Letters ( revised ) | THE NINETEENTH LETTER | 245
(111-259)
If the event had not been considered a definite fact by the unbelievers, they would have made the verse a pretext, denied it strenuously,   and   tried   to  attack   and   nullify   Muhammad’s   (UWBP)   claim   to prophethood.   However,   the  biographies   of  the  Prophet  (UWBP)   and  histories mentioning the event relate nothing to suggest that the unbelievers denied it. The only thing  that  history  relates   is,  as  the  verse  “And   [they]   say,  ‘This  is  evident magic’”(54:2) points out, the unbelievers who saw the event declared it to be magic, and said that if the caravans in other places had seen it, it was true, otherwise he had bewitched them. The caravans arriving the following morning from the Yemen and other places announced that they had seen such a happening. So the unbelievers said of the Pride of All the Worlds (UWBP) that, God forbid, the magic of Abu Talib’s orphan had affected the heavens. [2]

S e c o n d  P o i n t : The majority of the most illustrious scholars, like Sa‘d al- din Taftazani,  declared  that  like the Prophet  (UWBP)  had satisfied  the thirst  of a whole army with water  flowing from his fingers,  and the whole congregation  had heard a dry wooden post against which he had leant while delivering the sermon weep on being separated  from  him, the Splitting  of the Moon had  been  transmitted  by numerous authorities. [3] That is to say, these events had been passed down from group to group forming such a vast congregation that a conspiracy to lie would have been impossible. Like the appearance of the famous Haley’s Comet a thousand years ago had been unanimously reported, and the existence of the island of Ceylon was certain because of the unanimous reports concerning it, although we had not seen it.

It  is  therefore  unreasonable   to  foster  baseless   doubts  about  such  certain, witnessed matters. It is enough that they are not impossible. And as for the Splitting of the Moon, it is quite as possible as a mountain’s splitting with a volcanic eruption.

T h i r d  P o i n t : Miracles are for proving claims to prophethood and for convincing  those  who  deny  such  claims,  they  are  not  for  compelling  people  to believe. They have therefore to be shown to those who hear such claims to an extent that will persuade them. It would be contrary to the All-Wise and Glorious One’s wisdom  to  display  them  all  over  the  world  or  in  so  self-evident  a  manner  that everyone would be compelled to believe. It would also be contrary to the mystery of man’s accountability.

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[2] Tirmidhi, Tafsir al-Qur’an, 54; Musnad, iii, 165; al-Tabari, Jami’ al-Bayan, xxvii, 84-5; al-Qurtubi, al-Jami’ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an, xvii, 126; al-Bayhaqi, Dala’il al-Nubuwwa, ii, 268.

[3] al-Iji, Kitab al-Mawaqif, iii, 405-6; al-Amidi, Ghayat al-Maram, i, 365; Ibn Taymiya, al-Jawab al- Sahih, i, 414; ii, 44; al-Shahristani, al-Farq bayn al-Firaq, i, 313; al-Taftazani, Sharh al-Maqasid, v, 17.

No Voice

Letters ( revised )