When will the moon split in two pieces like the Quran predicted?

 I believe The Quran 54:1 talks about the splitting of the moon regarding the end of the world. This was the opinion of Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. al-Sari al-Zajjaj (year 933), who explained the Quran from a linguistic point of view. In the Quran, future events are often described as past as God transcends time. I am quoting from “Message of The Quran” by Muhammad Asad who summarizes other scholars’ views on this topic.

Most of the commentators see in this verse a reference to a phenomenon said to have been witnessed by several of the Prophet’s contemporaries. As described in several reports going back to some Companions, the moon appeared one night as if split into two distinct parts. While there is no reason to doubt the subjective veracity of these reports, it is possible that what happened was an unusual kind of partial lunar eclipse, which produced an equally unusual optical illusion.

But whatever the nature of that phenomenon, it is practically certain that the above Qur’an -verse does not refer to it but, rather, to a future event: namely, to what will happen when the Last Hour approaches. (The Qur’an frequently employs the past tense to denote the future, and particularly so in passages which speak of the coming of the Last Hour and Resurrection Day; this use of the past tense is meant to stress the certainty of the happening to which the verb relates.) Thus, Raghib regards it as fully justifiable to interpret the phrase inshaqqa l-Qamar ("the moon is split asunder") as bearing on the cosmic cataclysm - the end of the world as we know it - that will occur before the coming of Resurrection Day (see art. shaqq in the Mufradat). As mentioned by Zamakhshari, this interpretation has the support of some of the earlier com­mentators; and it is, to my mind, particularly convincing.

Ibn Ashuur also identified the moon splitting event atrributed to the prophet as an unusual lunar eclipse. The book “Theological Approaches to Qur'anic Exegesis: A Practical Comparative By Hussein Abdul-Raof mentions Ibn Ashuur and then tries to explain what kind of eclipse was it. According to this book, the eclipse might have produced a dark line between the moon that appeared as a gap.

There is another interesting opinion by Muslim mystic scholar Hassan al-Basri (d. 728). Vision is an integral part of mysticism. He stipulated that the prophet showed the Meccans the vision of what will happen at the end time. Thus the moon didn’t actually break though they saw a vision of future.

The above discussion was about following quranic verse:

The Hour has come near, and the moon has split.

If they see a sign, they turn away and say, "same old magic" (Quran 54:1–2)

I also need to clarify the next verse that says “And if they see a sign (ayah), they turn away and say, "same old magic" (Quran 54:2)”. 54:2 is often understood in conjunction with 54:1 to view moon splitting as a past event.

Note that the verse says “IF they see an ayah”, NOT “when they see an ayah”. Thus 54:2 might not be a direct consequence of 54:1.

The “ayah” here is the Quran itself, not any other miracle. In other verses, the disbelievers of the prophet’s time always used the word magic (“sihr”) to describe the Quran (such as 5:110, 6:7), not any other miracle. In fact, in other verses, they wanted to see a miracle but the prophet denied it.

And yet they say, “Why have no miraculous signs ever been bestowed upon him from on high by his Sustainer?” Say: “Miracles are in the power of God alone, and as for me - I am but a plain warner.” (Quran 29:50)

So, the Quran warned them about the sign of the end of the world (“which is moon splitting”) and they turned away from the Quran by saying the language of the Quran is like magic (“sihr”).

I will further clarify it with another verse (11:7) when the prophet warned them about resurrection after death (through the language of the Quran) they turned away and said it was pure magic.

And if you ˹O Prophet˺ say, “Surely you will ˹all˺ be raised after death,” the disbelievers will certainly say, “That is nothing but pure magic!”(Quran 11:7)

From the above verse, we can understand that they did NOT see the resurrection with their own eyes and termed that event magic, rather they called the language of the Quran like magic. In the same way, in 54:1, they called the Quran magic, not necessarily by seeing the splitting of the moon event with their eyes. And both 11:7 and 54:1 are conditional “IF” verses.

So you can see that there are various opinion about the mention of moon splitting in the Quran which includes,

It was a real historical event (mainstream opinion)

It was an eclipse

It was a vision shown to the people about what will happen at the end of the world.

It will only happen at the end of the world and 54:1 is referring to a future event.

There is an academic paper “Moon split – and what do Muslims think about it?“ summarizing the various opinions which conclude with the following quotation from the Canadian artist, Leonard Cohen.