EXAMPLES FROM ASTRONOMY

The Challenge of The Qur’an ~ 363 ~ continual impact of the stormy waves would cut the mountains into pieces and the earth’s surface, more fully exposed to the moon’s gravitation would start to crack open. Astronomers estimate that at the time the earth came into existence, the moon was close to it and the surface of the earth had, therefore, been exposed to all kinds of upheavals. In the course of time, the earth and the moon drew apart, to their present distance from one another, according to astronomical laws. Astronomers hold that this distance will be maintained for a billion years, then the same astronomical laws will bring the moon back closer to the earth. As a result of conflicting forces of attraction, the moon will “burst when close enough and glorify our dead world with rings like those of Saturn.”23 This concept bears out the Quran’s prediction to a remarkable degree. The following lines, in addition to presenting this phenomenon as a physical fact, explain its religious significance: The Hour of Doom is drawing near, and the moon is cleft in two. Yet, when they see a