Q612 :Is there any Hadith which states that the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) pointed toward the moon and it was
divided in two halves? It joined up again when he pointed toward it a
second time.
A612 : The splitting of the moon is mentioned in the
Qur’an in Surah 54, entitled The Moon. Its opening verse may be
rendered in translation as follows: “The Hour of doom drawn near and
the moon is cleft in two. Yet, when they see a sign, they turn their
backs and say ‘Prevailing sorcery'”.” As you realize, this refers to a
real incident at the time of the Prophet when the unbelievers asked him
to show them a miraculous sign. According to some reports, they
specifically demanded that the moon be split up. Allah granted their
request, and showed them the moon divided in two. They saw it with
their own eyes that one half of it was at the bottom of the mount of
Hera and the other was at the other end. The most hardened of the
unbelievers turned their backs and said that this was a magic trick.
Some of them suggested that the Prophet could not have a spell of a
magic on all people. They proposed to wait until caravans neting from
far away places arrived in Makkah. When they asked them, the people in
the caravan told them that they saw on the same night the moon split in
two. Even then those unbelievers refused to submit and claimed that the
magic spell prevailed throughout the region. Hence, Allah describes
their attitude when he says: “Yet when they see a sign, they turn their
backs and say ‘prevailing sorcery’.”
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )