Toronto Imam Muhammad Rizvi: Moon Landing Proves the Feasibility of Prophet Muhammad's Ascension to the Heavens

Toronto Shi'ite imam Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi said in a Friday sermon at the Jaffari Community Centre that he remembers that some Sunni scholars had denied the Apollo 11 moon landing when it took place and that they had claimed that it had merely been American propaganda. Imam Rizvi said that the views of these scholars can be traced back to certain early Muslims who believed that the Prophet Muhammad's night journey to Heaven had only been a dream, and he said that science and the moon landing suggest that the Prophet Muhammad's journey had been real. He explained that if one believes that humanity can go to the moon using its own resources, then one can easily believe that Allah took Muhammad up to Heaven during the night journey. The sermon was delivered on July 19, 2019 and was posted the following day to the IslamiCentre YouTube channel.

Imam Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi: "Science becomes a way of appreciating the power of Allah. subhanahu wa-ta'ala [may He be glorified and exalted]. You know it's ironic that we see, I was very young at the time when this incident happened but I still remember. In East Africa when this news came, there were some Sunni mashaikh [sheikhs] who actually refused to accept that report. They said this is all American propaganda. Nothing and nobody has gone to the moon. And actually this can be traced back to those who were following some during the early days, who refused to accept the mi'raj [passing, i.e., Prophet Muhammad's night journey] to be real and physical. And they were followers of the same group who actually believed that mi'raj was just a dream and nothing more than that. Once you deny that, you will even deny space travel. But if you are able to accept that a human being has the ability to use the resources and the knowledge to come up with a technology which can take the human being to outer space, then nobody will have a problem believing the concept of mi'raj. If a makhlouk [creation] of Allah can do that, Allah. subhanahu wa-ta'ala, being the khalik [creator] can easily take his most beloved messenger to the highest point."