Editor's note: This article is part of Dallas Morning News coverage of the 2024 total solar eclipse.Learn more about dallasnews.com/eclipse.
PLANO — More than 1,000 people gathered at the East Plano Islamic Center on Monday to observe a total solar eclipse and pray Salatul Kusuf, a special prayer some Muslims perform during an eclipse. .
Around 1:40 p.m., as the moon began to completely cover the sun, the crowd in the mosque's parking lot became louder, cheering and talking. Then they fell silent, their eyes glued to the sky and their phones as they took in the scene.
The men and women then separated and lined up at their respective entrances to the mosque and went to their respective washrooms to cleanse themselves before praying. The participants then found a place to kneel on the floor. All rows of the Women's Chapel and the overflow space behind it were filled.
The 2 pm prayer, one of the five daily prayers in Islam, did not stop during the solar eclipse. After Imam Nadim Bashir led the prayer, Yasir Qadi, the mosque's resident scholar, taught the worshipers how to pray Salatul Kusuf, the eclipse prayer. This is the only Islamic prayer in which believers bow twice instead of once during each cycle of poses, Qadi said. dallas morning news Before.
For Salatul Khusuf, Qadi recited in Arabic four verses from the Quran that spoke about the sun.
“All the texts were chosen because they put into context the beauty of creation for us,” he says. “The question is, how majestic is the Creator who can actually place these celestial bodies in orbit? How powerful does that God have?” He recited the scripture. while leading the worshipers into a special series of postures.
This prayer originates from a story in the Islamic holy book Hadith in which the Prophet Muhammad observed a solar eclipse. According to a hadith, Muhammad witnessed a solar eclipse on the day his son died, but told his followers that the two were unrelated. In his speech, he told the people, “The sun and the moon are God's creations. The sun and the moon are God's creations.” The birth or death of a human being does not cause an eclipse of the sun,” Kadi said. news.
Qadi said the eclipse prayer reminds Muslims to see Allah in the beauty of the natural world and to trust in Muhammad. “This is one of the strongest signs that he was sincere, that he did not take advantage of the possibility of miracles because he wanted to teach the truth,” Qadi said of Muhammad.
After the prayer, Mr. Qadi gave a sermon about solar eclipses and how everything in nature shows the majesty of Allah.
For Hamza Weldingwala, 20, the eclipse was “a great sign of the greatness of Allah.”
“We are basically here to witness it, and every time we see something like that, a sign of Allah, we tend to pray,” he said.
“It was great to be able to watch the eclipse with the community,'' said Adil Hamid, 26.
“There were so many people coming here and it was really fun to see the mosque full. Usually it doesn't get this crowded. There was no parking anywhere. It was amazing just to see people come together for something like that.”
Joy Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for the Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.
