The Eclipse and the Lunar Eclipse, and Their Determination by Calculation and News in the Newspapers

Question:
The Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, says: The solar and lunar eclipses, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explained, are signs of Allah to frighten the servants and remind them. But now it is written in the newspapers that an eclipse or a solar eclipse will occur days before that, and that it is a natural event caused by such and such astronomical matters. What is the guidance regarding this matter? May Allah grant you success.

Answer:
We have directed people on this more than once, and we said that its being determined by calculation is known from before; the scholars have known it from before that it can be determined by calculation. Even if it can be determined by calculation, the Lawgiver commanded us to pray. We act according to what Allah commanded. We act according to what Allah commanded. Allah commanded us to pray the midday prayer at the time the sun passes its zenith, and to pray the afternoon prayer when the shadow becomes the length of the object casting it. These are legal matters in which we do not intervene. We were commanded to pray the eclipse prayer, so we pray the eclipse prayer. Even if the time of the eclipse is known just as the time of the midday, afternoon, sunset, and night prayers are known, as long as the Lawgiver has made this obligatory, we act upon it.
Who says that the Lawgiver commanded us to pray the eclipse prayer because its time is not known? Who said that? We were commanded to pray the eclipse prayer when the eclipse occurs He tied it to the occurrence of the eclipse, and the cause is not that it is not known by calculation, as some people think. Yes, so we comply with the command of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He. Yes.