Every now and then I get an email forwarded trying to squeeze some "physical" or real or "scientific" proof of their religious faith. This type of email generally tends to come more from Muslims. Christians usually find scientific proof in even more lame things sometimes, "images" of the Virgin Mary just happening to be "toasted" on a slice of bread.
I am writing today about a more ridiculous Muslim item that landed in my mailbox. As you may know, many Muslims believe that at one time the Holy Prophet Muhammad had shown a "miracle" by splitting the moon into two halves simply by pointing to it. (Talk about Point & Split). He then "rejoined" the two halves. OK, so, if it happened, it happened. If you or I believe it, fine, let that be our belief. But, trying to use stupid, irrational and false statements to try to corroborate one's own lame faith is laughable
Someone sent a photograph of a small part of the lunar surface which shows a possible ravine or old riverbed. This image comes with a lot of text that claims, among other things that this split runs the entire circumfrence of the moon. The writer falsely claims that NASA's lunar rovers dug there and found that the moon's surface had indeed been cracked and rejoined. (Sounds like SuperMan at work with SuperGlue). The item mentions many other foolish and downright idiotic lies.
I know even our fellow non-extremist Muslims also somehow feel the need to "prove" whatever it says in the Quran, or what we believe. This sometimes causes a matter of our personal faith to become an object of ridicule for others, by making us all appear to be going bananas --- in a desperate attempt at validation of our personal faiths.
If someone believes the moon was "split" in two pieces and then stuck back together by remote control, they should feel comfortable in believing that, without needing to make up "proofs" or even create such PowerPoints as I mention above.
We Muslims are not alone. I have seen similar attempts by our good friends on the Christian right trying to prove Jesus' miracles. And, Bush supporters in America still send out PowerPoints supposedly showing Quranic verses related to September 11, "quoting" a verse 9:11 from the Quran predicting something about how America will defeat Islam --- except that the verse is question has no relation to such a topic.
Anyway, I am not a rocket scientist --- and don't even play one on TV. :-)
But, even to me the "moon split" image looks like nothing more than some long dried riverbed on some small portion of the lunar surface.... not something that runs across the length of the entire moon.
For example, some voodoo religion's followers could take ONE picture of the Grand Canyon in the USA and make a PowerPoint with that one slide and some ridiculous claim, saying the earth was once split in two and glued back together and "this grand canyon crack runs across the length of the planet earth...".
Someone living on Mars (or in a deluded religious reality like Lal Masjid Islamabad) would actually then believe that story.
I, for one, would make sure to have my doors and windows locked if that person came knocking on my door even as a guest. :-) So, I have some very simple questions for whoever created or ever sent you the PowerPoint (so they can ask whoever sent it to them in the first place).
One, if this "crack" runs across the length of the moon, how come it is not visible on the entire 50% of the moon visible to us every night? Could it be the moon was just like the postulated "Islamic" proof image --- half-cracked? :-) :-)
Two, if for some magical reason the moon did split, rejoined, and then even changed its axis of rotation, so now this "crack" happens to run in such a direction that it is entirely across the circumference edge of the moon and can't be see from earth, then why not provide us the rest of the photos of this crack continuing across the whole moon? The moon has been extensively photographed from every angle by many different countries' spacecraft (except, ironically, any Muslim ones who are too busy being illiterate, arguing about the height of the "shalwar" above the "takhna"). Surely the original sender can find such images and send them to us so we all become "good true believers".... believing in a crack in the moon while we go about our daily lives being dictators, sucking up to crooked politicians, smuggling, lying, cheating, ignoring the poor, stealing from the country, etc. :-)
Three, suppose a photomap of the entire lunar surface showed NO crack, and if no split ever occurred physically/geologically (a visual illusion cannot be ruled out), would that make you stop believing the Quran and become a heathen?
Maybe something did happen that night. Maybe we will stumble upon some real proof some day. If some aspect of the split or the religion gets "proven" in the course of natural research, great. If not, so what? This purported proof about the moon is not what it's cracked out to be.
If we believe something, we should believe it. We Muslims do ourselves, and our religion, a great disservice by clutching at the shortest, weakest, most illogical straw, or making one up, in trying to prove something. How pathetic, dumb and dangerous.
All it proves is that our faith in our hearts is even weaker than the corrupted practice of it we see every day in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Iraq. These "Muslim actions" are enough to split the religion, and the planet, to pieces. And, that's neither a joke, nor a hoax.
As always, it's just In My Humble Opinion.
6 comments:
Hi Imran, I agree with your point as I always say the same to those who try hard to believe using physical proof.
However, in this specific case, i just want to correct you in one thing. This event was not an *alleged* claim by nasa, it is an actual finding by nasa that you can find in their website http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap021029.html . They admit that they don't yet know what could cause such a "rille" < the official name for this, but did not disclude lava flow as of yet. In the mean time, just looking at the picture, and reading that verse from the Quran, does actually make you think and awe :)
Dear Al-Sufiany. Thanks for the kind words, and the comment, as well as the NASA link. Very educational. And, at this link
http://www.astrosurf.com/lunascan/AS10-31-4645.htm
you see the page describing the actual "rille" the Moon-Split-Prover was trying to use as proof of the moon having been split in TWO.
That page clearly states: "Ariadaeus Rille is over 300 km in length" --- which is merely a scar on a small portion of the moon and quite ridiculous to claim as proof of the moon being split in two halves.
So, my comment and opinion still stands. There is NO proof of the moon having been physically split as was claimed in that PowerPoint with the photo of the rille.
Anyone wanting to believe that is welcome, and anyone making up idiotic "proofs" like that PowerPoint is an idiot for expecting people to believe it AND someone who probably has lame faith and needs to seek validation even in false proofs.
Thank you for your input.
Imran
It's a sad fact these days that some Muslims are obsessed with the need to 'verify' their religion. Muslims should not need to resort to such meaningless actions, they should already have no doubt in their faith. Muhammad (pbuh) split the moon, then he split the moon. End of argument.
All these superfluous exercises just highlights our deep insecurities.
good points raised
In my view its not that these people are insecure in their beliefs but just to hightlight available physical proof that crops up now in our age due to advances of in the sciences. As muslims, we do believe the moon was split but its not Muhammad's works. Its Allah's works. The moon was split physically by the grace of Allah S.W.T and it really happened. The question is - out of curiousity - would there be a physical proof to it for the man of the future generations? Will man ever find the physical proof to it before the the end this world? So far the NASA's findings are quite close. For muslims, even if there is no visible proof for this miracle of the past, we still do believe it as this is not the only miracle attributed to Prophet Muhammad.
Miracles do not make Islam superior. It's a good Deeds and Practice of the Faith by us, which show the greatness of our Prophet & Islam.
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