Surah Al-Qamar (54) — Ayah 1

1. The Hour (of Judgment) has drawn near, and the moon has split [1].

[1] Once, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting in Mina, and the disbelievers of Makkah were also present there. They demanded a sign from you ﷺ, so you ﷺ said: Look towards the sky. Suddenly, the moon split into two pieces, as is clear from the following hadiths:
1. Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud ؓ narrates that in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, the moon split into two pieces. One piece remained above the mountain and the other came down below. The Prophet ﷺ said (to those who were present at that time): "Look, bear witness." [بخاري۔ كتاب التفسير]
2. Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas رضی اللہ عنہما said that in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, the moon split. [حواله ايضاً]
3. Sayyiduna Anas ؓ narrates that the disbelievers of Makkah said to you: Show us a sign. So you ﷺ showed them the splitting of the moon. [حواله ايضاً]
From the verse, it is also understood that the relationship between the Day of Judgment and the splitting of the moon is that the splitting of the moon is a sign of the nearness of the Day of Judgment, which has already occurred, so now consider it very near. When the disbelievers saw this miracle with their own eyes, they said that either magic has been done on the moon or our eyes have been bewitched so that we are seeing it like this. In this confusion, one person said that if our eyes have been bewitched, then ask the people nearby. So, the people nearby confirmed it, but these disbelievers did not desist from their stubbornness. The deniers of miracles raise several objections to this verse. The first objection relates to the interpretation of the meaning. They say that in this verse, the past tense should be taken in the future sense, and the meaning would be: "When the Day of Judgment draws near and the moon splits," as is translated in ﴿اِذَا الشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ﴾ and other similar verses. In our view, this interpretation and reasoning are wrong because wherever the events of the Day of Judgment are mentioned, such as the sky will be split, the stars will lose their light and begin to fall, severe earthquakes will occur on the earth, the mountains will fly about, etc., there is no connection of these things with the disbelievers calling them magic, nor is magic mentioned in the Quran alongside such verses. The disbelievers calling the splitting of the moon magic and their repeated denial is clear evidence that this was a sensory miracle that had already occurred. The second objection is that if this event actually took place, then a large number of people should have known about it. The answer is that this event happened at night, not during the day, when most people are asleep. Then, at that time, in half the world, the sun was up anyway, where this event could not have been seen, and in the remaining half of the world, it could only be seen in those places that were east of Mina. Furthermore, there was no announcement of this event, as nowadays it is known through calendars and newspapers or announced by observatories, so people were not even waiting for the moon to split so that they could see it with their own eyes. Besides, we see that a lunar eclipse lasts for several hours, people have already been informed, but the majority of people remain unaware of the eclipse, and this splitting of the moon happened only for a moment. Who would have seen it? And the people nearby did give their testimony. The third objection is that such an important event should have been mentioned in history as well. There are several answers to this objection. The first is that the most authentic history can be found in the books of hadith, and this event is present in them. The second is that the attention given to historiography in that era is well known to everyone. The third is that when the majority of the people of the world and such historians did not see it, what would they write? And the fourth is that history is not entirely devoid of the recording of this event. It is mentioned in Tarikh-e-Farishta that the Maharaja of Malabar saw this event with his own eyes, and eventually, this event became the reason for his accepting Islam.

Objections to the Splitting of the Moon and Their Answers:

The fourth objection is that astronomers and astrologers have not mentioned this event anywhere. The answer is that if the splitting of the moon had caused a change in its speed, or it had changed its orbit, or started moving out of its orbit, then these things were such that astronomers would have mentioned them. But when none of these things happened, what would they mention? And the fifth objection is that this event is against the natural order, and in fact, this is their most important objection, which prevents them from accepting it, and they keep making various objections and doubts. In reality, their denial is a denial of the perfect power of Allah. In any case, this is no longer beyond reason today. In the core of every planet, there are fiery substances or molten and boiling metals whose temperature is thousands of degrees centigrade. These terrible lavas can split these huge spheres at any time. Then, the magnetic force of their center, which is called gravity in today's language, joins and merges these separated pieces together, and such processes continue to occur in the vastness of space. These galaxies have come into existence in this way, and even today this process has not stopped but continues as before. Moreover, a meteor is the name of such a separated piece of a planet, which sometimes, after separating, joins again, sometimes falls and disappears in space, and sometimes falls on the earth. If man truly knew what is happening in the vastness of space, he would never be surprised at the event of the splitting of the moon. What does man know about how vast the domain of Allah's power is and with what perfect wisdom He is running this system of the universe?