Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 235
24 March 1908 235 Promised Messiah as that: ‘the One-Eyed Dajjal 1 has created a great deal of deception and some ignorant and ill-informed people have fallen into his trap. He has documented within his book proof of twen- ty-five or twenty-six eclipses of the moon and sun during the month of Ramadan. ’ Upon hearing this, the Promised Messiah as said: I have never said that solar and lunar eclipses have never taken place in the month of Ramadan before. On the contrary, I believe that there is a solar system in operation and I believe that it is quite possible that such an event happened in the past as well. My claim is simply that it has never happened before this time with all the conditions and prerequisites as outlined in the hadith of Darqutni. 2 For example, the exact date has been fixed in this hadith that the moon would eclipse on the first of the appointed dates of its eclipse and the sun would eclipse on the middle of the dates appointed for its eclipse; that is, the eclipse of the moon would be on the thirteenth [night of the lunar month] and the eclipse of the sun would be on the twenty-eighth [day of the lunar month], and that the claim of the claimant of Mahdi [the Guided One] would already be on record and it is not that he would make the claim after witnessing the solar and the lunar eclipses. His claim would already be there on record and the lunar and solar eclipses would occur in the sky in this fashion in his support and favour. Moreover, he would also substanti- ate his claim with other heavenly and earthly Signs, and proofs and arguments. And his claim would have already become well known far and wide having been thoroughly publicized. 1. Here the reference is to Dr. Abdul Hakeem, the apostate. [Publisher] 2. Sunan ad-D ā rqutn ī, Vol. II, Bāb S ifati S alātil-Khusūf wal-Kusūf wa Hay’ti-himā [Publisher]