Is it not possible to reconcile the reports regarding the number of rak'ahs in the eclipse prayer, given that they differ?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Some hadiths mention four rak'ahs, and some mention six. Is it not possible to say that the hadiths are contradictory and that we should revert to the regular prayer?
The Shaykh : No, they are not contradictory, because one of the conditions for declaring a contradiction is that it becomes impossible to prefer one over the other. We prefer what al-Bukhari and Muslim agreed upon, as that is the more correct position. The six rak'ahs were reported exclusively by Muslim; al-Bukhari did not mention them.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : Is it not possible that the narrator differs from him?
The Shaykh : No, they are not contradictory, because one of the conditions for declaring a contradiction is that it becomes impossible to prefer one over the other. We prefer what al-Bukhari and Muslim agreed upon, as that is the more correct position. The six rak'ahs were reported exclusively by Muslim; al-Bukhari did not mention them.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : Is it not possible that the narrator differs from him?