eclipse prayer is an honorable Sunnah reported by the Messenger of God - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him - he prayed it and recommended performing it, and it is a confirmed Sunnah if the sun is eclipsed or the moon is eclipsed.

And with it, the Prophet - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family - diverted people from the myths that were associated with the phenomena of eclipses and eclipses, towards resorting to God by prayer and supplication, so that these two exceptional phenomena of the occultation of the sun and the moon would be a reason to awaken people from heedlessly accustomed to the life of the world, and a reminder of its annihilation.

وقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم: «إنَّ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ آيَتَانِ مِنْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ، يُخَوِّفُ اللَّهُ بِهِمَا عِبَادَهُ، وَإِنَّهُمَا لا يَنْكسِفَانِ لِمَوْتِ أَحَدٍ مِنْ النَّاسِ، فَإِذَا رَأَيْتُمْ مِنْهَا شَيْئًا فَصَلُّوا وَادْعُوا حَتَّى يَنْكَشِفَ مَا بِكُمْ» رواه البخارى ومسلم.

And it was narrated on the authority of Abu Musa that he said: The sun eclipsed, so the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, got up and said: (If you see anything of that, then be alarmed by the remembrance of God, his supplication and his forgiveness).