Do Qur'an verse counts correspond to the moon landing date and take-off time from the surface of moon?

Question

There are claims that not just the event itself, but the time of the first moon landing coincided with a prophecy about the moon in the Qur'an.

This page claims a match with the year 1969:

One of the most important among the signs is in the first verse of the sura “The Moon” (Qamar). The number of verses to be counted from this verse to the end of the Quran is 1389. The year 1389 in the Muslim calendar corresponds to the year 1969 in the Gregorian calendar. And the year 1969 was the year when man landed on the moon for the first time.

Another one claims a match with the exact time of take-off from the moon:

A very interesting prophecy relates to the moon landing (which occurred in 1969), is it possible The Quran predicted this? Well, judge for yourself by considering the following information – Chapter 54 of The Quran is entitled “The Moon” and starts right away by giving us news about the splitting of the moon as a sign that the end of the world is drawing close.

“The moon has split and the hour has drawn closer” (The Quran, 54:1)

When did the prophecy come to pass?

To answer that, one must keep the prophecy in mind: “The moon has split.” This is a metaphor. Parts of the moon have left its surface. They no longer are part of the moon. So, the prophecy does not refer to the landing on the moon or to the first step made by Neil Armstrong but to the fact that Armstrong and Aldrin collected 21 kilograms of lunar rocks to bring back to earth. The prophecy was fulfilled at the very moment the astronauts left the moon in the lunar module containing 21 kilograms of rocks that had belonged to the moon. This can be confirmed by checking the definition of “split” in any dictionary, among the definitions given by Dictionary.com are – “to divide, disunite, separate”

The date this prophecy came to pass was on July 21 1969. The moment the prophecy was fulfilled is confirmed by the hour of departure of the lunar module, which left the lunar surface at 17:54:1 (Universal Time) or 1:54:1 (EDT) and as you have seen above, verse [54:1] is the verse that deals with the prophecy.

Still not convinced? Lets read the following verses after (54:1) –

“The moon has split and the hour has drawn closer. Then they saw a great miracle; but they turned away and said, “Old magic.” They disbelieved, followed their opinions, and adhered to their old traditions.” (The Quran, from 54:1 to 54:3)

Here, the author of The Quran specifically states – “the moon has split”, then people will see “a great miracle”, yet they still “disbelieved”. Could the “great miracle” be the fulfillment of prophecy?

Is there any truth behind those claims? Did the verse numbers and the moon landing really line up this way?

@IMSoP made a valid objection in the comments. Here's a Qur'an from 1649: https://archive.org/details/alcoranofmahomet00dury. The Chapter of the Moon is at 54. The rest of the order seems same too. Though I haven't checked and compared all of them. Feel free to do so.

Answer 1

Indeed, one can verify that the number of verses counted excluding the first one are exactly 1389. You can verify this using any online quran.

Also, the year 1389 in islamic calendar happens to be the year 1969. This can be verified using any online converter

However, this is merely a coincidence:

1) There is no clear evidence that the chapters of Quran were numbered at the time of the prophet Mohammed. At his time people used chapter names (it is actually easier to use names than numbers). In fact, the Quran was not assembled into a book until after the death of Mohammad; at his time people used to memorize the Quran. See: The origin of the Quran

2) The Quran verse at hand talks about an incident well known by many muslims. It uses the past tense. The writer of the second claim tries to hide this:

Here, the author of The Quran specifically states – “the moon has split”, then people will see “a great miracle”, yet they still “disbelieved”

However, if you read the actual text, it is written in the past tense:

The moon has split and the hour has drawn closer. Then they saw a great miracle; but they turned away and said, “Old magic.” They disbelieved, followed their opinions, and adhered to their old traditions.” (The Quran, from 54:1 to 54:3)

Answer 2

To add to this:

Some people are asking why count from 54:1 to the end and not from the beginning, because chapter 54 is called the moon or Al-Qamar in Arabic, and the last chapter 114 is called Mankind/the men or An-naas in Arabic.

Also why from exactly 54:1 onwards, because the last word in the Arabic Quran for 54:1 is the "moon", and the last word of the last verse of chapter 114 is "men". This can be confirmed by using the same links I attached in the last paragraph: by clicking on the Arabic writing found above the English translated verse - Note: Arabic is read from right to left, so to view the last word for verses 54:1 & 114:6 would be the left-most word.

Also, the French copy is one of many that have the same chapter order. So to propose that this was ordered after would be disingenuous. Besides, if the chapters were re-arranged, it would break multiple other miracles of the Qur'ans structure. Take for example the ring composition, or miracle 19. Besides the time miracle, if you consider the other Quranic miracles/signs, I think it would be fair to say that a time prediction was intentional and not a coincidence. Here's an explanation of the Qur'an structure by Dr. Shabbir ally & miracle 19.

Also, there was around 200 million Muslims at 1900, also, the Qur'an is the most memorised book in the world since according to Muslims, it has the highest reward in paradise. One of the criticism of the other religious texts proposed by the Qur'an(2:79) is its lack of preservation/distortion hence why Muslims historically were super focused on preserving the Qur'an and other books such as the Greek texts. Also, the Qur'an is fully read in congregation from start to finish throughout the month of Ramadan, this is called taraweeh prayer which takes about 1-2 hours at night for about 30 days.

54:3 They reject (the warning) and follow their (own) lusts but every matter has its appointed time. 54:4 There have already come to them Recitals wherein there is (enough) to check (them), 54:5 Mature wisdom;- but (the preaching of) Warners profits them not.

• My mention of these verses was referring to the Quranic challenge to the reader, that the verses are out there ready to be checked and measured. Every prophet throughout time came with a message, and a proof of prophethood, i.e. splitting the sea, curing the blind etc. But these were for its people at a specific time and place since you weren't their to see it, and for prophet Muhammad, pbuh, who's considered the last prophet from a line of prophets, one of the proofs of prophethood was the Qur'an itself which is proof for all of mankind till the end of time, hence the various miracles found throughout the Qur'an.
• Also to note: this is by the Indian-british Yusuf Ali(1872-1953) english translation of the Qur'an, which is one the most popular English translations out there today which was written prior to 1969.

For more maths miracles, going into the specifics by demonstration, the DNA structure found in the Qur'an might interest you, see this playlist on YouTube.