Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 246
246 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION Allah be pleased with him. The answer is that it was the practice of the Imams belonging to the Holy Prophet's House that, on account of their personal eminence, they did not consider it necessary to record the chain of reporters by name, reaching all the way to the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. This practice of theirs is quite well known. Thus, there are hundreds of aḥādīth of this kind in the Shi'ah sect; moreover, Imām Dār Quṭnī has included it in his collection as one of the aḥādīth. Furthermore, this hadith comprises a matter of the unseen that has actually manifested after 1300 years. It says, in brief, that, ‘At the time of the Promised Mahdi, the lunar eclipse will take place on the 13th night of Ramadan, and the solar eclipse will take place on the 28th day of the same month; and an event such as this will not hap- pen in the time of any other claimant except the Promised Mahdi. ' It is quite obvious that no one except a Prophet can so vividly tell about a matter belonging to the unseen. Allah the Exalted says in the Holy Quran: لا يُظْهِرُ عَلَى غَيْبِةٍ أَحَدًا إِلَّا مَنِ ارْتَضَى مِنْ رَّسُولٍ. ! Meaning that, God does not communicate His knowledge of the unseen to anyone except His chosen Messengers. Now, since this prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter, claims that the hadith is inau- thentic, or that it is a saying of Imām Muḥammad al-Baqir, are lame excuses. The fact is that these people have no desire whatsoever that any prophecy of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, or of the Holy Quran, be fulfilled. The world is approach- ing its end but, according to them, no prophecy concerning the Latter Days has yet been fulfilled. What hadith can be more authentic than this hadith which does not owe its validation to the critique of hadith 1. Surah al-Jinn, 72:27-28 [Publisher]