THE SPLITTING OF THE MOON!

The hour has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder (apart). If they see a sign, they turn away and say: "This is continuous magic." And they have cried lies and closely followed their prejudices, and every matter will be settled. [Al Qamar 54 : 1-3]

This Quranic verse refers to the cosmic event that happened in the lifetime of the Prophet(PBUH). Five years before the immigration of The Prophet(PBUH) from Mecca to Madina, a group of people from the tribe of Quraysh came challenging him saying: "Oh Muhammad if you really are the Prophet and the Messenger bring to us a miracle to prove this fact."  So he asked them what he could do to prove to them. The group of people, to make it complicated asked him to split the moon. The messenger of Allah(PBUH) called upon the Almighty to help him achieve victory in this hardship and prove to the tribe of Quraysh and others that he is the Prophet. On the command of Allah(SWT), he signed towards the moon with his finger, and the moon separated into two, standing far from each other for some time then clung back together.

Seeing this the Pagans started exclaiming that The Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) had practiced witchcraft upon them, on this, some wise men suggested that magic would only affect the attendees and not on everybody in general. So, they decided to wait for the travelers to return from their journeys on the borders of Mecca to confirm if they had noticed anything extraordinary happening to the moon. Nevertheless, the travelers confirmed that on one night they had seen the moon split into two for a while and then reattach. Upon this statement, several people believed the news and the rest remained Pagans.

In the coming years, more people came into view proving they had witnessed the splitting of the moon and one of them was Cheraman Perumal Rama Varma Kulashekhara, the Indian King. He saw the miracle while he was relaxing on the rooftop of his palace in Kodungallur, Kerala on a moon lit night. The King had come to know about Islam through Arab merchants and become more curious to know about the Prophet(PBUH) and his religion after the moon-splitting miracle. Luckily a group of Arabs came to Kodungallur at that time to get permission from the King to visit Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Speaking to them he decided to meet Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) and he later on converted to Islam, performed Hajj and endorsed a new name, Thajuddin.

Five monks living in Canterbury, England also testified having witnessed an unusual phenomenon in the sky. The monks reported an impact in which "the upper horn [of the moon] split into two" and a 

"flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks. The moon throbbed like a wounded snake, subsequently it resumed to its proper state."

Baba Ratan of Bhatinda, Punjab also witnessed this exceptional occurence. It is said he visited Makkah twice and on both occasions met the Prophet(PBUH). Baba Ratan accepted Islam and then returned to India, where he lived to an astonishing age of seven hundred years.

Raja Bhoj, the King of Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, India was the second Indian to accept Islam. When he saw from his palace that the moon split into two he raised an alarm, he feared the world was coming to an end. He asked his Pundits about this incident, they studied the Sanskrit Holy books of India, the Vedas, and Puranas, and told the King that Muhammad of the deserts of Arabia, who was the greatest messenger of God to come on this Earth. Raja Bhoj came to know that he appeared in Makkah, so he and his minister went to Makkah in Arabia, offered gifts to the Holy Prophet(PBUH), accepted Islam and named Abdullah.