Letters ( revised ) | THE NINETEENTH LETTER | 246
(111-259)
For this requires “opening the door to the reason without cancelling the power of choice.” If the All- Wise Creator had left the moon split apart for a couple of hours so as to show it to the whole world as the philosophers wished, and it had been recorded in all the general histories of mankind, then it would have been like all other occurrences in the heavens and   would   not   have   been  an  evidence   for   Muhammad’s   (UWBP)   claim   to prophethood,  nor been special to it. Or else it would  have been  so  self-evident  a miracle that it would have annulled the reason’s power to choose, and compelled it to accept it; it would have had to assent to his prophethood. People with coal-like spirits like Abu Jahl would have remained on the same level as people with diamond-like spirits like Abu Bakr the Veracious; the mystery of man’s accountability would have been lost. It was due to this mystery that, being both instantaneous, and at nighttime, and at a time of sleep; and due to time differences, mist, and cloud and other factors concealing it, it was not shown to the whole world and did not pass into the histories.

F o u r t h  P o i n t : Since this event occurred instantaneously at night while everyone was sleeping, of course it was not seen all over the world. Even if some people had seen it, they would not have believed their eyes. And if it had made them believe, such a significant event would not have become lasting material for future histories due to isolated individual reports.

In some books it is written that after the moon split into two halves, it fell to earth,  but  veracious  scholars  have  rejected  such  additions,  saying  that  they  were perhaps added by dissemblers with the intention of disparaging this evident miracle, and depreciating it. [4]

Also, in England and Spain, which were then enveloped in mists of ignorance, the time it occurred would have been just after sunset, in America it would have been daytime, and in China and Japan, morning. Elsewhere there would have been other obstacles preventing it from being seen. Now consider those unreasoning objectors who  say  that  the  histories  of  peoples  like  the  English,  Chinese,  Japanese,  and Americans do not mention it, and that therefore it did not occur. A thousand curses be on the heads of those who toady to Europe and repeat such things.

F i f t h  P o i n t : The Splitting of the Moon happened neither of its own accord due to certain causes, nor as a result of chance, nor was it a natural event that occurred through the ordinary laws of nature. It was rather something out of the ordinary which the All-Wise Creator of the sun and the moon caused  to  happen  in  order  to  confirm  His  Messenger’s  messengership   and  to illuminate his claim.


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[4] See, al-Wadi’i, al-Mu’alla, i, 80; Darwish al-H\t, Athna’ al-Matalib, i, 378, 1606; al-Madani, Tahdhir al-Muslimin, i, 163; ‘Ali al-Qari, al-Asrar al-Marfu’a, 398.

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Letters ( revised )