Is announcing the occurrence of an eclipse a claim to knowledge of the unseen?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: There is a man who writes in the annual Hijri calendar, and he has written in his calendar that an eclipse of the sun will occur next Wednesday. Does this count as a claim to knowledge of the unseen?
The Shaykh:
No, this is not from the knowledge of the unseen. This is from the science of calculation. They know the movement of the sun and the movement of the moon, when they meet and when they separate. When the meeting occurs, the sun is eclipsed, and when the separation occurs, the moon is eclipsed. This is understood through calculation of the degrees of the celestial spheres. They are not from the knowledge of the unseen. Yes.
The presenter:
What Allah willed, may Allah reward you, Your Eminence.
The Shaykh:
But announcing it in the newspapers, announcing it, this is from excessive strictness. The scholars knew this, and they were more skilled than these people, yet they did not inform the people of these matters. As for announcing it, this is from excessive strictness, yes, and from causing confusion among the ignorant. They say, "These people know the unseen." Yes.
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: There is a man who writes in the annual Hijri calendar, and he has written in his calendar that an eclipse of the sun will occur next Wednesday. Does this count as a claim to knowledge of the unseen?
The Shaykh:
No, this is not from the knowledge of the unseen. This is from the science of calculation. They know the movement of the sun and the movement of the moon, when they meet and when they separate. When the meeting occurs, the sun is eclipsed, and when the separation occurs, the moon is eclipsed. This is understood through calculation of the degrees of the celestial spheres. They are not from the knowledge of the unseen. Yes.
The presenter:
What Allah willed, may Allah reward you, Your Eminence.
The Shaykh:
But announcing it in the newspapers, announcing it, this is from excessive strictness. The scholars knew this, and they were more skilled than these people, yet they did not inform the people of these matters. As for announcing it, this is from excessive strictness, yes, and from causing confusion among the ignorant. They say, "These people know the unseen." Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [72] هل الإخبار بوقوع الكسوف من ادعاء علم الغيب؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.