PUTTING AN END TO SUPERSTITION

discouraged an investigation of it. Without such investigation, scientific and industrial progress was simply not possible. Here what Islam simply did was to separate the Creator from the creation and gave a message that nature was meant for us to make use of and to benefit from it. In this way, it has happened that the phenomena of nature, looked upon by ancient man with reverence, have now become objects of investigation. The Quran repeatedly enjoins man to reflect on the objects of the universe thereby inspiring one towards scientific enquiry. This is no simple matter. The act of pondering over the nature of the phenomena of the universe has been encouraged in Islam. This thinking results in putting things in the universe to research and investigation. The following example will illustrate the difference between science and superstition presenting to the discerning reader the message of Islam on the issue. One of the phenomena of nature in our world is the eclipse: sometimes the sun going into eclipse and at other times the moon. Today we have discovered the astronomical laws governing these phenomena but, in ancient times, man was ignorant of what these phenomena and their causes actually were. Strange and wonderful stories on the basis of conjecture were, therefore, concocted to bring them within the realm of human understanding The Chinese account of the eclipse and its ‘remedy’ is one of the more fanciful. When an eclipse occurred, the Chinese thought that the sun was being swallowed by a huge dragon. The whole population joined in making as much noise as possible to scare it away. They always succeeded! (Ian Nicholson, Astronomy 1978) 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 had the following teaching about eclipse. It so happened that the death of the Prophet’s son Ibrahim, at the age of one and a half coincided with a solar eclipse. The ancient belief still being prevalent that eclipses were caused by the death of an important person, some of the inhabitants of Madinah began spreading the story that the eclipse was due to the death of the Prophet’s son. The Prophet, on hearing this, gathered his people