{"id":1481,"date":"2017-08-20T21:41:32","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T02:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2017-08-20T21:45:43","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T02:45:43","slug":"eclipse-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Many American Muslims Will Mark Solar Eclipse with Special Prayers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

August 21, 2017 is a special day: a good deal of the United States will witness a total solar eclipse<\/a>. It hasn’t happened in decades, and it won’t happen again in decades. Unfortunately, I have to work at the time, but I pray I will still be able to witness the special event. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Throughout history, both solar and lunar eclipses have been met with awe, trepidation, and amazement. I imagine the same will be with this current solar eclipse. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

All across the country, there will be solar eclipse viewing parties galore, and I saw signs in St. Louis a week ago warning of the heavy traffic. Muslims will no doubt be a part of those gatherings. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Many American Muslims will mark the eclipse with a special ritual prayer. It hearkens back to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself, who marked a solar eclipse during his life with this ritual prayer. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In fact, the eclipse happened to occur the same day his son had died, and many of his companions remarked that the eclipse was in response to this event. The Prophet, however, denied the eclipse had anything to do with this terribly sad event:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“The sun and the moon are two signs amongst the signs of God; they do not eclipse because of the death of someone, and so when an eclipse occurs, pray and invoke God until the eclipse is over.” (Bukhari)<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

Still, many Muslims will follow the tradition of the Prophet by performing this special ritual prayer on August 21. It is nice opportunity to commemorate a celestial event with a beautiful way to adore the Maker of said celestial event. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

However you choose to mark this special heavenly occasion, it is something that will be an amazing sight to see and an amazing thing to remember for years to come. Let us try not to miss it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people will be watching the solar eclipse with great anticipation. Many Muslims will also be marking the event with a special prayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,11,167,27,857],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-common-word","tag-god","tag-islam","tag-prayer","tag-prophet-muhammad","tag-solar-eclipse"],"yoast_head":"\nMany American Muslims Will Mark Solar Eclipse with Special Prayers - Common Word, Common Lord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Many American Muslims Will Mark Solar Eclipse with Special Prayers - Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many people will be watching the solar eclipse with great anticipation. Many Muslims will also be marking the event with a special prayer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-21T02:41:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-21T02:45:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2017\/08\/cd0b3683-e70c-4eee-a6fa-dc50f69cf829-8458-0000103689e449d2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hesham A. Hassaballa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GodFaithPen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Many American Muslims Will Mark Solar Eclipse with Special Prayers - Common Word, Common Lord","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Many American Muslims Will Mark Solar Eclipse with Special Prayers - Common Word, Common Lord","og_description":"Many people will be watching the solar eclipse with great anticipation. Many Muslims will also be marking the event with a special prayer.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/","og_site_name":"Common Word, Common Lord","article_published_time":"2017-08-21T02:41:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-21T02:45:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2017\/08\/cd0b3683-e70c-4eee-a6fa-dc50f69cf829-8458-0000103689e449d2.jpg"}],"author":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GodFaithPen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/","name":"Many American Muslims Will Mark Solar Eclipse with Special Prayers - Common Word, Common Lord","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2017\/08\/cd0b3683-e70c-4eee-a6fa-dc50f69cf829-8458-0000103689e449d2.jpg","datePublished":"2017-08-21T02:41:32+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-21T02:45:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2017\/08\/cd0b3683-e70c-4eee-a6fa-dc50f69cf829-8458-0000103689e449d2.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2017\/08\/cd0b3683-e70c-4eee-a6fa-dc50f69cf829-8458-0000103689e449d2.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/eclipse-prayer\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Many American Muslims Will Mark Solar Eclipse with Special Prayers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/","name":"Common Word, Common Lord","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Hesham Hassaballa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21","name":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. In 2007, his blog \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is \u201cthe most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.\u201d \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" has also received an award for being one of the \"Top Muslim Blogs for 2010\" by Awarding The Web. In addition to writing, Dr. Hassaballa helped found the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and currently serves on their board of directors. He also co-founded the Bayan H. Hassaballa Charitable Foundation and now serves as its Treasurer.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/GodFaithPen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/author\/hhassaballa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1481"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1493,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions\/1493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}