In your khutbah you also mentioned the miracles of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. One of the supernatural miracles, or miracles which we don’t understand, is the splitting of the moon. That I have already spoken many a time. In fact, as I mentioned, the Promised Messiah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has related categorically that Allah is Muqtadir in the sense, this is one of his attributes, with that he can do whatever he wishes to do. And for that he is not subordinate to his ordinary law of nature.
For that he has made certain other laws which are superior to ordinary laws of nature. And that I have discussed elsewhere in detail, giving illustrations from the world of science. Certain laws of nature are subordinate to certain other laws of nature. Now these superior laws were at times not known to mankind. So if whenever they went into operation, it would be a miracle to those who observed and did not know that such laws did happen. Or some other people with a scientific mind in that time would refuse to believe. They would say the rokus-rokus is against the law of nature.
For instance, I quoted a simple example, that magnetism was unknown to most of the people in the world a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago. Now if somebody had known what magnetism is, and had devised a machine to work through magnetic forces without any connection between the object which was to be lifted, and suddenly he exhibited to the observer that this object which is quite heavy is being lifted without any observable ties, any bondage, any push, any pull, what would be the reaction of the people who would be observing this? Some would readily accept it as a great miracle. And some others would say, no, it’s a trick, it is something wrong, something is somewhere wrong, it’s against the law of nature. You can’t believe it.
This is exactly what Pharaoh did. And from that point of view he was a great skeptic, because he knew all the tricks which were perpetrated by his own subordinates and slaves. Although he couldn’t explain how Hazrat Moses did it, but he rejected it as just a trick, one of the tricks. But there is no trick involved in prophethood. When Allah decides a thing to happen, we know now through illustration that there are certain laws made by Allah superior to the laws in operation which are known to man. And these laws are gradually revealed to man. Not all of them have been yet discovered, nor can ever they be discovered. And there would be tier upon tier of such laws.
An electrical field created in the vicinity of a magnetic field would also influence that field. So we don’t know what may happen later on. These phenomena may be operated somewhere. We know at least that we are so ignorant. And Allah is knowledgeable, Allah knows everything. So we do not have to declare a miracle to be against the law of nature as created by God. But we must accept in the facts of such miracles which have been related by the most truthful authorities, people of great integrity. And not only in the past history, in the present history we have seen such things happen for which we have no aspiration to offer.
But my position is still the same. We don’t have to make excuses. If we don’t understand, we can simply say we don’t understand. But we can prove to the antagonist that previously you also did not understand certain things but you have to believe in them. Man of a thousand years earlier does not understand what TV is, what radio is, what telephone is. Could not understand it. And for him it is either to be rejected as hocus-pocus or to be believed in as a miracle.
So if man, knowing something which he had not known earlier, can employ it to his advantage, how cannot God employ his own created secrets, his own laws which are hidden laws? So on this principle we have to believe that things do happen which are beyond the human capacity to produce in a certain age. Now this last sentence needs further explanation. Today so much is possible for us. And none of it which has become possible for us is a miracle. But that which the collective knowledge of humankind of today cannot produce, if that is produced, that is miracle. Because that is not possible today in the context of the present age.
The prophets always show such miracles which are far advanced of their time. And they do not themselves know these things. They have absolutely no idea. As I mentioned earlier, Moses when he saw his staff turn into a python or a big snake, he was terrified what had happened. So he had absolutely nothing to do with the phenomena. He never stood until his death. I am quite certain what happened to that staff and how it was put back into its original shape. But Allah knows everything. He is the creator. He is Al-Muqtadir in the sense that whatever he wants to do, whenever he wants to do, he has means to do it, he has will to do it, and it happens. But again, not in violation of his own laws, but through operation of superior laws which he of course has made for certain uses.
As far as the splitting of moons is concerned, I mentioned many possibilities before. If you listen to that research you will find out that scientifically many possibilities are open. Now there the question is not whether this miracle can happen or not. That is not the question involved at all. The scientists of today raise a different question. They say it did not happen. These are two different things. So there we have to prove to them how was it possible that it could happen, while according to their scientific observations it did not happen.
So if the splitting of moon is to be taken literally like a volcanic explosion of huge dimensions which would split the moon almost into two halves, they would explode a part and then fall back with a big bang. If this is the concept of that incident which took place, then the scientists say, not that we have no evidence of what happened, they say we have evidence that this did not happen. So it is not a question of miracle against the logics. It is a question of misstatement or a statement of fact. So from that point of view we can prove to them that another phenomena can happen, could have happened, of which they couldn’t have any knowledge, against which they have no evidence.
For instance, we know that the earth and other planets and other heavenly bodies are constantly being showered by great meteors, small or big meteors. Sometimes asteroids fall of great dimensions and sometimes their size is in kilometres, 6 kilometres and beyond. If that thing happens, then the result would be just catastrophic for the moon. We know this happened on earth before and some scientists believe that the extinction of the great era of dinosaurs was caused by such an occurrence. A great asteroid fell into the ocean and the havoc played by that asteroid, that falling into the ocean and the flooding of the entire world and so on and so forth, that might have caused the sudden extinction of dinosaurs and the entire family.
But others have also explained other things. Whether this is correct or not, that is not the question. The fact is that if on a dry area there is a lot of dust, a great object strikes, the result would be a great cloud rising to great heights of dust which would cover a very large area. And if that is observed from here and it happens on the moon, then the effect would be that suddenly the moon is split into two. And when the dust settles down, then it will disappear, the effect will disappear and then we will see the moon as a whole. That is a possibility.
But a possibility which can be more applicable to what we read in history is the passing of a great object from across the face of the moon. So, if a great object with a tail perhaps goes right across the moon, in a split second we will observe the same phenomenon of splitting of the moon and then rejoining. And at stake, whether it is ruled out or not, I am not very sure, but that is also a possibility. Recently I read an article about a similar incident which took place in the year 1000 some. Here in Europe, some church clerics observed the same phenomenon of splitting of the moon.
And scientists have carried out research and now they have proved, previously they had rejected this possibility, but now they have proved that it could have happened and they have quoted a certain phenomenon which was a recurrent phenomenon and it happens from time to time. Although the period given by them is such that it does not tell you with the incident of splitting of the moon at the time of 1000 some. But because they were interested in this particular incident, they wanted to prove it, so they have found various means to prove it. It is up to the MD scientists if they make research into this issue. I am quite certain this phenomenon will not only be understood, but it could be presented in a way to the West as they would have to agree with it. Whatever may have happened, one thing is certain, that according to the standard laid down by the opponents of Islam, a historical event which has been mentioned in the Holy Quran could not be false.
Even the most committed enemy of Islam among the orientalists has to agree to this fact. Because they work it out like this if Prophet Muhammad was believed to be a prophet and they cannot reject the fact that he was genuinely believed to be a prophet by his followers, otherwise they couldn’t have offered such immense sacrifice. So they start with an if. They say if he claimed to be a prophet and was held to be a prophet genuinely by hundreds of thousands of people of his time, if he had misquoted or falsely related an incident of his own time, which did not happen and everybody knew it, then everybody would have abandoned his cause and turned away from him. This is the simple logic.
So how could it happen that the Holy Quran mentioned such an incident while neither Muslims nor the infidels had observed this? That is one strong point in favour of believing that this thing must have happened. Secondly, we don’t find any objection raised against this claim by the non-believers. On the contrary, this very incident that is written in the Holy Quran mentions this has happened, the moon split into two, and these non-believers, when they say such a sign, they turn away saying or turn away and say, Sehru Mustameer. It is a magic. Mustameer. Off-repeated or what? How was it done? Off-repeated, Mustameer. What else? There is another meaning of it.
There is another meaning of Mustameer. Mustameer is the same. What? Mustameer is off-repeated. There is another meaning of Mustameer. Yes, that is what I had in mind. It can be translated in two ways. One is a phenomenon which is off-repeated, which is a continuous phenomenon. Our forefathers have also seen such tricks and the same is being played upon us. And the second is that it is a magic, some magic, you know, very strong magic, very powerful magic. So this is also referred to in the Holy Quran. Had no incident taken place and no such comment had been received from them, how could the Holy Quran mention it and how could the believers in the Holy Prophet yet remain Muslims?
So whether we can prove it or not, otherwise I mean, yet the fact that such a thing did happen or appear to have happened is a certain fact. The non-Muslims must agree with us that either it did happen or if scientifically it did not happen, it must have appeared to have happened to the observers in Arabia. Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has gone further and investigated about reporting of the similar incident in other places of the world at that time. And he has quoted authorities from India, contemporary authorities from India, that the phenomena was not only observed in Arabia but also in India.
So it could not have been observed by the entire world because such phenomena relating to moon occurs in a limited horizon. So the moon on a certain horizon at a certain time is only observed in a limited area below. So it is just possible why, I mean, that this was a limited region shown to a few people. I mean, a few, I mean, comparatively from the rest of the world. But you can’t deny it. Hazrat Masih Maud A.S., as I mentioned, has quoted an authority, I don’t remember it, but you can see it in his book that the same thing happened in India and was observed and noted down by the authorities.
