[meteorite-list] Early Explanation Of Meteors; A Story Of Big Fall In Yemen

From: DiamondMeteor <DiamondMeteor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:55:50 2004
Message-ID: <OE25h9wPiyAphwFutJL0000e17b_at_hotmail.com>

This is an extract from Ibn Arabi's famous book: "AlFutuhat AlMakkiyya (The
Mekkian Revelations)" written around 1240 A.D. The book is a very important
reference in sufism and it is considered to be one of the 100 greatest books
in history. It is a vey big book, like an encyclopedia, and there are lots
of references and talenting explanations to many subjects in cosmology.
The book is in Arabic and I did this quick (literal) translation:

"... and those substances (the meteors) existed before the (seven) skies
(the solar system) and they are related to air. Air is hot and humid. The
humidity of the air when it gets in contact with this object causes fire in
the wet parts of the air and this causes those planets that have tails
(meteors) to appear and that is because of the high speed of their motion
that is why we see the tails......
And I have seen once its tail remained for one hour and more than one hour
while I was in Tawaf (circling around Ka'aba) me and a group of people.
People were astonished of that. We have never seen any night with so many
meteors all the night till the morning because there were many of them and
they were interfering like fire sparks and they prevented us from seeing
other planets and stars. So we said it must be some accident.
After a while news came from Yemen that there were a big disaster at that
time and the wind came there with much dust that is like Zink until it
accumulated on the ground till the knees and there were fear between people
and the day was dark that they had to walk with candles during the day and
they were not able to see the Sun because of the huge clouds, and they heard
strange sounds in the sea.... All this happened in the year 600 or 599
(Hijri) I am not sure because I did not write it down at that time and place
until now in 627 (Hijri) (in Damascus), but it is well known to all people
of Hijaz and Yemen......
And those meteors that have tails do not actually occur in ether but in the
air; they burn it, so they are in reality a burning air and not ignited air
(without torch). ... And in reality the first sky is extremly cold but Allah
made a barrier between us and this cold sky with this fire between the air
and the sky and that is why life is possible on Earth for animals and plants
and metals which would otherwise be very cold. Allah heated the earth, the
water and the air (elements) with the rays from other planets (including the
Sun) that is continously coming down onto the Earth throgh this ether......"
[AlFutuhat AlMakkiyya, part II, page 450 ]


Best Regards
Mohamed Yousef
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Received on Thu 24 Jan 2002 11:15:38 AM PST