Prayer: What is the āyāt prayer, and when does it become obligatory?
Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei
Prayer: What is the āyāt prayer, and when does it become obligatory?
English:
Question #707:
What is an āyāt prayer and what makes it obligatory according to Islamic law?
Answer #707:
It is comprised of two rak‘ahs, with five rukū‘s and two prostrations in each rak‘ah. According to Islamic law, it becomes obligatory due to solar and lunar eclipses, even partial ones; an earthquake; and any abnormal phenomenon which scares most people, such as an unusual black, red, or yellow storm, an intense darkness, landslide, a cry (from the heavens), and the fire which sometimes appears in the sky. Āyāt prayer is not made obligatory by that which does not frighten most people, excepting eclipses and earthquakes, or by things which scare exceptions among people.
-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Prayer