Splitting of the Moon

The Splitting of the Moon (Arabic: انشقاق القمر, romanized: Anshiqāq al-Qamar) is a miracle in the Muslim faith attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

[5] Instead, they asked him to provide visual signs that defy the law of nature (miracles), such as causing a fountain to burst forth from the ground, creating a lush garden with flowing rivers amidst palm and grape trees, and building a golden house.

Some are of the opinion that some post-Quranic scholars, aiming at attributing miracles to Muhammad, reinterpreted the verb inshaqqa in the verse from its original figurative meaning to a literal one.

As a result, the event of Muhammad interpreting the natural phenomenon of a lunar eclipse in an eschatological context was transformed into an extraordinary miracle of considerable magnitude—the splitting of the Moon.

Annemarie Schimmel for example quotes the following from Muslim scholar Qadi Iyad, who worked in the 12th century:It has not been said of any people on the earth that the Moon was observed that night such that it could be stated that it was not split.

[11]Al-Raghib al-Isfahani, Al-Mawardi and Al-Zamakhshari in their commentaries, in addition to mentioning the miracle, also note that the second half of verse 54:1 can be read as "and the moon will be cleaved", referring to one of the signs of the Islamic end of times.

[12] According to Sebastian R. Prange, during the 12th to 14th centuries CE, the Muslims in Malabar, who were at the time a minority there, composed a story to solidify their community’s influence in the region,[13] claiming that a king of the medieval Chera dynasty called Cheraman Perumal (lit.

Some traditional commentators hold the view that this describes an actual event at the time of the Prophet, but it clearly refers to the end of the world.

[28] Astronomer Paul Groot from Radboud University explained that the "split" seen in the photo does not encircle the entire lunar surface, and it possibly relates to the impact that formed the Tycho crater nearby the feature.

Additionally, NASA scientist Brad Bailey stated, "No current scientific evidence reports that the Moon was split into two (or more) parts and then reassembled at any point in the past.

Muhammad points out the splitting of the Moon. Anonymous 16th-century watercolor from a falnama , a Persian book of prophecy. Muhammad is the veiled figure on the right.
NASA photograph from Apollo 10 in 1969. Rima Ariadaeus , one of many rilles on the surface of the Moon, has been claimed on Internet forums to be evidence of the splitting of the Moon. [ 25 ] [ 26 ]