The famous ‘split moon’ reference opens sūrat al-qamar, the surah of the moon. Q 54:1 proclaims iqtarabati al-sā‘at wa-nšaqqa al-qamar, meaning ‘the Hour has come near and the moon has split’. Q 54:2–3 follows by asserting ‘and if they see a sign (yaraw āyatan), they turn away and say “magic continuing”. And they denied and followed their desires. But for every matter (amrin) will be a settlement.’ Q 54:4 then states that the people have received ‘the news’, al-anbā, which has deterrence, muzdağar. Islamic exegesis interprets the split moon of Q 54:1 as a temporary visible miracle, which appeared during Muhammad’s early Meccan ministry, but which his opponents derogated as mere magic. This miracle is said to have consisted of the moon being temporarily split into two halves, which the Meccans witnessed in their night sky. ‘The deterring news’ of Q 54:4 is presumed to be ‘the Qur’ān’, understood as a unified verbal revelation that the prophet alone received and transmitted to the pagan Quraysh.

That traditional reading has many problems. Distinguishing prior prophets, the Qur’ān normally defends Muhammad against his community’s charge that he did not deliver visible miracles. And the claim that the moon had been visibly split into two is implausible as a real-world proclamation. Traditional exegesis treats the addressees of Q 54 as agreeing that they had witnessed an astounding cosmic sight, although nobody within the Hijaz or outside it would, in historical reality, have seen the moon split into two halves.