An interesting Email I got

[Ali]

>>Aslaam alikum dear Brothers,

>>

>>The astronomers said that Mars movement to the East direction has

>>slow down in

>>the past few weeks and in wednesday 20/jul Mars movement has

>>stopped!!

>>After that in August and September Mars started to move again but

>>to

>>the

>>opposite direction towards the west, this movement will continue

>>until the end

>>of september, this means that the sun rise from the west now on

>>Mars!

>>This strange movement call "retrograde motion" or the opposite

>>movement.

>>The astronomers said that this movement will happen at least once

>>to

>>all the

>>planets including the Earth!

>>This will happen to the Earth one day and the sun

>>will rise form the West!

>>Our prophet Mohammed (peice upon him) said that a big sign of the

>>judgment day

>>is the rising of the sun from the west and when this happen Allah

>>will not

>>accept twba (regret and asking Allah for forgiveness) any more.

>>Our prophet Mohammed "PUH" said that the first sign will be

>>the rising of sun from the west.

>>Our prophet Mohammed "PUH" said that the judgment day will not come

>>until the

>>sun rise from west and all the people will believe when they see

>>that,

>>but in that day it will not be useful to believe for those who

>>never

>>believe

>>before.

>>Our prophet Mohammed "PUH" said that Allah give his hand at

>>night so the people who made sins in the day time make "twba"

>>(regret and asking

>>allah for forgiveness), and Allah give his hand at the day time so

>>the

>>people who made sins at night make "twba" and this will continue

>>until the sun

>>rise from the west.

>>this new news should open a way of Dawa for muslims and non

>>muslims.

>>when we show non muslim the above "Hadith" whitch been mentioned

>>1400 years ago

>>many of them will come islam inshaAllah.

>>Source: http://alpha.lasalle.edu/~smithsc/Astronom.../retrograd.html

>>

-- Ali

[Muslimah]

as salam alykom Ali

I received the same email in Arabic, but then received some info presenting a scientific explanation as why the fact included is not valid. But unfortunately I did not quite understand that point:confused: so I preferred to keep silent about it:eek:

[Dan]

Bismillah

As salam alaikum

I think that Insha'Allah I might be able to explain this phenomenon.

Picture three people. One is in the center of a large room. The second is standing ten feet away from the first. The third person is standing 30 feet from the first. The first person stands still while the other two run around the first. Because the second person is closer to the first, the cirlce he runs in is smaller and it takes a shorter amount of time to complete a circle than the third person. The third person must run in a larger circle and so it takes him longer to complete a circle.

If the two runners begin to run from the same point of the cirlce (say the righthand side of the person in the center), they initially are going to stay next to one another. Soon, the second runner pulls ahead of the third because he has less distance to travel. Eventually, the second runner is going to pass the third runner Or lap him.

At first the second runner was moving farther away from the third runner, eventually he got across from the third runner and was moving closer to the runner. Now the second runner is moving closer to the third runner. When the second passes the third, he is again moving away from the third runner.

Now imagine the second person is Earth and the third is Mars while the center person is the sun. These times when the runners are getting closer then farther or farther then closer is like the changing of directions of the planet Mars in our sky. Due to the extreme distances though, these occurrances do not occur as often as they do in our runner scenario.

This is why the sun did not rise in the west on Mars. In order for that to happen, Mars has to spin in the opposite direction in which it is now spinning. One way is for it to completely stop and change directions and the other is for the planet to flip its poles, ie flip upside down. Some scientists theorize that this may eventually happen to the Earth. The theory I've heard about is that dams holding tremdeous amounts of water have started the planet to wobble on its axis, like when a ball or balloon has a weight attached to one end. This wobbling could cause the planet to flip.

Allah knows best. Jazak Allah Khair.

As salam alaikum.

[masriahmuslimah]

Asalam~O~Alykum

Sobhan Allah. Sadaka Rasool Allah (SAAW)

[AhmedSyed]

Assamualum brothers and sisters

Its called RETROGRADE MOTION!!!!

Brother Dan explains this well.

What happened is that Earth passed by Mars. It happens almost ever year. Same way Venus passes us, and Mercury passes the Earth at least 4 times a year!

The closer you are to the Sun, the faster you revolve, the farther the distance, the longer it takes.

Nothing to get all excited about