'Ikrima said that when Ibn ‘Abbas was told that a certain wife of the Prophet had died, he prostrated himself. Someone asked him why he made prostration at such a time, and he replied, “God’s Messenger told us to prostrate ourselves when we saw a sign, and what sign is greater than the departure of the Prophet's wives?”
During the lifetime of God’s Messenger was shooting some of my arrows in Medina when an eclipse of the sun took place. I therefore threw them away and said, “I swear by God that I must see how God’s Messenger acts in a solar eclipse.” When I came to him he was standing in prayer raising his hands. He then began to glorify God, to acknowledge that He is the only God, to declare His greatness, to express His praise and make supplication till the eclipse came to an end. When the eclipse was over he recited two suras and prayed two rak'as.
Muslim transmitted it in his Sahih from 'Abd ar-Rahman b. Samura, and the same occurs in Sharh as-sunna, on his authority, but in the copies of al-Masabih it is given on the authority of Jabir b. Samura.
