That fabrication is an outright lie, wholly baseless. When the moon was split it never left the sky; rather, the moment the Prophet ﷺ pointed to it, it cleft at his gesture and became two halves. One half moved until it passed behind Mount Ḥirāʾ and they saw the mountain between the two parts, exactly as Ibn Masʿūd—who witnessed the scene—reported. As for the wording in the narration of Anas found in the Musnad of Aḥmad (1), “the moon split in Mecca twice,” it requires examination; the more apparent meaning is that it split into two pieces. Allah knows best.

Section
The Death of Abū Ṭālib, the Prophet’s ﷺ uncle—followed by that of Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, the wife of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, may Allah be pleased with her.

Some hold that she died before him, yet the better-known position is that he died first. Both were compassionate toward him: Abū Ṭālib outwardly and Khadījah inwardly. He remained an unbeliever, whereas she was a faithful, truthful believer—may the Most High be pleased with her and grant her His good pleasure.

Ibn Isḥāq (3) said: Khadījah and Abū Ṭālib died in the same year, and one calamity after another descended upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: the loss of Khadījah—his truthful confidante in Islam, in whom he found repose—and the loss of his uncle Abū Ṭālib—his supporter, his protector in his mission, his shield and champion against his people. This was three years before his migration to Madinah. When Abū Ṭālib died, Quraysh inflicted upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ harms they had never dared during Abū Ṭālib’s life, until an insolent man from among them confronted him and scattered dust on his head.

Hishām ibn ʿUrwah told me, from his father: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered his house with dust upon his head. One of his daughters rose to him, washing it away as she wept, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not weep, saying,

“Do not weep, my little daughter; indeed, Allah will protect your father.”

And he added,

“Quraysh did not inflict anything upon me that I loathed until Abū Ṭālib died.” (5)

Ibn Isḥāq had earlier mentioned that someone would occasionally throw filth into the Prophet’s ﷺ cooking pot (6) whenever it was set up for him. He said: Whenever they did this—as ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to me from ʿUrwah—the Prophet would lift the offending matter on the end of a stick, stand with it at his door and say, “O sons of ʿAbd Manāf, what sort of neighborliness is this?” Then he would cast it into the roadway. (7)