Proof from Preposterous Claim

The Proof

The proof depends on the following premises:

• A person who professes prophethood makes an extraordinary claim in public
• The claim is easily falsifiable by the public: they can know whether it is true or false easily.
• That person does not lose credibility and followers.
• No one credible we know testifies against the claim.
• Optional: His followers increase since he made the claim.
• Optional: Some people testify in favor of the claim.

These premises indicate that the claim he made was true without doubt for two reasons, one about the public and one about the claimant himself.

First: When the public can easily know a claim is true or false, they would clearly see that the prophet is making a ridiculous false claim. It would prevent them from joining the prophet’s religion, and make it easy for them to testify against his claim.

The prophet would lose credibility and become a laughingstock.

The prophet’s current followers would be dissuaded and lose trust in their founder. Some or many of them might apostate.

The absence of all this indicates with a high level of certainty that this claim was true.

Second: Common sense indicates that a prophet would not want to lose his followers. He would not make a claim that can be easily discovered as false. Most false prophets keep their prophecies and miracles vague so they can have plausible deniability. When someone makes an extraordinary claim that is easily falsifiable, that either indicates he is unintelligent, insane, or honest.

If we know from other analysis that he is neither unintelligent nor insane, it leads us to believe he is honest.

Sample Application: Moon Splitting

The proof can be applied to several things from the Prophet’s life. The splitting of the moon is one possible application. Let us go through the premises:

• Muhammad (SAW) made a public claim that the moon split for people to see.
  • This claim is made by the Quran itself when Allah says:
    

    The Hour has come near, and the moon has split [in two]. And if they see a miracle, they turn away and say, “Passing magic.” (54:1-2)

  • The Quran is reliably know to be from Muhammad (SAW).
  • The claim is public because the Quran was a publicly recited text. It wasn’t hidden.
  • Two parts of this claim we can discuss: 1) the moon split, and 2) people saw it split.

• The claim was easily falsifiable by the Arabs.
  • They could literally look at the moon.
  • They were the supposed witnesses of this event according to the claimant.

• Muhammad (SAW) did not lose credibility and followers due to the claim.
  • Islam currently has a billion followers.

• We have no report of anyone denying the moon split.
  • As the Quran says however, there were people that claimed it was magic or illusion. Ironically, this adds credibility to the fact that something extraordinary did happen.

• More and more people accepted Islam after the moon splitting.
• Many people testified in favor of the claim the moon split
  • The amount of reports about the moon splitting reach the level of tawatur (mass-transmission). There are too many testimonies.

This establishes enough evidence for us to be certain of the fact that the moon did split in the time of the Prophet (SAW) for the Arabs to witness. This article is not the place to discuss why other nations didn’t see the moon split.

Allah knows best.