The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 187
186 Ā'ĪNA-E-KAMĀLĀT-E-ISLĀM―DĀFI‘UL-WASĀWIS combustible and transparent, it catches fire instantly because of its fiery origin, and it appears as if it is extinguished as soon as it catches fire, but in reality it is not extinguished. What happens is that the extremity that is upward of the column of smoke gets ignited first, and then the flame travels to the other extremity, and the flame in motion appears to us as if it had travelled in a curve to which we give the name of a shooting star, which appears towards the lower regions of the curve. Then, when the earth's atmosphere goes up towards that fiery column of smoke, the fire is not visible because of its expansion and looks as if it has been extinguished, whereas it is not extinguished. This happens when the smoke is very thin and rare. But if it is thick or dense, the flames endure for many days or even for years. The light of the flame, which then looks like a star, appears in space in different shapes. It sometimes appears like a comet which, at times, has a wavy sort of tail, sometimes the fiery image appears in the form of a spear, and sometimes in the form of an animal with a number of horns. The fiery image appears for a year or, for many years altogether, and sometimes it breaks into pieces and takes the form of shooting and sometimes again those shooting stars assume the shape of this fiery image. When the fiery image appears on the northern hori- zon, it very often lasts for a long time as compared to its appearance in some other direction, and if it stays there for a very long time its heat causes many a great calamity. stars, History also records that after the arrest of the Messiah [Jesus], shooting stars appeared first, and then the stretch of fire was observed in the heavens for one full year, and the sky rained down an ash-like substance, and the day was totally darkened from nine in the morning until nightfall. AUTHOR'S MARGIN NOTE Philosophical opinions are severely unstable and with- out firm establishment In short, these are the explanations of the Greeks regarding the shooting stars and comets, which have been adopted by the philosophers of Islam and to which the