Eclipse- only a sign of God.

I did not know about the eclipse hitting Pakistan or I might have seen it. The torrential rains had terminated the power supply so most of were virtually cut off from the world for a couple of days. Anyhow, I do not regret missing it even though it was a long one (6 mins and 53 seconds, I remember reading). It was, perhaps, better that way. Besides, I was sleeping at that time! I woke up at nine and read about it in the newspaper, which reported that the eclipse would occur for a very little time in Pakistan, that too around seven in the morning.

But I was not very excited about seeing it anyway. Islam teaches us to be practical and rational human beings. Prophet (pbuh) taught us not to associate any kind of powers and events with the eclipse. The eclispe occured during his life time and this is how he dealt with it:

One night in March 630 CE, Angel Gabriel visited the Prophet and addressed him as: "O father of Ibrahim." A few hours later, the Prophet received the news of the birth of his son from his wife Mariah, and the Prophet named him Ibrahim. He was the only child born after the six children from Prophet’s first wife Khadijah. Ibrahim died when he was ten months old. On the day of Ibrahim's death, there was an eclipse of the sun. When some people began to attribute it to the Prophet's bereavement, he said: "The sun and the moon are two signs of the signs of God. Their light is not dimmed for any man's death. If you see them eclipsed, you should pray until they be clear."

In all things Muhammad (pbuh) was profoundly practical. When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumors of God's personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad(pbuh) is said to have announced, 'And eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human-being'.