A Grand Prophecy: A Great Fire That Covers the Night

The year is 1883. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is enjoying a pleasant stroll with two companions on a pier overlooking the fjord of Christiania (now Oslo) at dusk, when suddenly, he is overcome by a sense of anxiety and dread. Munch's emotions during the stroll serve as the inspiration for one of the most iconic paintings in the history of Western art: The Scream. Munch would eventually paint different versions of the painting between the early 1890s and 1910, experimenting with various mediums.

The painting itself is simple in a sense. It is divided into three major components: the sky, the Oslo fjord (the Nordic name for a sea inlet), and a pier with the main subject of the painting, an eerily elongated figure in black with hands on its head, midway through a terrifying scream. Colourful and swerving undulated strokes converge on the figure, bringing it into focus and emphasising the emotion of panic it represents. His two companions, who seem unperturbed by the presence of the figure, continue to stroll as if nothing of importance is happening. 

Edvard Munch, The Scream ® www.edvardmunch.org

In subsequent decades, art historians and scientists alike were not certain as to the reason behind the sky's blood-red depiction. Some even speculated that the sky was not actually red, rather it was a figment of Munch's imagination. It was not until more than a hundred years later, in 2004, that three researchers published a study demonstrating it was a scientific phenomenon linked to a major global event that was the cause for the sky's colour: the 1883 volcanic eruption of Krakatoa. It was the blood-red sky that induced the sentiments of dread and anxiety in Munch, not the other way around.

During the same period that Munch was painting his various renditions of The Scream, a man by the name of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, in a remote and unknown village of Victorian Punjab called Qadian, had claimed to be the very Messiah and Mahdi that was promised by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) who would reform the people of the latter ages and show them the true glory of Islam. It is an established fact of the world that when a divinely appointed messenger is commissioned by God to carry out His holy work, he is accompanied by numerous signs that testify to his truth. The same was the case for Hazrat Ahmad (as). Some of these grand signs include the solar and lunar eclipses in the month of Ramadan, the prophecy of plague, the prophecy of Lekh Ram etc., to name a few. Explaining yet another one of these signs in his book Ayyam-us-Sulh or The Age of Peace (1899), he writes:

"Fire erupted from Java, and for a time the horizon remained red. This was also mentioned in the Hadith (saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw)), that such a fire would come about during the time of the Promised Messiah" (Ruhani Khazayyin Vol.14 p.313)

 Indeed, it is reported by Hazrat Imam Hussain (ra) that the Holy Prophet (saw) said: 

"You will witness the signs [of the hour] in the skies. A great fire from the East which shall cover the night. At that time, people will be relieved, for the Mahdi will be among them"

So what was this volcano? What were the events that led to its eruption? And what does a volcano have to do with skies turning red? Let us now turn our attention to the largest sound recorded in history. 

In 1883, between the islands of Sumatra and Java in the Sunda Strait of Indonesia, one of the most destructive events in recent memory occurred. The Krakatoa volcano, after a few hours of reported seismic activity, erupted to devastating effect. The eruption was so loud that it was reportedly heard thousands of kilometres away, in places such as the Bay of Bengal and Australia. 

Coloured lithograph of Krakatoa's eruption, from The Royal Society: The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena (1888) 

This was an event of monumental proportions. The eruption released more than 20 cubic kilometres of rock into the atmosphere. Most of the island of Krakatoa collapsed into the ocean, decimated. The resultant ash projected into the air fell over an area of 800,000 km and completely blocked out the sun, causing the region to experience total darkness for more than two days. According to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the eruption caused more than 10% of the earth's surface to vibrate. The explosive force was equivalent to a 200,000 kiloton bomb (for reference, the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was 21 kilotons). The event itself was extremely tragic, as the ensuing tsunami caused more than 36,000 deaths in the surrounding areas.

The British vessel HMS Norham Castle was steaming in the vicinity of Sumatra, some 40 kilometres away from Krakatoa at the time of the eruption. Its captain, Edward Sampson, made an entry log into his diary that day. It reads

"A fearful explosion. A frightful sound. I am writing this blind in pitch darkness. We are under a continual rain of pumice-stone and dust. So violent are the explosions that the eardrums of over half my crew have been shattered.  My last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the Day of Judgement has come"

So it was that the prophecy of the Holy Prophet (saw), along with countless others, regarding the arrival of his humble servant the Promised Messiah and Mahdi (as) would come to pass. Just as the Holy Prophet (saw) prophesied, the fire came from the east (the eruption of Krakatoa) and it covered the sky (the reddening of the horizons). There was but one claimant to the Messiahship at the time.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi

These spectacular sunsets and horizons were reported around the world in the months subsequent to the Krakatoa eruption. Other artists such as the English painter William Ashcroft also captured the deep red skies in the years following the event. In fact, the words of the prophecy of the Holy Prophet (saw) "A great fire from the East which shall cover the night..." manifested with such pinpoint accuracy, it is reported that some people actually mistook the vivid red skies for fire. Reports from New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Jersey confirm that fire engines were called to subdue the apparent fires. The famous poet Gerard Manley Hopkins while describing the optical effects of the sunsets writes: 

"...the glow is intense; that is what strikes everyone; it has prolonged the daylight, and optically changed the season; it bathes the whole sky, it is mistaken for the reflection of a great fire"

It was actually the fine dust released from the eruption that spread around the globe and caused the phenomenal worldwide sunsets. It was not until later in 1883, November specifically, that the dust reached Norway. Little did Munch know that the inspiration for his masterpiece, the awe-inspiring blood-red sky, was a divine sign, marking the advent of the long awaited Promised One.  

References

• Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (as), Ruhani Khazayyin, Volume 14 p.313
• Al-Isha'atu Li-Ashraat-is Sa'ah, Book of Hadith, Number 116
• Olson, D., Doescher, R.L., Olson, M.S. (2003), When the Sky Ran Red: The Story Behind The Scream, Sky and Telescope Magazine February 2003 edition: https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/d7449206-9b95-4245-99ae-5b612c013eca/content
• Begum, T., The 1883 Krakatoa Eruption: A Year of Blue Moons: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-1883-krakatau-eruption-a-year-of-blue-moons.html
• Encyclopedia Brittanica, The Scream: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Scream-by-Munch
• Paulson, N., Edvard Munch, The Scream, The Centre for Public Art History :https://smarthistory.org/munch-the-scream/
• Prata, F., Robock, A., & Hamblyn, R. (2018), The Sky in Edvard Munch's The Scream, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 99(7), 1377-1390
• Walker, E. (2023), Krakatoa and 9/11 - The Day the World Screamed, Medium: https://medium.com/@ellen.walker/krakatoa-and-9-11-how-we-heard-the-world-scream-5531b77aa5d0
• Hamblyn, R. (2012), The Krakatoa Sunsets, The Public Domain Review: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-krakatoa-sunsets/