Moon Landing

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from Chapter 54 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART II:

1. Iqtarabati alssaAAatu wainshaqqa alqamaru

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54:1. The Hour (the time when the present world will end and the Hereafter begin) has drawn near and the moon is breached.¹

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1. The Arabic word shaqqa has several meanings. Most translators have given it here the meaning of ‘split’ and thus attributed to Prophet Muhammad [peace on him] the performing of the miracle of splitting the moon in two and then rejoining the two parts. Such a miracle – if it did happen – would have indeed been a unique one! The Qur’aan does say that the earlier Prophets were endowed with the gifts of performing various miracles. But none of such miracles involved moon or any other heavenly body! All those miracles were restricted to things of this earth. This miracle attributed to Prophet Muhammad is preposterous on another count as well. Nowhere else in the Holy Book does Allah Almighty mention performance, by Muhammad, of any miracle as those performed by earlier Prophets like Moses and Jesus. The Book, on the other hand, points out the fact that the earlier peoples had failed to follow their Prophets despite the latter showing them the miracles! The stress was therefore laid on Prophet Muhammad’s Ummah to look for miracles in the natural creation of their own selves and of all things around them, and thus attain to faith in Allah Ta’ala. That being the unmistakable tenor throughout in the Qur’aan, it was indeed preposterous for the Prophet to come up suddenly with such an unlikely miracle. Moreover, shaqqa alqamar is meant in this Verse to be the Sign for the approaching end of this world.  There were no signs of the approaching Doom over 1400 years ago when this Verse was revealed. But there definitely are such signs now when nation after nation is engaged in piling up weapons of mass destruction [WMD]. And this piling up was preceded by Man’s first visit to the moon in the late sixties [Watch the Video]. This Verse foretold that visit, when the virginity of the surface of the moon was for the first time breached by human steps and man-made tools.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 27^th July 2018.

And Yet They Believe Not!

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from Quráanic Studies - A Modern Tafsir:

8. Wamina alnnasi man yaqoolu amanna biAllahi wabialyawmi al-akhiri wama hum bimu/mineena

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8. And among mankind there are some who say, "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day." And yet they believe not! ¹⁰

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10. Alas! An overwhelming majority of the so called believers in today's world, I am afraid, fall in the category of people described in this Verse, and in the few Verses that follow this Verse. They declare themselves as Muslims (believers), but their deeds betray the hollowness of their belief. Their attitude towards observance of divine commands regarding praying, fasting etc. is, at best, indifferent. And the general conduct of their worldly affairs does not reflect any concern at all that they would have to account for these before the Lord in the Hereafter. They delude themselves under the deception that this worldly life is the be-all and end-all of their existence! Allah Almighty describes their mental attitude as a disease, which He worsens if they continue indulging in their falsehoods.

Such a mental attitude inculcates in them a tendency to grab what they can, by hook or by crook, here and now! And then the Satan steps in and lures them to the temptations of this world. While in the grips of such a temptation, if they are told not to indulge in any mischief, they protest and say that they are only trying to improve their conditions!

And when someone points out to them that they are not so strict in following the tenets of Islam as some other Muslims are even at the expense of material or business interests, they say - at least, to themselves - that they  are not fools like the others!

On the other hand, if social compulsions make them go through, albeit reluctantly, some religious duties like performing prayers etc., when they meet with their own ilk they dismiss their religious acts as mere delusion.

Allah Almighty compares them to blinded people unable to see the light around them - the light of the Qur'aan, which they hardly ever read with a view to get any guidance therefrom. Like people caught in a rainstorm putting their fingers into their ears to shut out the thunderbolts, they are ever afraid of death, which could put an abrupt end to their illusory life on this earth! It is only because of Allah's grace and mercy that they are able to carry on with whatever lives they could enjoy on this earth. Allah could, if He so willed, deprive them of the little earthly enjoyment too! Allah can indeed do - or undo - whatever He wills!

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