Introduction
What is so miraculous about the eclipse? Why is it a sign from God?
While speaking about the eclipses, Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) said:
“The solar eclipse and the lunar eclipse are two signs of God. The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of someone’s death or birth. So, remember God when you see the eclipse.”
Sahih Bukhari
A careful reading of the saying of the Prophet will leave us with two important questions.
- What is so miraculous about the eclipse?
- Why did Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) say “The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of someone’s death or birth.”
In this article, we will discuss the answers for both the questions above.
Solar Eclipse
Let’s take the solar eclipse as an example to understand how it is a miraculous sign from God.
Solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes between the sun and the earth and thus blocks the light from the sun.
When you place the sun and the moon next to each other, the moon will appear like a small marble in front of the huge sun. So how come the moon, which is so small in size, is able to completely block the light of the gigantic sun? This is where we find the miraculous sign which will leave us amazed.
Basics in astronomy
Before we learn the miraculous sign, a quick recap of some basics in astronomy.
When objects are closer to us, they appear to be bigger than objects that are far away. For example, most stars in the night sky look like tiny white dots. In reality, many of those stars are larger than our Sun. They look so small because they are so far away from Earth!
What is so miraculous about the eclipse?
Miraculous precision and order in the solar system
Let’s now come back to the solar eclipse. When you compare the size of the sun and the moon, the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun.
What is amazing is, the moon is also exactly 400 times closer to the Earth than the Sun is. This is why the sun and the moon appear to be of the same size in the sky.
This is also the reason why the moon, which looks like a small marble in front of the sun, is able to completely block the light of the huge sun. What is even more amazing is, this phenomenon is unique to our earth and moon and is not shared by any other planet–moon combination in the solar system.
Will explosions result in immaculate order?
Could the Big Bang, which resulted in more than a billion galaxies and stars, create this incredible order and astonishing precision on its own?
The answer is no, because we all know that explosions cause destruction and chaos and will never bring out order and design with mathematical precision!
Why did Prophet Muhammad call eclipses a sign from God?
Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) called the eclipses as signs of God, as they remind us about the incredible design, order and precision we find in the Universe.
Why did Prophet Muhammad say “Eclipses do not occur for the death or birth of any person”?
There was an eclipse on the day Prophet Muhammad’s two year old son died. The people started saying, “The eclipse has happened due to the death of Prophet Muhammad’s son”.
When Prophet Muhammad got to know this, he clarified that the eclipses do not occur for the death and birth of any person. What we should note here is, Prophet Muhammad need not have clarified what the people had mentioned about eclipse and the death of his son. All he had to do was to keep quiet and everyone would have believed that the eclipse occurred due to the death of the Prophet’s son. This would have resulted in more followers and more elevated status for him. But, the Prophet did not do that. He made sure that the people understood that the eclipse did not occur because of the death of his son.
Contrast this act of the Prophet with the actions of the spiritual leaders who churn out lies in their favour. When we think about the truthfulness and honesty of the Prophet, it should be clear that he was indeed the Prophet of God and did not have any ulterior motives.
Conclusion
- Eclipses remind us about the immaculate order and mathematical precision in the Universe.
- This order and precision could not have come into existence as a result of a random explosion like the Big Bang.
- Only a Divine Power can create and orchestrate this order and precision. Since, eclipses remind us of God, they are signs from God.
- The statement issued by Prophet Muhammad clarifying that eclipses do not occur for death or birth of anyone, shows his honesty and truthfulness.
