You can call it irrational if you like, I call it faith. Some things we can confirm, some we can't. I also consider the source of the information.
Faith can be rational, irrational or a leap of faith. For example, if someone borrows $5.00 from me and pays it back promptly, then likewise borrows and pays back increasing sums of money, $10.00, then $20.00, etc.; then if he asks to borrow $100.00, and I lend it without asking for any documentation of the loan, I'll be lending it on faith, but it will be a faith based on past evidence supporting my faith that he will pay me back. If, on the other hand, eh repeatedly borrows increasing sums of money, never paying me back, and I lend him $100.00 based on faith that he will repay me, that faith would be irrational.
You have faith that Muhammad split the moon in two then fused the pieces back together sometime in the 600s. Such a faith would be rational were it supported by some evidence of the moon having been split in two, such as many people across at least half the world at the time observing the event and / or physical evidence observed by space probes. You do not have such evidence. Yet, in the face of evidence that nobody observed such an event during the lifetime of Muhammad, a lack of any evidence of such a fracture on the moon, when there should be, and even the fact that the verse in the Quran referring to the moon being split in two places it at the last hour; you have faith that Muhammad did this deed. That is irrational faith.
The video which someone had posted was this one,
Link. It contains some pretty interesting things, some which I was familiar with some which I was not (Cheraman Perumal,
Malik Deenar, etc.). If the splitting of the moon was something which had somehow been 100% confirmed, I'm pretty sure that I would have placed it on the chart.
This is the link I originally posted and of which you said it told of Cheraman Perumal. If you will recall, I pointed out that it is only in one unsubstantiated Islamic source that this man is supposed to have converted to Islam because he saw the moon split in two. Other sources have him converting to Islam in the 800s, and still others have him converting to Buddhism. Against this alleged evidence, we have people who would have seen this event in Europe, the Byzantine Empire, the Sassanid Persian Empire, India, China, Korea and Japan. Yet, nobody in any of these countries makes a note of such an event. Even if they had rejected it as mere sorcery -attributing it to Satan, they would have noted the occurrence. They didn't. The most logical conclusion is that it didn't happen.
I'm Sunni btw, if you couldn't already tell. Which of the hadiths are you so concerned about? Also if you agree with the undisputed things from the OP which remain, then what is your view as to how the Quran came to contain so many accurate predictions?
I don't recall agreeing with much of anything in the OP regarding Quranic predictions.
As to the hadiths, consider that some of the appeal of Islam is the simplicity of the faith and its lack of conundrums. One doesn't have to believe in one god who's three persons, but still one god. Also, one doesn't have to believe in a man who's a God but he's still a man etc. Also, other than leading a decent life, tIslam only demands that one affirm there is one God and that Muhammad is his messenger; one has to pray five times a day, one has to fast from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadan; one has to give a certain percentage of one's wealth to the poor and, finally, if one can, one is to take the pilgrimage to Mecca. If one cannot pray five times a day due to special conditions or cannot fact due to health issues, one can do a charitable act to make up for this. Further, one is not to go into debt to make the
Hajj. All this is simple and clear cut. Now consider Hadith Qudsi 6:
“The first of people against whom judgment will be pronounced on the Day of Resurrection will be a man who died a martyr. He will be brought and Allah will make known to him His favours and he will recognize them. [The Almighty] will say: ‘And what did you do about them?’ He will say: ‘I fought for You until I died a martyr.’ He will say: ‘You have lied - you did but fight that it might be said [of you]: ‘He is courageous.’’ And so it was said. Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire. [Another] will be a man who has studied [religious] knowledge and has taught it and who used to recite the Qur’an. He will be brought and Allah will make known to him His favours and he will recognize them. [The Almighty] will say: ‘And what did you do about them?’ He will say: ‘I studied [religious] knowledge and I taught it and I recited the Qur’an for Your sake.’ He will say: ‘You have lied - you did but study [religious] knowledge that it might be said [of you]: ‘He is learned.’’ And you recited the Qur’an that it might be said [of you]: ‘He is a reciter.’ And so it was said. Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire. [Another] will be a man whom Allah had made rich and to whom He had given all kinds of wealth. He will be brought and Allah will make known to him His favours and he will recognize them. [The Almighty] will say: ‘And what did you do about them?’ He will say: ‘I left no path [un-trodden] in which You like money to be spent without spending in it for Your sake.’ He will say: ‘You have lied - you did but do so that it might be said [of you]: ‘He is open-handed.’’ And so it was said. Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire.”
So, according to this hadith, one has to worry about whether or not one had the right motivation. You can do all the right things and still be cast into hellfire. It's the Christian Calvinist trap all over again.
Also, isn't it true that both Sunnis and Shiites agree on whet's in the Qur'an? Yet, I've heard they disagree on which hadiths are valid. Correct me if I'm wrong on this point.
