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Were the heavens and earth created in 6 or 8 days?

 


Were the heavens and earth created  in 6 or 8 days?



The answer is 6 but critics claim the Quran says both therefore its a contradiction.




These are the verses used:




2    Say: Is it that ye deny Him Who created the earth in TWO Days

     And do ye join equals with Him? He is the Lord of (all) the Worlds. 

+

     He set on the (earth), mountains standing firm, high above it,

     and bestowed blessings on the earth, and measured therein all things 

4    to give them nourishment in due proportion, in FOUR Days

     in accordance with (the needs of) those who seek (Sustenance). 


     Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, 

     and it had been (as) smoke: He said to it and to the earth: 

     "Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly." 

     They said: "We do come (together), in willing obedience." 

+

2    So He completed them as seven firmaments in TWO Days, 

     and He assigned to each heaven its duty and command. 

     And We adorned the lower heaven with lights, 

     and (provided it) with guard. 

     Such is the Decree of (Him) the Exalted in Might, Full of Knowledge. 

                                            -- Sura 41:9-12 (Yusuf Ali)

                                   

= 8                   altogether these are EIGHT Days.




Dissecting the problematic verses, 49:9-12, we see The verses of 41:9-12 speak of overlapping actions in spans of four and two days each. The adverbs are the keys to understanding this. The verses of 11 and 12 use the adverbs "thummah" and "fa" which imply consecutiveness of action. Neither of these two, however, are used in verse 10 (the only one which mentions four days) which instead uses the adverb "wa" implying parallel, or "overlapping" actions. In other words, the grammar tells us that the four days mentioned in 10 are a continuation of the two mentioned in verse 9. The four days of "measuring the earth's sustenance" refers to the two days of the creation of the earth in addition to the two days of the "spreading out of the earth's features" 




To sum it all up: 


He created the actual  earth in 2 days, everything in it like the trees, rivers, mountains etc was created in another 2 days adding up to 4 days for the earth. And then creating the heaven then making it into 7 layers took 2 days, adding everything up to 6 days. 


As you can see, the critics rely on translation while we rely on the arabic grammar, let's look at what our scholars of tafsir says:



Al-Qurtubi said: “in four days” – this is like someone saying, “I set out from Basra to Baghdad in ten days and to Kufa in fifteen days, i.e., a total time of fifteen days.” 


  • al-Jaami’ li Ahkaam al-Qur’aan, vol. 15, p. 343 



Al-Baghawi said: “in four days” means the creation of what is in the earth. The measuring of the sustenance was on Tuesday and Wednesday, which along with Sunday and Monday add up to four days. This is like saying “I was married to a woman yesterday and today I am married to two” – one of whom is the woman whom he married the day before. 


  • Tafseer al-Baghawi, volume 7. Page 165 



To finish it off:


Al- Zajjaaj said: “in four days” means two days added to the previous two days. 


  • Al-Kashshaaf, vol. 3. p. 444



Conclusion: 


Perhaps the confusion which is mentioned in the question stems from this, i.e., from thinking that the four days are added to the two days in which the earth was created, equaling six, and then adding the two days in which the heavens were created (“Then He completed and finished from their creation (as) seven heavens in two Days”) – making a total of eight days, not six days. But this confusion can be dispelled by dealing with this mistaken notion.



So the earth was created in two days, and the mountains were created and the sustenance measured in two more days which makes a total of four, i.e., this took the other two days. Then the creation of the seven heavens took two days. So the total is six days of the Days of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted.




Other arguments related to this topic:


There is a hadith in sahih muslim that supposedly ( according to critics ) that the  earth was made in 7 days instead of 6:


“Abu Huraira reported that Allah's Messenger (mpbuh) 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 He caused animals to spread on Thursday and created Adam (pbuh) after 'Asr on Friday; the last creation at the last hour of the hours of Friday, ie. between afternoon and night.”



First of all Adam was made in earth, and has nothing to do with the earth, Adam was made in paradise years and years after the creations of the heavens and the earth. So saying the earth was made in 7 days because of this hadith makes no sense because Adam was made in the earth and has NOTHING to do with the creation of the earth. Adam was sent to earth after many many years after the creation of the earth. So this argument is clearly a strawman and has no foundation.  



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