Muslims who believe in the Messiah,Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as)
The Eclipses of 1894: A Sign for the Messiah
(This article is largely derived from the following article, which also contains the full references for the material presented here: https://www.reviewofreligions.org/12129/the-sign-of-the-heavens-2/)
Claimants to prophethood have appeared throughout history. If any amongst them have been truly sent by God, as they claim, then it is only rational that the same God would ensure they are accompanied by clear signs that set them apart from others
Proofs for the truthfulness of a prophet are of various types. We can study their character and purity of their lives before they made their claim. We can see if their stated mission has had any real success, ie. the adopting of higher values by their followers. Various other forms of miracles can also be studied from their lives, such as their extraordinary acceptance of prayer.
Sometimes, though, God also bears testimony to the truth of these people through celestial phenomena.
In the case of the latter day messiah, whose advent was foretold by all major religious founders, many religious traditions record that a specific sign would be manifested
In the New Testament, Jesus, peace be on him, narrating the signs of his second coming, said:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.” (Matthew, 24:29; King James Version)
In Hinduism, Mahatma Surdasji has mentioned the prophecy that when the Kalki Autar (destroyer of ignorance) would appear, the moon and the sun would be eclipsed. He wrote:
“Both the moon and the sun will be eclipsed and there will be much violence and death.”
(Surdas; Sur Sagar "Ocean of Melody")
In short, various religious scriptures mention signs of the sun and the moon in support of a latter day reformer sent from God. The Islamic scriptures too are not silent on this topic but in fact offer a degree of detail that is absent from other scriptures. The Holy Qur’an refers to eclipses of both the sun and moon occurring as a sign of the latter days:
“He asks, ‘When will be the Day of Resurrection?’ When the eye is dazzled, And the moon is eclipsed. And the sun and the moon are brought together.”
(Surah Al-Qiyamah, Chapter 75, verses 7-10)
Ahmadi Muslims believe that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as) fulfilled the prophecies of the Promised Messiah, being raised by God in this age to restore humanity’s true belief in God and love for one another.
Amongst various major signs, Hazrat Ahmad(as) claimed that the prophecies narrated above were fulfilled in his lifetime in the form of eclipses in the year 1894.
Details of The Prophecy
Let us now analyze the specifics of this prophecy and ascertain whether it was fulfilled in a manner that truly goes beyond the threshold of coincidence or not.
While the root of this prophecy thus lies in the Holy Qur’an, a hadith (narration) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa) elucidates these verses and gives valuable detail
Prophet Muhammad(sa) is reported to have said:
“For Our Mahdi (latter day reformer) there are two Signs which have never appeared before since the creation of the heavens and the earth, namely, the moon will be eclipsed on the first night in Ramadan and the sun will be eclipsed on the middle of it (the same month), and these Signs have not appeared since God created the heavens and the earth.”
(Sunan Darqutni, Kitabul Eidain, Chapter: Salat-ul-kasoof-ul khasoof wa haitahuma)
As a result of this prophecy being recorded in the Holy Qur’an and the hadith, Muslims for centuries awaited the fulfillment of this sign as a mark for the time of the latter day reformer. This hadith was quoted in various books of renowned scholars throughout the centuries as a prominent sign for the time of the Mahdi.
Analyzing its Fulfillment :
The hadith contains the following conditions for this prophecy:
- There should be a claimant of being the Mahdi present.
- During the time of his claim, there will be a month of Ramadan that has a lunar eclipse as well as a solar eclipse .
- The lunar eclipse should happen “on the first night in Ramadan” and the solar eclipse should happen “on the middle of it (the same month)”.
Ramadan is a month of the Islamic lunar calendar. In a lunar month, a lunar eclipse is possible on the 13th, 14th, or 15th. A solar eclipse is possible on the 27th, 28th, or 29th of a lunar month.
Thus, the Ahmadiyya understanding of this hadith is that the phrase “on the first night in Ramadan” is shorthand for saying that the lunar eclipse should happen on the first of the three possible nights it can occur on (ie. the 13th, 14th, 15th), thus it should happen on the 13th of Ramadan. Similarly, the solar eclipse should happen in the middle of the three possible days (27th, 28th, 29th), thus the 28th.
Critics of the Ahmadiyya viewpoint suggest that this hadith means the lunar eclipse should happen on the very 1st night of Ramadan, which defies the laws of physics. They demand that God should demonstrate such a blatant sign that requires rearrangement of the entire solar system in order to make people believe in His sign. However, Ahmadi Muslims believe that God acts with complete wisdom, and His signs are manifested with beautiful subtlety, such that only those who are pure of heart and truly reflective, can understand them. We should make no mistake in this regard though, as these signs are certainly still clear and powerful, as long as one carries out the work of studying them with proper depth. The Arabic used in the hadith itself lends support to this conclusion. In the phrase “the moon will be eclipsed on the first night in Ramadan” the Arabic word used for moon is" Qamar", which denotes a full moon. A full moon only occurs on the 13th, 14th, or 15th of the lunar month. If, as critics say, the Holy Prophet(sa) was speaking about the very first night of Ramadan, then the Arabic word he would have used would be “hilal”, as this refers to the crescent moon found on the first 3 nights of a lunar month.
Ramadan of 1894
In Ramadan of 1894 a lunar eclipse occurred on the 13th of Ramadan (March 21st, 1894) and a solar eclipse occurred on Friday, the 28th of Ramadan (April 6th, 1894).
Both were visible from the town of Qadian, India, where the claimant of being the Madhi, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), lived.
The two elements of this prophecy that make it extraordinary and elevate it beyond the threshold of coincidence are the dates and the visibility of the eclipses.
A lunar eclipse is visible from a large part of the Earth. However, a solar eclipse is only visible from a much smaller portion of the planet. It often happens that a solar eclipse is only seen from a sparsely populated area or over an ocean.
It is true that it happens often that there is a Ramadan in which there are lunar and solar eclipses. However, for them both to be visible from the same area that a claimant of being the Mahdi resides in, on the two specified dates found in a well-recorded narration from 1400 years prior, is certainly remarkable.
Frequency of Such Eclipses:
Ramadan A ‘double-eclipse’“ (ie. a Ramadan during which both a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse occur) occurs somewhere in the world every 20-25 years
Thus, since the time of Prophet Muhammad(sa) , there have been 109 such “double-eclipse" months of Ramadan in the world.
In only 7 of them, though, have both the lunar eclipse and solar eclipse been visible from the town of Qadian, , India. And only 3 of these have fallen on the specified dates of the prophecy (lunar eclipse on the 13th of Ramadan, and solar eclipse on the 28th).
Thus, it becomes clear that it is truly remarkable that the words of a 1400 year old recorded narration of the Holy Prophet(sa) would be precisely fulfilled during the lifetime of a man who claimed to be the Mahdi, in terms of both the dates and the visibility of the sign. It is naturally extremely difficult to dismiss this occurrence as coincidence.
Conclusion:
Many pious souls observed these signs in the Ramadan of 1894 and urgently sought to investigate the claims of the Mahdi, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), finding him to be a truthful man, and became a part of the 400,000 people that joined his Community during his lifetime.
In the modern day, perhaps we have lost appreciation for the grandness of these celestial events due to being able to predict when they will occur or see their pictures online. The Holy Prophet(sa) taught that Muslims should observe a special congregational prayer when they see any solar or lunar eclipse. The heart is naturally startled at witnessing these large celestial bodies suddenly lose their light. For believers, it moves the heart to ponder that physical light, or spiritual light, can both be lost if God’s grace is not present.
Thus, during the time of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), as is the case today, people naturally pondered whether God has sent that prophesied Messiah who would appear when the world would lose its spiritual light.
Hearts naturally ask God that if He exists, then surely He must have sent a spiritual light to start dispelling the empty darkness that has encircled the globe.
