From WikiIslam

Muslims believe that while Muhammad was in Mecca, Allah split the Moon as a miracle to the Meccans. This claim is made in the Quran.

Surah 54 of the Quran is called “The Moon.” It starts by saying:

The great Muslim scholar Maududi explains:

However, there are several problems with this story.

The main problem is that it contradicts the Quran itself. In various places Muhammad admitted that he could not have or did not have to perform miracles to prove himself. When asked to perform miracles his response was:

In another place Muhammad put the following words in the mouth of Allah:

Muhammad insisted that even though other prophets had miracles, his only miracle is the Quran. So when Muslims claim that Muhammad performed miracles, they are going against the Quran itself. (See the article Muhammad's Miracles?)

The other problem with this claim is that such a phenomenon should have been observed not just in Mecca but also all over the world. Many cultures have recorded even eclipses, why there is no mention of such a thing that for sure would have been the most amazing phenomenon?

Moiz Amjad, one scholar that answers questions for Understanding-Islam.com site says, “I have not yet come across any historical accounts of other nations, which refer to the incident.” He thinks this is “a sign of the promised hour.”

Curiously the same site contradicts itself and claims that in fact a certain king of India observed the splitting of the Moon<page cannot open> and he sent his son to Mecca who converted to Islam and upon returning he died in Yemen.

This story is of course another fabrication of Muslims. Muslims are fond of fabricating stories to attribute Miracles to their prophet. They do it all the time. One such ridiculous fabrication was the claim that the astronauts who landed on Moon heard the adhan (Muslim call to prayer) being chanted there. There are thousands more.

First of all there is no record that any King of India ever visited Muhammad. This is not mentioned in any biography of Muhammad.

Secondly the splitting of the Moon should have been observed by everyone all over the world and not just by one king. Where is the record of such a phenomenon?

Thirdly, assuming that this Indian king saw splitting of the Moon, how could he interpret this alleged cosmic phenomenon as the sign that there has appeared a new prophet in Mecca? Muslims claim that Indian scriptures contain predictions about the coming of a messenger from Arabia. This is bull. There is no mention of Muhammad in any sacred book of any religion.

Many Muslims are convinced that this phenomenon has indeed happened. They are shown these close-up pictures of the Moon taken by NASA as the evidence and as gullible as they naturally are, they believe without any hesitation.

These are called Lunar Rilles. Rilles are long and deep gorges resembling canyons. A rille is typically several kilometers wide and hundreds of kilometers in length. Similar formations are found on a number of planets in the solar system, including Mars, Venus, and on a number of moons. See below.

How these rilles are formed is still not known with certainty. Theories include erosion at some point in the stellar body's history, collapsed lava tubes, and tectonic activity/stresses.

There are three types of rilles on the lunar surface:

• Sinuous rilles meander in a curved path like a river, and are commonly thought to be the remains of collapsed lava tubes or extinct lava flows. They usually begin at an extinct volcano, then meander and sometimes split as they are followed across the surface.
• Arcuate rilles have a smooth curve and are found on the edges of the dark lunar maria. They are believed to form when the lava flows that created a mare cools, contracts, and sinks.
• Straight rilles follow long, linear paths and are believed to be grabens. That is, a section of the crust that has sunk between two parallel faults. These can be readily identified when they pass through craters or mountain ranges.

Rilles can be found all over the lunar surface and they do not form a belt and therefore do not in anyway support the claim of Muslims that the Moon had been split asunder. Here are a few pictures that should dismiss this Islamic wishful thinking. To understand how rilles scar the surface of the Moon, we have to take a look at pictures showing the moon from farther up.

[edit] References

1. ↑ http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/maududi/mau54.html

[edit] Images

Do these gorges look like they are cutting the Moon in two halves?

		Martian rilles	Venetian rilles
This is Europa, one of Jupiter's moons