An Introduction to the Hidden Treasures of Islam — Page 131
131 of the moon and the revolution of the earth round the sun and the moon round the earth. It is said that successive eclipses occur very nearly in the same order. This period of recurrence has been known from remote antiquity and is called the Saros. There are various other laws which govern the phenomena. But the prophecy made thirteen hundred years beforehand, indicated that the two signs for the advent of the true Mahdi would be that the sun and the moon would be eclipsed in the manner predicted. Eclipses did, no doubt, occur before, but never as a sign of the advent of a heavenly reformer, because there had never been in the history of the world a claimant of any kind at the time of the phenomena described. It is also confirmed by the Holy Quran (75:9-10) which refers to the same prophecy. . . Now, as indicated in the hadith, the eclipse of the moon actually occurred on Thursday evening, 7:00 to 9:30 p. m. (Calcutta time), the 13th day of Ramadan, 1311 A. H. (March 20, 1894) and that of the sun occurred on Friday morning, 9:00 to 11:00 a. m. (Calcutta time), the 28th day of the same Ramadan (April 6, 1894). It was recorded and reported in the Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore, the Pioneer of All a h a b a d and all vernacular papers. The eclipse of the moon generally occurs on the 13th, 14th or 15th day of the lunar month, and according to the prophecy, it occurred on the first date. The eclipse of the sun generally takes place on the 27th, 28th or 29th and it occurred on the 28th which was the middle date as predicted. Hence, the Promised Messiah as rightly claimed that the prophecy was fulfilled and that it was a strong evidence of the truth of his claim. People marvelled at the manner in which the Promised Messiah as ’s claim was supported by heavenly signs. Seekers after truth poured into Qadian, visitors came from distant places. The Promised Messiah as ’s correspondence swelled. The Promised Messiah as wrote the following on the title page of this book with caption “Warning”: ‘This book along with the first part had been prepared to counter the arguments advanced by Padre ‘Im a d-ud-D i n and Maulav i Muhammad H ussain Bat a lv i along with a prize of Rs. 5,000 with the