Islamic splitting the moon!

The  naivete of FB Mumins, their flawed logic – and finally, the strike of the machete!

Facebook Mumin (devout believers) are often seen as foolish by many secular individuals, who jokingly refer to them in their circles as “goats” – or more precisely, “chagu.” (Facebook, in its effort to protect their dignity, gets offended if you write “chagu” directly and may issue warnings or restrict your account. At the end of the day, Facebook is a business, and since the chagus are greater in number, it gives them more priority.) These Facebook believers won’t read even a single line from a book or article. They won’t try to understand anything. All they can do is throw out one fallacy after another and issue rebukes. One such Facebook Mumin kept sending me video links in messages, causing a nuisance. Finally, I sent him a link explaining “logical fallacies” and told him to read it thoroughly before sending anything else. Without reading it, he came back and commented:

“Cows eat grass, we drink cow’s milk. So we eat grass. Got it.”

That’s the extent of their intellect and knowledge. They’ve never read the Quran, Hadith, or any translation or tafsir. Reading anything else is out of the question. They firmly believe that Neil Armstrong heard the call to prayer (Azan) on the moon and saw it split in two. Even though Neil Armstrong himself denied these claims, they won’t accept it – because Sayeedi said it, Azharis said it, and others have said it too. They believe the Hadith that says Prophet Muhammad split the moon with a gesture of his hand, and the two halves fell on either side of a mountain. Some companions even witnessed this event! So even if Neil Armstrong himself says their claim is false, they won’t believe it. That’s the limit of their understanding. They can’t grasp that if the moon crashed into Earth, the planet would be obliterated. The moon can’t fall on two sides of a mountain. If it did, it would cover hundreds of countries like Saudi Arabia. Earth wouldn’t even exist. But how do you explain this to ignorant believers?

Muslims believe that when their Prophet was in Mecca, Allah split the moon as a miracle at his request, in front of the Meccans. The Quran and Hadith clearly describe this event. It’s also stated that the moon split and fell on both sides of a mountain.

“The Hour has come near, and the moon has split.” (Quran 54:1)

Narrated by Abu Bakr ibn Abu Shaybah, Abu Kurayb, Ishaq ibn Ibrahim, Umar ibn Hafs ibn Ghiyas, and Minjab ibn Harith Tamimi (RA)… from Abdullah ibn Masud (RA): He said, “We were with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) at Mina when suddenly the moon split into two. One half fell on one side of the mountain, and the other half on the other side. The Messenger of Allah said: Bear witness.” (Sahih Muslim, Chapter 53 – Description of the Day of Judgment, Paradise, and Hell – Hadith 6815)

To be a true Muslim, you must unconditionally accept and believe these fantastical claims – because they’re in the Quran and Sahih Hadith. Don’t try to dismiss them as weak or fabricated Hadith. Back then, Arabs had no idea how big the moon actually was. They thought it could split and fall on both sides of a mountain – implying the moon was tiny! Just like people claimed to see Sayeedi on the moon, or Dewanbagi, or others. If people could see Prophet Muhammad’s moon-splitting miracle, and it’s in the Quran and Hadith, then why not see Sayeedi or Dewanbagi on the moon? What will the moderate Facebook believers say about that?

Fun fact: Even when NASA scientists officially state that there’s no evidence the moon ever split, and advise people to rely on peer-reviewed journals instead of hearsay or internet rumors, these believers will still trust a village preacher warming up a winter night with his sermon – and even call him “scientific.”

I once told the aforementioned Facebook Mumin that if he wanted to understand science in Bengali, he should watch videos from the YouTube channel “Think Bangla.” His reply?

“These are the activities of dead people. There’s nothing educational in them.”

Trying to converse with them is a waste of valuable time. They’ll keep throwing out fallacies, never read anything, never try to learn. And when all else fails, they’ll want to strike from behind with a machete – and if given the chance, they’ll actually do it.