The issue of the six days and the creation of the heavens and the earth in them
All praise is due to Allah, we praise Him, seek His aid and ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, from the evils of our souls and the wickedness of our deeds. He whom Allah guides, none can misguide, and he whom He misguides, none can guide. I acknowledge, submit and bear witness that there is no god but Allah, the One, the Unique, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor was begotten, and there is none comparable to Him. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family. He conveyed the last message from the heavens to the earth. What an excellent conveyor, what an excellent message, and what an excellent one he conveyed. This issue - the issue of the six days for the creation of the heavens and the earth - His Eminence Dr. Mahmoud Al-Radwani asked us to re-research it, and this is part of my research on the heavens in the Qur’an and Sunnah, starting with its creation and ending with the image of the heavens in the Qur’an and Sunnah and the type of its material. However, because I am busy with work and knowledge, I am delaying in finishing the research, and this is part of it.
1- The six- day doubt .
2- Misunderstanding of the six days.
3- The great disagreement about the number of six days .
4- The most correct opinion on the issue from the texts and the understanding of the predecessors.
1- The six- day doubt .
-The wrong understanding of the six days.
The real reason for the doubts of the atheists about the six days is that some of those who spoke about the issues of scientific miracles were hasty and linked the six days to the origin of the universe, and this is a big mistake.
First, the term universe is completely different from the Islamic term heavens and earth. The heavens are unseen and the universe is witnessed. How can you compare the unseen to the witnessed? But what I want to say is: the visible universe is part of the heavens and the seven heavens are part of the heavens, but it is not correct to apply this to this except with evidence. Can anyone determine the lowest heaven, the places of the angels, and heaven? If the prophetic and Quranic texts indicate that fire exists on planet earth (we will discuss this in a future research, God willing), and we were unable to find hell, will we find the locations of the seven heavens in the universe? So it is absolutely not correct to link unseen terms to witnessed terms.
Secondly, the Qur’anic and prophetic texts that speak about the creation of existence confirm and affirm the existence of a stage of creation prior to the six days, and that this first stage that preceded the creation of the earth and the heavens was so enormous at the time that the relationship between the two stages is like the relationship between the number six and fifty thousand or more! This first stage is the stage of the creation of the throne, the water, the tablet, the pen, the footstool, the smoke, and other creatures, and we will discuss this issue in a future study, God willing.
Fourthly and finally, whoever reads the Holy Quran will find that the Holy Quran speaks in verses about the creation of the heavens and the earth and in other verses about the creation of the heavens and the earth, and they are two different processes because the term heaven is not the term heavens, as the second appeared after the appearance of the first, and this is completely clear in this noble verse in Surat Al-Baqarah: “ It is He who created for you all that is on the earth. Then He directed Himself to the heaven and made them seven heavens, and He is Knowing of all things. ” (29) While the Quranic and prophetic texts confirm that the creation of the heavens and the earth was limited to six days and that this process began with the creation of the earth first, the Quranic text when it speaks about the creation of the heaven as a whole did not link it to a time, and the creation of the heavens was always prior to the creation of the earth, and perhaps the Quranic verses that most clarify this are these:
Are you more difficult to create, or is the heaven which He constructed? (27) He raised its ceiling and proportioned it. (28) And He made its night dark and brought forth its brightness. (29) And the earth, after that, He spread it out. (30) He brought forth from it its water and its pasture. (31) And the mountains He fixed firmly. (32) An-Nazi’at
3- The great disagreement about the number of six days.
This issue surprised me personally that Imam al-Tabari, for the first and last time in his life, transmitted a hadith from Ibn Abbas, may God be pleased with him, and from al-Dahhak and others from the Salaf, that the length of one day of the six days is a thousand years. Then he himself - Imam al-Tabari, may God have mercy on him - said that the length of one day of the six days is a day of the Earth’s days, and he explained that by saying, “ The Originator of the heavens and the earth. And when He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is .” And I begin my speech by responding to this doubt that the day of the six days is short in duration: I say, there is a difference between time for man and time for the Lord, may He be glorified and exalted. For man, time grows and shrinks, so the second that is not precise is not the hour, not the day, not the week. But for the Lord, may He be glorified and exalted, the second for Him is equal to a million years, equal to zero, so time for Him is nonexistent, may He be blessed and exalted. Here the question is, what is your evidence? I said: God Almighty willing, the divine command between the Kaf and the Noon takes a long time to be fulfilled, so what about the creation of the heavens and the earth? The divine command descends from the heavens to the earth over a long period of time:
The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, was sitting with a group of his companions when a star was shot and it shone. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: What did you say about something like this in the pre-Islamic era when you saw it? They said : We used to say: A great person dies or a great person is born. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: It is not thrown for the death or life of anyone, but when our Lord, blessed be His name and exalted, decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him, then the people of the heavens who are next to them glorify Him, then those who are next to them, until the glorification reaches this heaven. Then the people of the sixth heaven asked the people of the seventh heaven: What did your Lord say? He said: They will inform them, then the people of each heaven will inquire until the news reaches the people of the lowest heaven, and the devils will snatch the hearing and throw it to their friends. Whatever they have brought is true, but they will distort it and add to it.
Summary of the narrator’s ruling: Authentic
When Allah speaks the revelation, the people of the lowest heaven hear a clanging like a chain being dragged on a rock, and they are stunned. They remain like that until Gabriel comes to them. When Gabriel comes to them, fear is removed from their hearts and they say: O Gabriel, what did your Lord say? He says the truth, and they say: The truth, the truth.
Summary of the narrator’s ruling: Authentic
There is a second doubt surrounding the issue of the six days, which is the number of days it took to create the heavens and the earth. Was it six days or more?
The truth indicated by the texts or the apparent meaning of the texts is that there were six days in which God Almighty created the heavens and the earth, and there were four days out of the six days, which are the first four, for the creation of the earth, and these four days equal six days by other calculations for the creation of the earth.
Meaning: The Earth was created alone in six days with all its mountains and trees, but these six days for the creation of the Earth are equal to four days of the six great days for the creation of the heavens and the Earth.
First, the evidence that the heavens and the earth and what is between them were created in six days:
And We certainly created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and no fatigue touched Us. (38) Surah Qaf
What is between them is most likely the atmosphere and the solar system because the planet Earth did not have a sky before its creation and origin. Perhaps some people imagine that the heavens are the universe, and this is wrong. The heavens are the covers and coverings that cover the planet Earth from all sides. Most likely, the “heavens” in the Quranic verse are the seven great heavens, and “what is between them” are the other heavens other than the seven heavens, because linguistically, there cannot be an intermediate creation between a heaven and an earth except another heaven lower than the heaven above it. These heavens between the seven heavens and the earth have a number greater than seven because the atmosphere is also a sky, and the atmosphere itself consists of seven layers, as does the smoky envelope of the solar system (for more details on this point, you can review my topic, The Difference Between Heaven and the Seven Heavens, on my topics page). Perhaps some people ask, what about the stars and planets? The answer is that these are in the heavens and not between the heavens, and these stars are not heavens and are not among what was created in the six days. The only relationship between the stars and the six days is that they adorned the lowest heaven in the last stages of the six days. This is a topic that we will discuss, God willing, in an upcoming study. So please, especially secularists, do not infer any Quranic meaning without evidence and then say there are doubts about the Quran, while the truth is there are doubts about limited minds.
Secondly, the evidence that the Earth was created within the framework of four days out of the six days: This trace attributed to the Messenger, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace, which has many paths that make it good for others at least, and the hadith was reported with authentic chains of transmission attributed to Ibn Abbas, may God Almighty be pleased with him, through other paths, but I will suffice with the paths attributed to him in this topic now and I will postpone the rest to a future research, God Almighty willing, when the discussion comes about detailing the stages of the creation of existence in the Book and the Sunnah.
Al-Dhiya’ al-Maqdisi said in Al-Mukhtara: “ Abu al-Qasim bin Ahmad bin Abi al-Qasim al-Khabbaz told us that Muhammad bin Raja bin Ibrahim, the sons of Ahmad bin Abd al-Rahman, the sons of Abu Bakr Ahmad bin Musa bin Mardawayh, told us that Sulayman bin Ahmad told us that Abd al-Rahman bin al-Husayn al-Sabuni al-Tastari told us that Yahya bin Yazid al-Ahwazi told us that Abu Hammam Muhammad bin al-Zubayr told us on the authority of Hudbah bin al-Munhal on the authority of Ata bin al-Sa’ib on the authority of Sa’id bin Jubayr on the authority of Ibn Abbas that the Jews came to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and said: ‘O Abu al-Qasim, tell us about Sunday, what God created in it? ’ He said: So God Almighty revealed (Do you indeed disbelieve in Him who created the earth in two days? ’) to His saying (That is the Lord of the worlds). He said: ‘God created the earth on Sunday and Monday. ’ They said: ‘Then what? ’ He said: So God revealed (And placed therein firm mountains above it) to His saying (for those who ask). Then He measured its sustenance on Tuesday and Wednesday. They said: ‘Then what? ’ He said: So God revealed (Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke) to His saying (Every heaven has its command). ) So He completed them as seven heavens in two days, Thursday and Friday. They said: “Then what?” He said: “God knows best.” They said: “Tell us about Saturday.” He said: “God knows best.” They said: “But we know.” Then he raised one of his legs over the other and rested. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “Glory be to God.” Then God revealed: “And We created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and there touched Us no weariness.” So be patient, O Muhammad, with what they say .
The hadith was narrated on the authority of Ikrimah, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, on the authority of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace, by Abu Saad al-Baqqal and Ata’ ibn al-Sa’ib. Thus, the sum of the two paths: the path of Ikrimah and the path of Sa’id, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, on the authority of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace, is good according to others. This is in addition to the authentic paths attributed to Ibn Abbas and others from the Salaf, and all of them convey the same meaning.
There is a second proof that the earth and mountains took four days out of the six days, which is the saying of the Most High in Surat Fussilat about the period of creation of the seven heavens (if we subtract this period of time from the six days, we would have the period of creation of the earth and mountains from the six days), with an important note that some people overlook, which is that the earth was created completely in one stage, then the seven heavens were created in a subsequent stage, and the matter was not done in parallel: “ Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke, and said to it and to the earth, ‘Come, willingly or by compulsion.’ They said, ‘We come willingly.’ (11) So He completed them as seven heavens in two Days, and inspired in each heaven its command, and We beautified The lowest heaven with lamps and as protection. That is the determination of the Almighty, the Knowing. (12 )
Thirdly, the evidence that the creation of the earth and its mountains took six days, separate in amount from the six days for the creation of the heavens and the earth: This hadith was narrated by Imam Muslim through one chain of transmission and by al-Nasa’i through a second chain of transmission. Some people have thought that it is from the Israelite narrations, but this particular hadith cannot be from the Israelite narrations for several reasons, including that the Jews do not believe that creation occurred on the Sabbath, and the hadith is very consistent with the apparent meaning of the Holy Qur’an.
Imam Muslim said: Surayj bin Yunus and Harun bin Abdullah told me: Hajjaj bin Muhammad told us: Ibn Jurayj said: Ismail bin Umayyah told me, on the authority of Ayoub bin Khalid, on the authority of Abdullah bin Rafi’, the freed slave of Umm Salamah, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, took my hand and said: “God Almighty created the soil on Saturday, and created the mountains in it on Sunday, and created the trees on Monday, and created the detestable on Tuesday, and created the light on Wednesday, and spread the animals in it on Thursday, and created Adam, peace be upon him, after the afternoon of Friday, at the end of creation, in the last hour of the hours of Friday, between the afternoon and the night.” Ibrahim said: Al-Bastami, who is Al-Husayn bin Isa, and Sahl bin Ammar, and Ibrahim bin Bint Hafs and others told us this hadith on the authority of Hajjaj.
Al-Nasa’i said: Ibrahim bin Ya’qub told us, he said: Muhammad bin Al-Sabah told me, he said: Abu Ubaidah Al-Haddad told us, he said: Al-Akhdar bin Ajlan told us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj Al-Makki, on the authority of Ata’, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, took my hand and said: “O Abu Hurayrah, God created the heavens and the earths and what is between them in six days, then He rose over the Throne on the seventh day, and He created the soil on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, the trees on Tuesday, the light on Wednesday, the animals on Thursday, and Adam on Friday in the last hour of the day after the afternoon, and He created the surface of the earth, its red and black, its good and bad. For that reason God Almighty made the good and bad of Adam.”
And the confirmation of the noble hadith in the Holy Quran in Surat Fussilat:
Say: Do you indeed disbelieve in He who created the earth in two Days and attribute to Him equals? That is the Lord of the worlds. (9) And He placed therein firm mountains above it and blessed it and measured therein its sustenance in four days - equal for those who ask. (10)
There is a doubt that appears regarding the six days, which is that if these days were named in the Sunnah of the Prophet and in the words of the predecessors by the names of the days of the week, then they are the same number of days in the week?
Reply from faces:
First, naming the days of the week is a linguistic name. In the language, Saturday means time. It is as if he is saying, “The creation of the Earth was at the beginning of the calendar.” This is true because the creation of the Earth occurred after the creation of the solar system.
And Sunday is the One and Only, and the creation of mountains was separate from the creation of the earth and the creation of the heavens. Also, the first thing that God Almighty created on earth was the mountains, and for this reason the time of its creation was named Sunday, and Monday is the day following Sunday or the time or period following the Sunday period, and Tuesday is of the three, meaning the third day, and Wednesday is of the four, and Thursday is of the five. These are linguistic names, not technical names, and none of the predecessors said that these six days are like the days of the week in their quantity. Perhaps some will ask why these names? To prove that creation did not take place in parallel, but in succession, so the creation of the earth was first in the (Saturday) period, then the creation of the mountains in the (Sunday) period, and so on. Perhaps the greatest evidence of the correctness of this is what Abu Al-Sheikh narrated in Al-Azmah and others, saying: “Tamim bin Al-Muntasir told us, he said: Ishaq told us, on the authority of Sharik, on the authority of Ghalib bin Ghallab, on the authority of Ata bin Abi Rabah, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, he said: “ God created one day and named it Sunday, then He created a second and named it Monday, then He created a third and named it Tuesday.” Then He created a fourth and named it Wednesday, then He created a fifth and named it Thursday .
Secondly, there are prophetic hadiths that confirm that the earthly day itself is not of fixed length. Muslim narrated in the Book of Trials in his Sahih and Al-Tirmidhi in the Book of Slaughtering in his Jami’ in the hadith of the Antichrist: “ They said: O Messenger of God, how long will he remain on earth? He said: Forty days, a day like a year, a day like a month, a day like a Friday, and the rest of his days like your days. They said: O Messenger of God! That day is like a year, will one day’s prayer suffice us? He said: No, estimate it.” And he, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace, said in what was narrated by Al-Tirmidhi and Ahmad and authenticated by Al-Albani : “ The Hour will not come until time draws near, so that a year will be like a month, a month will be like a week, a Friday will be like a day, a day will be like an hour, and an hour will be like a kindle in a fire . ” So the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace, confirms that the length of a day is not fixed.
Thirdly, names in the Arabic language indicate qualities and not terms, and qualities differ from one person to another. For example, the name “king” if you mean a creature then it has a value, and if you mean the Lord of Glory and Majesty then it has a great value. God Almighty is a king and Solomon, peace be upon him, is a king, but is the value of this like the value of God’s great kingdom? God forbid! If I say: “The man is brave” and “The lion is brave,” is the value of the bravery the same and is the form the same? For example, the name “Monday,” if it is connected to the day, then it indicates the second day, and if it is connected to the week, then it indicates the third day. But if I say: “Monday is of the days” and I say “Monday is of the week,” do they have the same value? No.
Fourthly, if the length of one day of the six days is equal to the Earth day, then it has been proven that there are six other days, which are the days in which the Earth was created. So is the day in which the Earth was created equal to the day in which the heavens and the Earth were created, and does four become six? Where is the logic?
Fifthly and finally, the understanding of the predecessors of the six days is that they are nothing but periods of time equal to thousands of years. Abdullah bin Amr and Abdullah bin Abbas, may God be pleased with them, knew that the amount of the few hours between the creation of the jinn and the creation of Adam is in reality two thousand years.
Ibn Abi Hatim said: My father told us, Ali bin Muhammad al-Tanafisi told us, Abu Muawiyah told us, al-A’mash told us, on the authority of Bakir bin al-Akhns, on the authority of Mujahid, on the authority of Abdullah bin Amr, who said: “The jinn, the sons of the jinn, were on the earth two thousand years before Adam was created.”
Al-Hakim said in Al-Mustadrak: Abdullah bin Musa Al-Saydalani told me, Ismail bin Qutaybah told us, Abu Bakr bin Abi Shaybah told us, Abu Muawiyah told us, on the authority of Al-A’mash, on the authority of Bakir bin Al-Akhns, on the authority of Mujahid, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, may God be pleased with them both, who said: “God expelled Adam from Paradise before anyone entered it. God Almighty said: {Indeed, I am going to place a vicegerent on the earth. They said: Will You place therein one who will cause corruption therein and shed blood?} And there were in it two thousand years before he was created the jinn, the sons of the jinn.”
Ibn Abbas, may God be pleased with him, knew that the six days were not like our days.
Al-Tabari narrates in his interpretation on the authority of Ibn Abbas, may God Almighty be pleased with him, saying: “Ibn Bashar told us, he said: Abd al-Rahman told us, he said: Israel told us, on the authority of Samak, on the authority of Ikrimah, on the authority of Ibn Abbas: {And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of those which you count.} He said: “From the days in which God created the heavens and the earth.”
Mention of those who said that: Ibn Hamid told us, he said: Hakam told us, on the authority of Anbasa, on the authority of Samak, on the authority of Ikrimah, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, “{A thousand years of what you count}” he said: That is the length of the journey. His statement {like a thousand years of what you count}, he said: He created the heavens and the earth in six days, and each day of these is like a thousand years of what you count.
This is a good chain of transmission. Al-Tabari narrated in his history from Al-Dahhak a similar statement, and he narrated from Mujahid with a good chain of transmission for others, such as the statement of his teacher Ibn Abbas as well. These statements of the predecessors are not proven to be traced back to the Prophet, but they are evidence of the invalidity of those who believed that the six days are like the days of the week in quantity.
The most correct opinion on the issue from the texts and the understanding of the predecessors.
The most correct opinion regarding the length of the six days is what Sheikh Al-Islam, may God have mercy on him, went to, which is that the six days are from the unseen. He says in the first part of “Refuting the Conflict between Reason and Transmission,” “ And He created that in a period other than the amount of time required for the movement of the sun and moon, as He informed us that He created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days. And the sun and the moon are from the heavens and the earth, and their movement after their creation, and He informed us that He created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, so those days are a period and a time determined by a movement other than the movement of the sun and the moon. ” End of his words, may God have mercy on him, with great mercy. Perhaps some may ask why this opinion is the most correct?
First, there is no explicit statement about the number of six days in the Book or in the Sunnah. Rather, there are those who say that each day is not equal to the other. So whoever says the number of six days is thus and thus is speaking beyond the text.
Secondly, the effort of the predecessors that the six days are six thousand years is rejected because it is not possible to equate a day with God with a day in this world, just as the texts speak of two types of six days: a type for creating the heavens and the earth and a type for creating the earth and what is on it, so the six days are not fixed even in their number.
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