In any religion or philosophical doctrine, there are stories about how a prophet or a righteous man worked miracles, convincing people of the correctness of his path and attracting them to convert to their faith. It is enough to remember Jesus Christ, who could heal with the power of the word. Or Buddha, who can turn into a giant, and also fill the whole world with the light emanating from the body. Of course, Muslims have preserved testimonies of the miracles of the Prophet Muhammad.
Like other great religious figures, the Muslim prophet Muhammad worked miracles. He did this not for the sake of his own glory and raising his authority, but in order to prove the existence of Allah to the wrong and to guide them on the true path. Until now, people argue about what is true and what is fiction. This is especially true of one phenomenon that, according to science, could not have happened. This phenomenon is the split of the Moon.
Mountain illusion?
“The Hour has approached, and the month has split,” - this is how the 54 sura of the Koran begins, about the meaning of which Islamic scholars are still debating. Some believe that this incident took place, others are sure that this phrase is just a warning about the end of the world, which will come someday. In addition to the Koran, records of the split of the moon were found in hadith - legends about the Prophet Muhammad, which include the actions and words of the founder of Islam.
For example, Imam Al-Bukhari, a well-known Muslim scholar, in his work Al-Jami al-Sahih, which is one of the most reliable collections of hadiths, wrote that, according to trustworthy Muslims, once the inhabitants of Mecca asked Muhammad to show them what - some miracle. The Prophet pointed to the moon, which split in two. It is also indicated that right between the two fragments of the moon was the Khira cave, located on the slope of Mount Jabal al-Nur. In it, the Muslim prophet first met the angel Jabrail and heard from his lips the first verses, which, like other Divine revelations, were included in the Koran.
According to other versions, Muhammad split the Moon two times for persuasiveness, so that unbelievers and pagans would not have a shadow of doubt that Allah is almighty. The fact that the sources very often mention a mountain that appeared between the pieces of the Moon makes skeptics and ordinary people wonder if the split of the Moon was an illusion. Perhaps the mountain itself has simply obscured a part of the night star? Or did the moon appear split due to other natural or climatic features?
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Indian witness
The only thing that excludes this possibility is the information of people from other countries who, like the inhabitants of Mecca, witnessed what was happening. For example, the date of the split was found in one Indian manuscript currently in the British Museum. It says that the first Indian to become a Muslim saw the moon split while in India. And the miracle of Allah could not fail to convince him that Islam is a righteous religion.
This Indian was the ruler of the state of Chera, located in the historical region of Malabar in southwestern India. His name was Chakravati Farmas. Perhaps he would never have known about the split of the moon, created by Allah, if it were not for the Arab traders heading to China, who mentioned how Muhammad convinced the unbelievers of Mecca by showing them with the help of Allah Almighty a miracle of miracles. Struck by what he heard, Chakravati Farmas told the merchants that he saw the split with his own eyes, and immediately went to Muhammad, leaving his son as governor. The Indian king was eager to see the prophet and convert to Islam.
Chakravati Farmas managed to meet with Muhammad and accept his religion, but he did not return home, as he died on the way. His grave, located on the territory of modern Oman, has attracted a large number of people for several centuries. Information about the Indian king who visited the prophet is also preserved in Arab sources, where it is said that Chakravati brought ginger to Muhammad as a gift.
After the death of the king, Islam began to spread both in Chera and in neighboring states. The first mosque in India was built around 629 by order of the retinue of the deceased ruler. According to a date in an Indian source, the split of the Earth's satellite took place about five years before AH, that is, before 622 - the beginning of the Muslim calendar, which is counted from the day when Muhammad moved to Yathrib (Medina). In addition to India, the split of the moon has also been seen in China.
Quite an interesting fact is that before the split of the Moon, part of the inhabitants of Malabar professed Christianity. It is assumed that Saint Thomas reached India and died there, converting a number of Indians to Christianity, who maintained early Christian traditions until the arrival of Vasco da Gama.
According to Muslims, the purpose of splitting the moon was not only to convince unbelievers and pagans that they were wrong. Muhammad wanted to show that nothing is eternal in this world. Even the Universe is subject to Allah. And the end of the world is quite real and can happen any day. On this day, everything will fall apart into small pieces: the moon, the sun, and other planets.
Some people believe that the verse about the split of the heavenly body is only a warning to future generations that in fact the Moon never split. Others are convinced that the Qur'an tells about a specific event that took place in reality. After all, this ayah was recited by a huge number of people. It is impossible for all of them to be wrong or lie. It is about those who do not believe in miracles that the next verse says: “And if they see a sign, they turn away and say:“Witchcraft is long!”” That is, among those who believed in the reality of the split of the moon, not everyone converted to Islam. Many simply decided that the Prophet Muhammad was a very powerful sorcerer.
Prophetic date
In our age, people are unlikely to believe in a fact that has not been confirmed by science. The same goes for the split of the Moon. That is why in the works concerning the split, photographs of the surface of the Earth's satellite are often found, in which a strip is indeed visible, which seemed to have formed after the halves of the moon were joined. In fact, these are lunar grooves, of which there are quite a few on the surface of our night star and which are nothing more than deep and different in length gorges. They can also be seen on the surface of some of the planets in the solar system. True, another mystery is that their education is not explained by anything. One thing is certain - not a single crater encircles the entire moon, that is, if it was divided by a miracle, it was clearly not into two large pieces.
Among Muslims, there are those who believe that the Qur'an contains a certain code that can tell about future events. Numerologists calculated that the verse on the split of the moon refers to 1969, when people (Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) first came to the surface of the Earth's satellite and took soil samples. In order to convince others that they are right, numerologists propose to calculate which verse is from the end of the verse 1 ayah 54 sura. It is 1390th. If we translate this year of the Muslim calendar into the Gregorian, it turns out just 1969.
At the same time, there is no information that the inhabitants of other continents saw the split of the moon. Some explain this by the fact that lunar and solar eclipses are seen by residents of states distant from each other in different ways. Perhaps this could also concern the split. There is also a more logical version concerning the interpretation of this ayah, which was proposed by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the famous Muslim scholar.
One of his versions says that the split could have been made to convince the infidels. The second speaks of the future, and the past tense used in the verse simply indicates the proximity of a split. The third, which is the easiest to believe, concerns the use of the metaphor "clear as the moon", which in Russian occurs in a slightly modified form - "clear as the sun." In any case, it is very difficult to know if this miracle took place. Miracles are real for believers, but otherwise everyone decides for himself whether to believe in a split or not.
Maria Ryzhik