Woman Between Islam and Western Society
1. A Survey
~ 23 ~
Considering their “success,” it is little wonder that
the Chinese used the same tactics with happy
conviction on subsequent occasions. It is now
common knowledge that the dates and durations of
such eclipses are entirely calculable, just as the
course of Halley’s comet was entirely predictable.
It was during this age of superstition that Islam
appeared on the horizon to herald a new era of
enlightenment. Its account of the solar eclipse was
just one of the ideas which were totally at variance
with the beliefs of the day, and which have
subsequently been deemed quite in accordance with
the findings of modern research. The Prophet
Muhammad’s own explanation of the solar eclipse
is worthy of note. It so happened that the death of
his only son, Ibrahim, at the age of one and a half,
coincided with a solar eclipse in the tenth year of
the Hijra (January, 632
A.D.
). The ancient belief still
being prevalent that eclipses were caused by the
death of an important person, some of the
inhabitants of Medina began spreading the story
that the eclipse was due to the death of the
Prophet’s son. The Prophet, therefore, felt it
necessary to gather his people together and explain
