“On Shawwal 28, the Sun was eclipsed after Asr and continued until the time of sunset. It cleared up after the conclusion of the eclipse prayer, which I led in the Great Mosque. Then the sun set and we prayed the Maghreb in the mosque. When the eclipse prayer was concluded, I sent a witness to ascend the minaret of the mosque to see if the sun had cleared. He returned, saying that it had cleared completely.”
— Imam ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani,Aleppo, Syria, June 17, 1433
On Wednesday, March 29 Planet Earth is going to witness a solar eclipse that will be seen clearly above Africa, especially Libya, parts of Asia, especially Turkey and the Atlantic Ocean to the westernmost tip of Brazil. In Saudi Arabia, a partial eclipse will be viewable from 1:05 p.m. for about an hour, according to NASA website.
It is known that solar eclipses appears three times every four years, whereas lunar eclipses appear five times every six years. Contrary to lunar eclipses, solar eclipses are viewable only in a narrow streak across the globe that is only few miles wide. However, its length could be equal to a large swathe of the globe. This makes witnessing a solar eclipse rare.
A solar eclipse last year didn’t exceed 17 miles in width, and this year’s eclipse won’t exceed 118 miles. And according to my estimate, we will have to wait until August 2027 to be in a solar eclipse streak that hits countries in the Middle East in order to enjoy seven minutes of summertime darkness during the day.
On this basis, I consider myself very lucky that I was in Europe when the solar eclipse happened there in 1999. In spite of the fact that the Swiss city of Berne wasn’t included in my trip agenda, I made sure to be there on Aug. 21 because it is one of the few cities where you can see the full solar eclipse. (Seeing a solar eclipse is rare; seeing a total eclipse — when the moon passes directly in front of the sun, shutting it out complete for a few seconds — is even more rare.) As I watched this phenomenon I wondered about the types of reactions by people of different nations when the moon right above them eclipses the sun in the middle of the day.
Our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “The sun and the moon are two Godly miracles that don’t eclipse for the death or the birth of a human being.”
Ancient cultures used to consider this phenomenon as a bad omen, a sign of catastrophes to come. For example, in Japan they used to cover wells and potteries thinking that the weather would be poisoned. Indians used to shut down their houses in fear of harmful moonlight. Scandinavians thought that diseases would float in the air during the solar eclipse. Babylonians assumed that catastrophes and diseases would come under a solar or lunar eclipse, so they made sure to lie down with their faces to the ground to avoid the pox.
Each nation faced this phenomenon in its own way. Eskimos used to sacrifice animals to satisfy their gods. Indian Aztecs sacrificed human beings to convince the moon to return and the sun to appear. In Korea, Japan and China, where they think that dragons eat the moon, people used to gather to make loud noises to scare the dragons and stop them from eating their meal.
Nowadays, the phenomenon — at least for civilized nations — is only a matter of astronomical events that happens regularly. History tells us how some people used others’ ignorance of this fact to achieve different worldly interests. Christopher Columbus in 1504 accomplished a rare feat that saved him from a disaster. (The story is chronicled in “Columbus: Master of the Atlantic,” a biography by David A. Thomas published in 1991.) When he arrived to the Jamaican Islands on his fourth trip across the ocean, he had run out of supplies and his ships’ hulls had been ravaged by worms and needed repair. Columbus couldn’t get any help from the islands’ residents because they refused to sell him even food. Suddenly, he remembered that a lunar eclipse was going to happen in the near future.
Columbus asked for a meeting with tribes’ leaders on the appointed date claiming he had a message from their gods. When everyone showed up, he said that the gods told him they are angry and their anger will deprive the tribes from moonlight. They didn’t believe him of course and made fun of him. Suddenly, the moon eclipsed and Indian Aztecs were terrified and begged Columbus to accept their help and ask their gods to forgive them. He agreed and fulfilled all his needs and then continued his trip.
For more information on eclipses, as well as a list of historical quotes regarding the astronomical phenomenon, visit: www.mreclipse.com.
