An Egyptian accountant was astonished when he discovered a stone bearing the likeness of the Virgin Mary carrying Jesus in her womb.
Cairo resident Ahmed Hani El-Husseiny, 41, found the stone, which “could be worth millions of dollars”, when he was 14 years old.
He has kept hold of it ever since.
Remarkably, before making the stunning find, Ahmed had dreamt about the Virgin Mary handing him a stone-like object.
He told Newsflash in an interview: “When I was young, I had a dream. There was a large crowd of people. It seemed like they were waiting for someone.
“They were happy in the dream. My little brother was with me, but the people left after nightfall.
“I saw someone tapping my right shoulder, she placed something that felt like a stone in my hand, and she said, ‘It is yours, Ahmed.’
“The light was radiating around her, there was a tranquility in my heart, a feeling inside me, and in the dream, I knew that she was the Virgin Mary.”
Ahmed continued: “Two years after the dream, my brother and I were walking on a road in Cairo. That was in August 1996. That day we took a different way home.
“I stumbled and fell on the sandy ground, like any child. I spontaneously grabbed a stone from the ground and looked at it.
“I saw a woman who appeared to be pregnant, and I put the stone in my trouser pocket. Then both of us went home.
“When we got home, my mother saw the stone and said that it was the Virgin Mary pregnant with baby Jesus.”
Ahmed told Newsflash: “Everyone who saw it said that it was the Virgin Mary. I even contacted senior specialists in geology at a German university, a famous doctor. She said that it was the Virgin Mary and that it was a great miracle.”
Ahmed chose not to reveal the specialist’s name.
He continued: “Since the stone was discovered in 1996, it has been in the hands of various experts from different museums around the world.
“The stone has also been examined by a senior expert in geology, who confirmed that it is not a fake (i.e. made from an alloy) but a real stone and that the depiction is amazing.”
The piece is 27.57 millimetres tall, 17.64 millimetres wide, and 12.45 millimetres deep. It weighs 5.3 grammes.
Ahmed revealed: “The geologist who saw it said that it could be worth millions of dollars, based on how unique the piece is.”
He did not go public with the story at the time due to his young age and the fact that he did not realise how significant the find was.
But now he wants everyone to see the “miracle” stone.
The Virgin Mary – or Maryam bint Imran (Mary, daughter of Imran) – is revered in Islam as the only woman named in the Quran, which refers to her 70 times and explicitly identifies her as the greatest woman to have ever lived.
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Story By: Basant Essam, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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