Another miracle occurred when our Prophet (saas) split the Moon in two. Allah mentions this extraordinary event in the Qur'an, and many hadiths tell us about it:
The Hour has drawn near and the Moon has split. If they see a Sign, they turn away, exclaiming: "There is no end to this witchcraft!" They have denied the truth and followed their whims and desires. But everything has its time. (Surat al-Qamar: 1-3)
The splitting of the Moon (wa inshaqqa al-qamar) consists of the words "splitting" and "Moon." "Splitting" comes from the basic Arabic root meaning "to divide, gum, the appearance of a plant after the soil has been ploughed." In this sense, it means "to be divided, to be cut into pieces, to be separated." The Encyclopaedia of Seerah contains a compilation of all of the related hadiths. In summary, they say:
It was an evening on the 14th day of the lunar month, five years before the hijra (immigration) to Madinah. At that time, the new-born Moon was divided in two. One part went toward a hill opposite; the second part in the other direction. It was only a second. Then the two parts of the Moon joined up again. At that time, the Prophet (saas) was in Mina. He addressed those who were there, saying: "Look and witness!" The unbelievers suggested that he had bewitched them, for which reason their eyes had not seen accurately. Others present there said: "Muhammad (saas) could have bewitched us, but not those not here. Wait a little, and let's ask those who come this way if they saw such an occurrence." Those coming from outside agreed that they had witnessed this. (Afzalur Rahman, Encyclopaedia of Seerah, 164.)
This story is included in the works of such great hadith scholars as Imam al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Dawud, al-Hakim, al-Bayhaqi, and Abu Nu`aym.25 Some of these hadiths are as follows:
Abdullah ibn Mas`ud (said): We were with the Messenger of Allah at Mina when the Moon was split in two. One part was behind the mountain and the other one was on this side of the mountain. He said to us: "Bear witness to this." 26
Abdullah ibn Mas`ud reported that the Moon was split in two parts during the Messenger of Allah's lifetime. The mountain covered one of its parts and one part of it was above the mountain, and he said: "Bear witness to this." 27
During the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, the Moon was split in two; one part remained over the mountain, and the other part went beyond the mountain. On that, he said: "Witness this miracle."28
The hadiths state that this miracle occurred in Mecca. They also relate that the Meccans wanted him to perform this miracle:
The people of Mecca asked the Messenger of Allah to show them signs (miracles), and he showed them the splitting of the Moon twice.29
According to the story, the Prophet Muhammad (saas) did as they asked, but they continued to deny the truth of his message and embrace Islam:
If they see a Sign they turn away, saying: "There is no end to this witchcraft!" They have denied the truth and followed their whims and desires. But everything has its time. (Surat al-Qamar: 2-3)
The unbelievers could say nothing in the face of such a great miracle and accused our Prophet (saas) of bewitching them. After they saw the Moon split with their own eyes, they should have realized that he was a true prophet. But because of their arrogance, desires, and passions, they did not accept the Qur'an. This attitude is common among all unbelievers. No matter what miracle they witness, they say:
Our eyesight is befuddled! Or, rather, we have been put under a spell! (Surat al-Hijr: 15)
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi mentions the splitting of the Moon in his The Letters. He relates that many Companions witnessed it and that the unbelievers were rendered totally powerless in the face of this event:
Among his greatest miracles, a certain and mutawatir one, is the splitting of the Moon. This miracle was related through various channels, to the degree of tawatur and by the foremost Companions, among them Ibn Mas`ud, Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar, Ali, Anas, and Hudhayfa (ra). Moreover, Allah stated in the Qur'an this supreme miracle to the whole world: "The Hour has drawn near and the Moon has split." (Surat al-Qamar: 1).
Even the stubborn unbelievers could not deny this verse; all they could say was: "It is magic!" Thus, even the unbelievers were certain that it had occurred. 30
Bediuzzaman says that one of reasons behind our Prophet's (saas) miracles was to expose the difference between a tyrant like Abu Jahl and a good man like Abu Bakr. In his The Letters, he says:
Miracles take place in order to prove the claim of prophethood and to convince deniers, but not to force them to believe. This miracle was needed to convince those who had already heard of the prophethood of Muhammad. To let it be seen from other parts of the world, or to demonstrate it in an undeniably obvious way, therefore, would have been contrary both to the wisdom of the All-Wise Creator and to the purpose of humanity's function in the universe, which is to open the way for the mind without disabling the free will. If the All-Wise Creator had, in accordance with the whims of materialist philosophers, left the Moon in the same condition for a few hours to show it to the entire world, and if this fact had thereby been recorded by all historians, it would have been treated among other astronomical incidents, without being restricted to the messengership of Muhammad and without being considered a proof of his prophethood. Or, it would have been such an obvious miracle that it would have forced minds to believe and deprived them of free will. As a consequence, coal and diamonds (or Abu Jahl and Abu Bakr) would have been the same and the purpose of humanity's function in the universe would have been lost... 31
Like all other bodies and beings in the universe, the Moon lies in the Lord's power; it can be seen if He wills and how He wills it to be seen. As Allah informs in the Qur'an, whatever He commands to happen happens:
His command when He desires a thing is just to say to it, "Be!" and it is. (Surah Ya Sin: 82)
All this shows that Allah has placed His Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad (saas), above all other human beings; revealed His last holy book to him, and, in His mercy, empowered him to perform miracles to soften people's hearts as a way of bringing them to faith. Some people have embraced Islam to save their lives in the next world; others have lost their eternal life by persisting in their rebellion. The words that Allah spoke to our Prophet (saas) have always turned out to be true.
Footnotes
22. Imam Ahmad, Musnad
23. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir of Qur'an with Hadiths (Istanbul: Cagri Publications, 1996), 9:4623.
24. Ibid., 4615.
25. Ilyas Celebi, Itikadi Açıdan Uzak ve Yakın Gelecekle İlgili Haberler, Kitabevi, Istanbul, March 1996, 161
26. Muslim
27. Muslim
28. Al-Bukhari
29. Muslim
30. Ibid.
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