The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 77
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI. A CENTENARY OF A GREAT SIGN:. THE ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND THE MOON. Here we will discuss in brief about the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Holy Prophet concerning the eclipses of the sun and moon in the lunar month of Ramadhan, as a sign for the Mahdi. . Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya Movement in. Islam in 1889 and announced his claim of being the Mahdi and the. Promised Messiah in 1891. This sign was shown in 1894. The eclipse of the moon occurred on the 13th of Ramadhan, 1311 Hijra (March 21, 1894); and the eclipse of the sun occurred on the 28th of that same month of Ramadhan (April 6, 1894). These eclipses were visible over a large part of Asia including India. The eclipse of the moon occurred soon after sunset from 7 p. m. to 9 p. m. , so a large number of people could see the event. The eclipse of the sun occurred from 9am to 11am. The phenomena of the eclipses were repeated in 1895 on the same dates in America. The sign of the eclipses was beyond the power of any person to show. . The year of 1994 was the centenary of this great sign that. Allah showed from the Heavens, testifying the claim of Hadhrat. Ahmad as the true Mahdi. This Hadith of the Holy Prophet was recorded by an eminent authority on Hadith, Hadhrat Ali bin Umar. Al-Baghadadi Ad-Darqutni (918- 991AD). This Hadith is as following: "The Holy Prophet said, 'For our Mahdi 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. Ramadhan and the Sun will be eclipsed on the middle day of. Ramadhan and these signs have not appeared since God created the. Heavens and the Earth. " (Sunan Darqutni) The eclipses of the moon and the sun occur according to the set laws of nature as related to astronomy. According to these laws, if the Hijra calendar is used, the dates on which a lunar eclipse can occur are the 13th, 14th, and 15th 77