Surah Al A’araf (7:54) – Six day Creation, Spherical Shape of the Earth

 

 

رَبَّكُمُ اللّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى عَلَى الْعَرْشِ يُغْشِي اللَّيْلَ النَّهَارَ يَطْلُبُهُ حَثِيثًا وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ وَالنُّجُومَ مُسَخَّرَاتٍ بِأَمْرِهِ أَلاَ لَهُ الْخَلْقُ وَالأَمْرُ تَبَارَكَ اللّهُ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Surely your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six periods of time, and He is firm in power; He throws the veil of night over the day, which it pursues incessantly; and (He created) the sun and the moon and the stars, made subservient by His command; surely His is the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

M Shakir's Quran Translation

Your Guardian-Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and is firmly established on the throne (of authority): He draweth the night as a veil o'er the day, each seeking the other in rapid succession: He created the sun, the moon, and the stars, (all) governed by laws under His command. Is it not His to create and to govern? Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds!

Yusuf Ali's Quran Translation

Six Day Creation

Clarification no 1

Quran mentions the six day creation at various places in the Holy Quran. The Arabic words used are ستة ايام which can be translated as six days or six epochs. The Arabic word ايام conveys both the meanings. Considering the fact that a 24 hours day depends upon the movement of sun, moon and the earth and those were not even created yet the right way to translate the Ayat as six epochs (periods) and not six days. Even if someone translates it as days then he should remember that those 'days' are not the 24 hour days but are the days in sight of Allah. Verily a Day in the sight of thy Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning
(Surah Hajj 22:47).

Clarification no 2

There are few ahadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)) which speak of some detail of creation. For instance:

Abu Huraira reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) took hold of my hands and said: Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, created the clay on Saturday and He created the mountains on Sunday and He created the trees on Monday and He created the things entailing labour on Tuesday and created light on Wednesday and lie caused the animals to spread on Thursday and created Adam (peace be upon him) after 'Asr on Friday; the last creation at the last hour of the hours of Friday, i. e. between afternoon and night.

Muslim :: Book 39 : Hadith 6707

A non Muslim might argue that we Muslims say that the Quran speaks of the six period creation then why is this Hadith using the words Saturday, Sunday etc which are only used for a 24 hours day. A clarification is required that the description given in the above hadith is not of the six period creation mentioned in the Holy Quran. These happenings are after the six day creation, after the formation of universe and the earth. The above hadith mentions seven complete days and not the six days.

Clarification no 3

The description given in the bible in Genesis Chapter 1 is also of the creation after the creation of the universe and the earth. It is mentioned 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' (Genesis 1:1) and the rest of the story is mentioned after that. This clarifies that the description mentioned ahead is the description after the creation of the earth and universe but amazingly the creation of sun and moon is mentioned afterwards which is unscientific. It also says that God did rest on the seventh day which is illogical, God doesn't require any rest.

That description of bible contains many errors. It is a mystery that can never be solved. Some Christians say that the days mentioned there are 24 hours some say those are long epochs. Which ever explanation we adopt, 24 hours or epochs, we can never solve all the 'problems' in these verses. I urge the readers to study Genesis Chapter 1 themselves.

Clarification no 4

At some places Quran has mentioned the simultaneous creation of the earth and the heavens but few people misunderstand it and say that Quran says that it created earth and then the heavens in two days which goes against the established scientific fact and the Quran when it says that it created the heavens and the earth in six days. The fact is that few people have mistranslated the Arabic wordثم which can have various meanings. In some places in the Quran it must be translated as 'moreover' or 'simultaneously'. If the word is correctly translated then those Ayaats would seem to tell that Allah created the Earth moreover he created the Heavens. See Surah Baqarah 2: 22 and Surah Fussilat 41:9-11.

Scientific interpretation of six day creation

What is the scientific interpretation of the six day creation? This is something still unknown to mankind. Why did Allah divide those events into six periods? This mystery is still unknown to mankind. We don't have any strong evidence to support it and also there is no evidence at all to refute it. There is some divine wisdom in Allah's classification of those events into six periods which will be might be revealed one day by the will of Allah.

Ayaats of Quran speaking of six day creation

Surah Aa'raf 7:54, Surah Younus 10:3, Surah Hood 11:7, Surah Furqan 25:59, Surah Sajdah 32:4, Surah Fussilat 41:9-11, Surah Qaaf 50:38, Surah Hadeed 57:4.

Spherical Shape of the Earth

This Ayat also draws our attention towards the spherical shape of the earth which was not known to man at that time. He throws the veil of night over the day;
which it pursues incessantly; these words refer to the spherical shape of the earth. The Arabic phrase يطلبه حثيثا means 'seeking the other in rapid succession' . Let us try to visualize what the Ayat is saying: he throws the veil of night over the day, seeking the other in rapid succession.

The day comes out every day from the same direction it came out from the previous day, and its sun moves to comes down in the same direction it came down at yesterday and also the darkness from the east and it depresses in the west, then this scene is repeated again and again.
Overlapping the night on the day so it hide it and makes the night as a sphere, and overlap the day on the night so it hide it and makes the day as a sphere. And so by making both of them rounded around each other we can see a spherical body rolling between both of them gathering them and making them rounded around each other. This body is the earth.

There are other Ayats in the Quran where spherical shape is described clearly. We'll discuss this topic there also. (See Surah Raad 13:3 and Surah Shams 91:6)

Divine Laws that govern the celestial bodies

Further more Allah says in the Ayat that all the celestial bodies are following the laws laid down by Allah. The billions of stars and galaxies in the universe move in perfect equilibrium in the paths set out for them. Stars, planets and satellites rotate not only around their own axes but also together with the systems of which they are an integral part. Sometimes, galaxies containing 200-300 billion stars move across each others' paths. Yet amazingly, no collisions take place that might damage the great order in the universe. This miracle is something over which all of us should reflect.

 

 

See the complete list of Scientific Miracles in Surah Al Aa'raf here

 

Comments, Queries and Suggestion at

Muhammad.Awais.Tahir@gmail.com

Get Updates for New Post:

Get Updates for New Comment: