Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Creation: Difference between revisions

{{Quote||Then He lifted Himself to heaven when it was smoke ... (Sura 41:11): The meaning is: Then, '''after he created the earth and what was on it, his wisdom led him to the creation of heaven''' without there being anything that could have dissuaded him from it. Some say that God’s Throne (‘arshuhu) was on the water before the creation of heaven and earth, and that God then caused a (pillar of) smoke to rise up out of the water, which arose over the water and remained (suspended) over it. Then God caused the water to dry up and made from it (the various) regions of the earth (aradun); and finally God created heaven out of the smoke which had risen up ...<BR><BR>One may now ask: Why does God mention the earth together with heaven and place them together in the command to come into being? '''Was the earth not already created in two days before heaven (was created)? To this I answer: God had created the material earth only after the creation of heaven, for God says: ‘And after that (that is, after the creation of heaven)''' He spread out the earth’ (Sura 79:30). Thus the meaning is: ‘Come forth in the form and condition in which you are to be made. Earth, come forth spread out as the resting-place and dwelling-place for your inhabitants! Heaven, come forth arched as a roof for her!’ By coming forth is meant that something originates and appears, as when one says: ‘His work had come forth in a satisfactory and welcome manner.’<ref>Helmut Gätje, The Qur'an and its Exegesis, Oneworld Publications, Oxford 1996, pp. 150-151</ref>}}