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Ahadiths

The Moon's Extinguished Light — A Qur'anic Miracle Confirmed by NASA and the Encyclopaedia Britannica

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“And We Erased the Sign of the Night” — The Qur’anic Miracle of the Moon’s Extinguished Light

Table of Contents

The Verse — Surah Al-Isra 12

Surah Al-Isra (17:12) “And We made the night and the day two signs, and We erased the sign of the night and made the sign of the day visible.”

Linguistic Analysis — What Does Erasure Mean?

Ibn Manzur — Lisan Al-Arab Sign (Ayah): The mark. Ibn Hamza said: the sign of the Qur’an is like a sign from which one leads to another.

Erasure (Mahw): Obliteration and removal — the removal of something that was present, not the destruction of the thing itself.

The intended erasure in the verse is therefore not the removal of the moon as a planet — the moon still exists — but the removal of its light and radiance.

The Companions’ Understanding — 14 Centuries Ago

Abdullah ibn Abbas — Companion of the Prophet ﷺ Imam Ibn Kathir narrated in his tafsir that Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said in his interpretation of this verse:

“The moon used to shine as the sun shines, and it is a sign of the night — then it was erased. So the blackness in the moon is the effect of that erasure.”

Source: Ruh Al-Ma’ani by Al-Alusi, 15/26

Key Point A noble companion of the Prophet ﷺ — deriving directly from the Holy Qur’an — stated fourteen centuries ago that the moon once shone as the sun shines, and that its light was subsequently removed. This is what modern astronomy only confirmed in the twentieth century.

Scientific Discovery — The Moon Was Once Burning

NASA on the Moon’s Formation and Cooling

NASA — Scientific Summary Space scientists, through precise astronomical observation, geological studies of the moon’s surface, and analysis of its soil (beginning with Neil Armstrong’s landing in 1969 AD), established the following:
  • The moon was formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago
  • During its formation it was exposed to massive collisions with meteors and meteorites
  • Due to the enormous temperatures, its layers melted sharply
  • This led to the formation of basins (Maria) and peaks and craters (Craters)
  • Huge volcanic lava was released, filling these basins
  • Then the moon cooled — its volcanoes stopped, its lava went out
  • The moon was extinguished and obliterated after it was burning

Encyclopaedia Britannica — Full Statement

Encyclopaedia Britannica — Moon “The Moon currently has little seismic activity and little heat flow, suggesting that most of the Moon’s internal activity has ceased long ago. It is known that billions of years ago the Moon underwent intense ignition, resulting in crustal differentiation, followed by lava flows. Once the lava flows in the great basins diminished, the Moon’s sources of ignition clearly ceased. For the last few billion years of its history, the Moon has been quiet and essentially geologically inactive, except for a series of impacts.”

“About 4 billion years ago, a series of major collisions occurred and created huge craters — these are now the locations of the basins called ‘maria’ (such as Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis). Between 4 and 2.5 billion years ago, volcanic activity filled these basins with dark-colored lavas called basalts. After this period of volcanism, the moon cooled down and has since been relatively inactive.”

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/391266/Moon

The Qur’anic Miracle Explained

The Miracle The noble Qur’anic verse indicates — with the precise word “erased” — that the moon once had light and illumination, then that light was obliterated and removed, and the moon became dark.

This is precisely what satellite imagery and geological studies of the moon’s surface revealed in the twentieth century — more than 1,400 years after the revelation of the Qur’an.

The word “erased” (mahawnā) carries exactly the right meaning: not the destruction of the moon, but the removal of its luminosity. The moon still exists — but its radiance is gone.

The verse then contrasts the extinguished moon with the sun: “and made the sign of the day visible” — the sun remains illuminated, while the moon’s light was taken away.

Who informed Muhammad ﷺ of this truth — which required spacecraft, satellites, and geological analysis to discover, and which was only confirmed decades ago?

A Second Miracle in the Same Verse — How the Eye Sees

A Second Scientific Precision Allah the Almighty says: “and made the sign of the day visible.”

God attributed sight to daylight — not to the eye itself.

This is scientifically precise. Modern science has confirmed that the eye does not see by its own essence. What happens is:

  • Sunlight strikes objects around us
  • That light is reflected from those objects
  • The reflected rays enter the eye — and only then does sight occur

If there is no light source, the eye sees nothing — no matter how healthy it is. In complete darkness, sight is impossible without a lamp or light source.

Allah attributed sight to daylight in this verse — while all of humanity at the time of revelation did not know the mechanism of how vision works.

The Challenge This Poses What would have happened if science had later proven that the eye sees by itself, without reflected light? Such a discovery would have directly contradicted this verse.

If the Qur’an were written by a human — by Muhammad ﷺ or any other — what would have made him risk attributing sight to daylight rather than to the eye? How would he have known this?

The fact that the Qur’an stated it precisely — and science confirmed it — is material evidence that the Qur’an was revealed by Allah, the Creator of this universe and the Knower of its secrets.

Surah An-Nur (24:40) “…and he for whom Allah has not appointed light — for him there is no light.”
Closing “And Allah makes clear to you the signs, and Allah is Knowing and Wise.”