It’s the Friday afternoon congregational prayer for the Islamic Society of Evansville in Newburgh. Long, perfectly aligned rows of congregants bow, kneel and place their foreheads on the carpet.
On Monday, their Imam Wissam Abdel Baki, will lead a special prayer ahead of the solar eclipse which is darkening the skies Monday afternoon.
“Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) taught us to use these times to come back to God to reflect, to pray, and to be connected to God,” he said. “And also at the same time this connection will give a special fruit — this fruit is charity, meaning you'll be close to God and close to people.”
Islam, Christianity and Judaism reference sacred texts seemingly describing solar eclipses. The meaning of the eclipse and whether it has spiritual significance can depend on the religion or even the sect, congregation or individual.
The local Jewish temple treats the eclipse as a purely scientific event.
Rabbi Gary Mazo with the Jewish Temple Adath B'nai Israel said via email that as reform jews they “appreciate and live within the world of science.”
“We also understand, however, that in more primitive times — especially in Biblical times, things like an Eclipse instilled great fear and awe … When we read them today, we try to understand them through the lens of what people knew and didn't know astrologically in biblical times — not as any sort of ‘predictor’ of future events or ‘divine sign.’”
Paul Kilroy is an Elder with the Seventh Day Adventist Church which, with two other southern Indiana churches, are holding a Bible Prophecy Event.
He said of course, the eclipse is a rare, awe-inspiring event.
“People can see more of creation and supernatural things in an eclipse,” he said. “But also the Bible talks about eclipses.”
This is one of the subjects of their series, advertised through 15,000 mailer packages including eclipse glasses and a book.
“Seeing the Signs” is his first sermon of the series by Kilroy.
“In the book of Matthew, and the New Testament, the disciples asked Jesus one day, ‘what will be the signs of your coming.’ And Jesus specifically said, there will be earthquakes, there will be famines, there will be other types of pestilence and natural disasters … but he also said that the sun will lose its lights, and the stars will fall from the heavens, there'll be various visible natural events before he comes again. And so people are very concerned about that.”
He said the Seventh Day Adventist Church does believe the “signs” but aren’t looking to sensationalize them.
“...we're looking to just say, ‘Wow, this is a powerful event that is very awe inspiring.’ And maybe with that, some people will turn to the Bible and go, ‘Well, let me understand a little bit more about what God has in store for me.’”
There are Christians that believe the eclipse is a sign from God to repent like YouTuber Big Nik, who recently shared a video arguing the eclipse is a sign for people to repent.
“… right before Nineveh repented in the Bible story of Jonah, there was a total solar eclipse called the bursa gala Eclipse, which was one of the astronomical phenomena is that caused an entire pagan city to repent from their pagan practices and turn back to the true God Yahweh.”
At the Evansville Islamic Center, congregants grab their shoes after prayer, and depart.
To Imam Abdel Baki, it’s important to understand that the eclipse is a scientific event and spiritually, only a temporary reminder of loss, as written in the Quran attributed to the Prophet Muhamad.
“‘This happens, not for the death or the life of the birth of somebody. This is caused by God to remind you and to come closer to him.’”
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