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"MOON SPLITTING" IN THE FUTURE (last updated and revised September 13, 2000)
Did the moon appear split
into two in the valley near Mekkah, before the Hijra of Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh), or the revealed verse of the Qur'an (54:1), is speaking of the
future event that is going to happen at the end time? Here the text of
the verse 54:1.
The hour (of Judgment) is nigh and the moon is cleft asunder. Holy Qur'an 54:1 Abdullah Yusuf Ali writes: Three explanations are given in the Mufradat, and perhaps all three apply here: (1) that the moon once appeared cleft asunder in the valley of Mecca within sight of the Prophet, his Companions, and some Unbelievers; (2) that the prophetic past tense indicates the future, the cleaving asunder of the moon being a Sign of the Judgment approaching; and (3) that the phrase is metaphorical, meaning that the matter has become clear as the moon.EXPLANATION NO. 1: (Moon once appeared cleft asunder in Mecca). The miracle of the cleaving of the moon is recorded by Imam Muhammad Ibn Ismail al-Bukhari (d. 256 Hijri), in his Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 4:830-832; 5:208-211; 6:387-389. Most of these Ahadith speak of the "splitting of the moon into two parts". The one that has detailed reporting narrated by Anas bin Malik (5:208) reads: The people of Mecca asked Allah's Apostle to show them a miracle. So he showed them the moon split in two halves between which they saw the Hira'h mountain.This miracle is also recorded by Imam Abu-l-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 261 Hijri), in Sahih al-Muslim Chapter 8, Book 39, Numbers 6724 to 6730. Under Number 6726, transmitted by the authority of 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud it is recorded; The moon was split up in two during the lifetime of Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him). The mountain covered one of it's parts and one part of it was above the mountain and Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: Bear witness to this.Under Number 6725, transmitted by the same authority of 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud, there is a variation in the recording. It reads; One of its parts was behind the mountain and the other one was on this side of the mountain.To read texts of all the above listed Sahih Muslim, please click below: On the above Internet Website Under Hadith Number 6727, it reads: This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of Shu'ba with a slight variation of wording.Note: The degree of authenticity for any Hadith is judged by a listener or a reader after carefully examining two things; a) Chain of Narrators (Isnad). b) The Text (Matn). In the above Hadith the actual sayings of the Prophet though known to the writer, is being held back or abridged. One would never ever find such an act within the verses of the Qur'an. A Hadith from Sahih Muslim [Arabic only] 5013: Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, reported:This Hadith can be read at: http://www.al-islam.com/Bayan/Display.asp?Lang=ENG&HadIndex Note: This is the only Hadith that speak of the splitting of moon having occurred twice. Allah alone knows the Truth. Was the narrator alluding to the inconsistent recordings, seen earlier, as "separate" incidents?
Shaikh Abu A'la Syed al-Maududi writes in his commentary to Surah 54 - Al-Qamar: In this Surah the disbelievers of Makkah have been warned for their stubbornness which they had adopted against the invitation of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The amazing and wonderful phenomenon of the splitting of the Moon was a manifest sign of the truth that the Resurrection, of which the Holy Prophet was giving them the news, could take place and that it had approached near at hand. The great sphere of the Moon had split into two distinct parts in front of their very eyes. The two parts had separated and receded so much apart from each other that to the on-lookers one part had appeared on one side of the mountain and the other on the other side of it. Then, in an instant the two had rejoined. This was a manifest proof of the truth that the system of the Universe was neither eternal nor immortal, it could be disrupted. Huge stars and planets could split asunder, disintegrate, collide with each other, and everything that had been depicted in the Quran in connection with the description of the details of Resurrection, could happen.Ibn Khatir A brother wrote to me:
The Brother has also suggested that I should present before my readers all the available evidences. Upon my research on the report of the Miracle being seen in India, I found the following text on Internet. The text can be read at: http://salam.muslimsonline.com/~azahoor/farmas.html THE TEXT READS: The incident relating to King Chakrawati Farmas is documented in an old manuscript in the India Office Library, London, which has reference number: Arabic, 2807, 152-173. It was quoted in the book “Muhammad Rasulullah,” by M. Hamidullah: “There is a very old tradition in Malabar, South-West Coast of India, that Chakrawati Farmas, one of their kings, had observed the splitting of the moon, the celebrated miracle of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) at Mecca, and learning on inquiry that there was a prediction of the coming of a Messenger of God from Arabia, he appointed his son as regent and set out to meet him. He embraced Islam at the hand of the Prophet, and when returning home, at the direction of the Prophet, died at the port of Zafar, Yemen, where the tomb of the “Indian king” was piously visited for many centuries.” The old manuscript in the 'India Office Library' contains several other details about King Chakrawati Farmas and his travel. Note: One may be tempted to ask; How did the people living in India recognize a small mountain in Hijaz, which they had never seen before, and determine its exact geographical location some 1400 years ago with their naked eyes? The reported date for this Miracle is around 5 years before Hijrah, when a very few people knew the Messenger of Allah.
Here is a passage
from 'The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam'
There are no contemporary accounts of such an event. It is far more likely that the Koran is speaking allegorically of a sign of the Last Day, rather than of a miracle. (page 274).EXPLANATION NO. 2: (The cleaving of the moon will happen in the future).
Majority of the biblical prophecies, spoken by the biblical prophet Isaiah
and recorded in the Old Testament concerning the sufferings and persecution
of Jesus Christ, who was to be born some 700 years later, are written in
the past tense
(e.g. "he was despised and forsaken"; "was pierced"; "was numbered with
the transgressors" - see Book of Isaiah chapter 53). These biblical
texts demonstrate that within the Holy Scriptures, the prophetic past tense
does indicate the future tense. There are translators of the Glorious Qur'an,
Muslims as well as the non-Muslims*, who are of the opinion that the splitting
of moon was a foretoken of the Last Day, and its proclamation in verse
54:1 that it has happened, may simply testify a forewarning and an affirmed
admonition with an impending certitude. Yusuf Ali's comments; "the
prophetic past tense indicates the future, the cleaving asunder of the
moon being a Sign of the Judgement approaching" is
not the commentary in isolation.
In his Summary to this chapter number 54, Yusuf Ali writes: The Hour of Judgement is nigh, but men forget or reject the Message, as did the people of Noah, of 'Ad, of Thamud, of Lot, and of Pharaoh. Is there any that will receive admonition? (liv. 1-55).Here are some of the verses from the Quran which clearly shows that Allah (S.W.T.) had with His Infinite Wisdom decided not to send down miracles with prophet Muhammad to establish faith. He has also indicated within these verses the reasons for not sending the miracles: And We refrain from sending the Signs only because the men of former generations treated them as false: We sent the She-camel: to the Thamud to open their eyes but they treated her wrongfully.... Holy Qur'an 17:59NOTES: 1. For readers who may have reservations for the translations and commentaries done by Late Abdullah Yusuf Ali, I wish to add that his original work has been meticulously and painstakingly revised and edited, with the aid of other translations available, by The Presidency Of Islamic Researches, Ifta, Call and Guidance Committee appointed by King Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. The Committee was fully aware of all the criticisms that had been directed to Yusuf Ali's work. A great number of changes have been done by The Presidency to the originally translated text, as well as to the commentaries, within the revised publication printed from Saudi Arabia by King Fahd Holy Qur'an Printing Complex. As for an instance the majority of the original text from the Commentary to verse 4:158 (cf. footnote # 664), has been deleted. In the same footnote the phrase "which is the generally accepted Muslim view", a formidable and persuasive statement which Yusuf Ali did NOT make, has been inserted by The Presidency. While in this particular instance of the verse 54:1, all the THREE EXPLANATIONS have been preserved as they were originally written by Yusuf Ali. This clearly indicates that NONE OF THE ABOVE EXPLANATION was adjudged inappropriate or unrelated to the text of the verse by the learned scholars of The Presidency Of Islamic Researches, Ifta, Call and Guidance Committee in Saudi Arabia. 2. The above explanation presented by Yusuf Ali is supported by another great Muslim scholar - Late Muhammad Asad. He happens to be the author of great Islamic literature, e.g., 'Islam at the Cross Road', 'The Road to Makkah'. Here is Muhammad Asad's commentary to verse 54:1 as it appears in his translation; 'The Message of the Qur'an' (Translated and Explained), published by Dar al-Andalus, Gibraltar: Most of the commentators see in this verse a reference to a phenomenon said to have been witnessed by several of the Prophet's contemporaries. As described in a number of reports going back to some Companions, the moon appeared one night as if split into two distinct parts. While there is no reason to doubt the subjective veracity of these reports, .... But whatever the nature of that phenomenon, it is practically certain that the above Qur'an-verse does not refer to it but, rather, to a future event: namely, to what will happen when the Last Hour approaches. (The Qur'an frequently employs the past tense to denote the future, and particularly so in passages which speak of the coming of the Last Hour and of Resurrection Day; this use of the past tense is meant to stress the certainty of the happening to which the verb relates.) Thus, Raghib* regards it as fully justifiable to interpret the phrase inshaqqa 'l -qamar ("the moon is split asunder") as bearing on the cosmic cataclysm - the end of the world as we know it - that will occur before the coming of Resurrection Day (see art. shaqq in the Mufradat). As mentioned by Zamakhshari,** this interpretation has the support of some of the earlier commentators; and it is, to my mind, particularly convincing in view of the juxtaposition, in the above Qur'an-verse, of the moon's "splitting asunder" and the approach of the Last Hour. (In this connection we must bear in mind the fact that none of the Qur'anic allusions to the "nearness" of the Last Hour and the Day Of Resurrection is base on the human concept of "time".) (page 818).Here is a note by the Late Muhammad Asad to this Surah 54: As RAZI*** points out, the first verse of this surah, appears almost like a continuation of the last verses of the preceding one, especially 53:57 - "the [Last Hour] which is so near draws even nearer" -: and so we may assume that both were revealed at approximately the same time, i.e., towards the end of the early part (perhaps the fourth year) of Muhammad's prophethood.Here is the translation of the next two verses 54:2-3 by M. Asad: But if they [who reject all thought of the Last Hour] were to see a sign [of its approach], they would turn aside and say, "An ever-recurring delusion!" - for they are bent on giving it the lie, being always wont to follow their own desires.3. The question one may be inclined to ask is; How should I read the translated text that it may complement or harmonize with the given explanation? Here is professor Arthur. J. Arberry's Literal Interpretation: "The Hour has drawn nigh: the moon is split." Arberry's work has a reputation among the scholars, Muslims and non-Muslims, for being purely academic, objective and unbiased. EXPLANATION NO. 3: (The phrase "cleft asunder" is a metaphorical term) This line of approach does not give a particular
preference to
I have presented evidences for the TWO EXPLANATIONS.
I strongly suggest the readers to read my article
Allah alone knows the Truth and may He forgive us for our errors.
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