Is the Incident of Shaqq al-Qamar (Splitting of the Moon) Mutawātir?
Source: Fatāwā Amun Pūrī by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amun Pūrī
The Question
Is the incident of the splitting of the moon (shaqq al-qamar) narrated through mutawātir reports?
The Answer
Yes, the incident of the splitting of the moon is established through mutawātir aḥādīth.
Statements of Scholars
❀ ʿAllāmah Abū al-Maʿālī Ibn al-Zamalkānī (727H) said:
“The aḥādīth about the splitting of the moon are mutawātir and authentic.”
(al-Bidāyah wa’l-Nihāyah, Ibn Kathīr: 9/365)
❀ Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (728H) said:
“The people witnessed with their own eyes the moon split into two halves; there are mutawātir narrations regarding this.”
(al-Jawāb al-Ṣaḥīḥ: 1/414)
❀ Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr (774H) said:
“The splitting of the moon is proven by mutawātir and authentic reports.”
(Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr: 7/472)
❀ Ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Mulaqqin also declared it mutawātir.
(al-Tawḍīḥ li-Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 20/221)
❀ Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar (852H) said:
“The reports about the weeping of the minbar and the splitting of the moon have been transmitted as mutawātir; according to the scholars of ḥadīth, they are definitive. As for those unfamiliar with the science of ḥadīth, they are not part of this discussion.”
(Fatḥ al-Bārī: 6/592)
❀ ʿAllāmah al-Saffārīnī (1188H) said:
“The splitting of the moon is proven by the Qur’ānic text and the authentic, explicit Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. The aḥādīth regarding it have reached the level of tawātur, and there is consensus of Ahl al-Ḥaqq upon it.”
(Lawāmiʿ al-Anwār al-Bahiyyah: 2/293)
Conclusion
- The incident of the splitting of the moon (shaqq al-qamar) is established by the Qur’an and mutawātir Sunnah.
- It is unanimously affirmed by the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah.
