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The story of The Creation of the Heavens and the Earth and What Is Between Them in the Quran and the Islamic tradition: verses, hadiths and the views of the exegetes, faithfully translated from Arabic.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 2:33 AM
Praise be to Allah who created the heavens and the earth and made the darknesses and the light, yet those who disbelieve in their Lord equate others with Him. Your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days: the text occurs in more than one place in the Quran. The majority of scholars hold that they are days like ours. And from Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and ad-Dahhak: each of those days is like a thousand years of your counting. Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim related them, and the imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal chose this view in his book in which he refuted the Jahmiyya, as did Ibn Jarir and a group of later scholars: and Allah knows best. What confirms this view will come.
Ibn Jarir related, from ad-Dahhak ibn Mouzahim: abjad, hawwaz, hutti, kalamoun, sa'fas, qarachet. And he related from Muhammad ibn Ishaq that he said: the people of the Torah say that Allah began the creation on Sunday. Allah began the creation on Monday. And we, the Muslims, say, according to what reached us from the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), that Allah began the creation on Saturday.
And this view that Ibn Ishaq related from the Muslims is favored by a group of jurists, of the Shafi'ites and others. There will come in its regard the hadith of Abu Hurayra: Allah created the dust on Saturday. The view that it was Sunday was related by Ibn Jarir, from as-Souddi, from Abu Malik and Abu Salih, from Ibn Abbas, and from Murra, from Ibn Mas'ud, and from a group of Companions. He also related it from Abdallah ibn Salam, and Ibn Jarir chose it.
It is the text of the Torah, and other jurists also favored it, and it is closest to the word « al-Ahad » (Sunday): that is why the creation was completed in six days, the last of which was Friday; so the Muslims took it as their festival of the week, and it is the day from which Allah led the People of the Book before us astray, as its clarification will come, if Allah wills.
« 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 of all things Knowing. »
Surat al-Baqara, 29
« Say: do you indeed disbelieve in He who created the earth in two days, and do you attribute to Him equals? That is the Lord of the worlds. And He placed firm mountains above it, blessed it and determined in it its sustenance in four days, alike for the seekers. 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. And He decreed from them seven heavens in two days, and revealed to each heaven its command. And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as protection: that is the determination of the Mighty, the Knowing. »
Surat Fussilat, 9-12
« Allah is He who made for you the earth a place of settlement and the sky a structure, and formed you and made excellent your forms, and provided you with the good things: that is Allah, your Lord. Then blessed is Allah, Lord of the worlds. »
Surat Ghafir, 64
« Have We not made the earth a resting place, and the mountains as stakes? And We built above you seven strong ones, and made a blazing lamp. »
Surat an-Naba, 6-13
« Have those who disbelieved not seen that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them, and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe? »
Surat al-Anbiya, 30
That is: We separated what was between the heaven and the earth, until the winds blew, the rains descended, the springs and rivers ran, and the animal revived.
« And We made the sky a protected ceiling, and they turn away from its signs. »
Surat al-Anbiya, 32
That is, from what was created in it of fixed and wandering stars, resplendent stars, luminous bodies, and the indications in that of the wisdom of the Creator of the earth and the heavens: « And how many a sign within the heavens and the earth do they pass over while they turn away from it » (Yousouf, 105) « And most of them do not believe in Allah except while associating others with Him » (Yousouf, 106) « Are you a more difficult creation or is the heaven? He constructed it. He raised its ceiling and proportioned it. And He darkened its night and extracted its brightness. And after that the earth He spread out. He extracted from it its water and its pasture, and the mountains He set firmly, as enjoyment for you and your grazing livestock » (an-Naziat, 27-33).
Some people therefore relied upon this verse for the priority of the creation of the heaven over the earth, thus contradicting the plain meaning of the two preceding verses, without understanding this noble verse. What this verse requires is that the spreading of the earth, and the extraction of its water and pasture, took place, in deed, after the creation of the heaven: « And He blessed it and determined in it its sustenance in four days », that is: He prepared the places of cultivation and the sites of the springs and rivers. Then, when He completed the creation of the form of the lower and upper world, He spread out the earth and brought out from it what had been deposited in it: the springs gushed, the rivers ran, the crops and fruits grew; that is why the spreading was explained as the extraction of the water and the pasture from it, and the anchoring of the mountains: « And after that the earth He spread out, He extracted from it its water and its pasture.
» His saying: « and the mountains He set firmly » means He stabilized them in the places where He had placed them, fixed them, consolidated them and settled them. And His saying: « And the heaven We built with strength, and indeed We are expanding, and the earth We spread out, and excellent are the spreaders, and of all things We created two mates: that you may remember » (adh-Dhariyat, 47-49): with strength; and « indeed We are expanding »: everything above expands: each heaven higher than the one beneath it is more spacious than it; that is why the Kursi is higher than the heavens, and it is more spacious than all of them; and the Throne is greater than all of that, by far. And His saying after that: « and the earth We spread out » means: We extended it and made it a cradle, that is, a settled mass, without agitation and without convulsion under you: and excellent are the spreaders. And the conjunction does not require sequence in occurrence: it only requires absolute report, in language: and Allah knows best.
'Oumar ibn Hafs ibn Ghiyath narrated to me: my father narrated to me: al-A'mach narrated to me: Jami' ibn Chaddad narrated to me: I entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) with my she-camel tied at the door, and some people of Bani Tamim came to him. They said: you have given us good news, give us twice over. He said: we have accepted, O messenger of Allah: we came to ask you about this matter. He called a crier: your she-camel has gone, O Ibn al-Houssayn. I went out, and the mirage was cutting it off from view. By Allah, I wished I had left her. Thus was it related here, and it was related also in the Book of Expeditions and the Book of Tawhid, and in some of its wordings: then He created the heavens and the earth. And that is also the wording of an-Nasaï.
Hajjaj narrated to me: Ibn Jurayj informed me: Isma'il ibn Oumayya informed me, from Ayyoub ibn Khalid, from Abdallah ibn Rafi', client of Umm Salama: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took my hand and said: Allah created the dust on Saturday, the mountains on it on Sunday, the trees on it on Monday, the abhorred on Tuesday, the light on Wednesday, He scattered the beasts in it on Thursday, and created Adam after the asr on Friday, the last of the creation, in the last hour of the hours of Friday, between the asr and the night. And thus Muslim related it, by the route of Surayj ibn Yunus, and Haroun ibn Abdallah, and an-Nasaï by the route of Haroun and Youssouf ibn Saïd: all three, from Hajjaj ibn Muhammad al-Mississi al-A'war, from Ibn Jurayj, the same.
An-Nasaï also related it in the Tafsir, by the route of Ibrahim ibn Ya'qoub al-Jouzajani, from Muhammad ibn as-Sabbah, from Abu Ubayda al-Haddad, from al-Akhdar ibn 'Ajlan, from Ibn Jurayj, from 'Ata' ibn Abi Rabah, that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took my hand and said: O Abu Hurayra, Allah created the heavens and the earths and what is between them in six days, then established Himself upon the Throne on the seventh day, and created the dust on Saturday. And he mentioned its entirety in like manner. There was divergence against Ibn Jurayj, and Ali ibn al-Madini, al-Bukhari, al-Bayhaqi and other hafiz scholars criticized this hadith. Al-Bukhari said in the History, and some said: from Ka'b, and that is more correct, meaning that this hadith is of what Abu Hurayra heard and received from Ka'b al-Ahbar: for the two used to keep company and sit together for hadith: this one narrates to him from his scrolls, and this one narrates to him what confirms it from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
This hadith was therefore of what Abu Hurayra received from Ka'b, from his scrolls, and some transmitters erred and made it attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Then in its text there is very great strangeness, among which: it does not mention the creation of the heavens, but mentions the creation of the earth and what is in it in seven days: and this contradicts the Quran, for the earth was created in four days, then the heavens were created in two days of smoke: and the smoke is the vapor of the water that rose when the great water was agitated, from the foam of which Allah created the earth with the great, penetrating power, as Isma'il ibn Abd ar-Rahman as-Souddi al-Kabir said in the report he related from Abu Malik and Abu Salih, from Ibn Abbas, and from Murra al-Hamdani, from Ibn Mas'ud.
Regarding His saying: « 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 »: the Throne of Allah was upon the water, and He had created nothing of what He created before the water. When He willed to create the creation, He brought out from the water smoke that rose above the water and He named it s-sama (the heaven); then He dried the water and made it one land, on Sunday and Monday; and He created the earth upon a fish, and it is the Noun: « Noun. By the pen and what they inscribe » (al-Qalam, 1). And the fish is in the water, and the water upon a layer, and the layer upon the back of an angel, and the angel upon a rock, and the rock in the wind: and it is the rock mentioned by Luqman, which is neither in the heaven nor on the earth.
The fish moved, the water was agitated and the earth shook: He anchored the mountains upon it, and it settled. And Allah created on Tuesday the mountains and the benefits in them, and created on Wednesday the trees, the water, the cities, prosperity and ruin, (Thursday and Friday). And it was only named Friday because He gathered in it the creation of the heavens and the earth. « And He revealed to each heaven its command »: He created in each heaven its creation of angels, seas, mountains of hail, and what none knows but He; then He adorned the heaven with stars, making it an adornment and a protection guarding against the devils; and when He finished creating what He loved, He established Himself upon the Throne.
And with this isnad as-Souddi mentions many strange things, much of which was received from the isra'iliyyat: for Ka'b al-Ahbar, when he embraced Islam in the time of 'Oumar, used to relate before 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) things from the sciences of the People of the Book, and 'Oumar would listen to him to please him and wonder at what he had, much of which agreed with the truth brought by the pure law: many people therefore permitted transmitting what Ka'b al-Ahbar relates, for that meaning. Then the permission came for relating from the Children of Israel: but much error falls into what he relates.
Al-Bukhari related in his Sahih, from Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan: « but we will be, despite that, tested with lying »: that is, in what he transmits, not that he does it deliberately: and Allah knows best.
And we relate what we relate of that which many of the great early imams relate from him, then we follow those hadiths with what attests its authenticity or denies it, and what remains of what is neither confirmed nor denied remains: to Allah is help sought, and upon Him reliance.
Qutayba narrated to me: Moughira ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Qurachi narrated to me, from Abu az-Zinad, from al-A'raj: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: when Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His Book, which is with Him above the Throne: « My mercy prevails over My wrath. » And thus Muslim and an-Nasaï related it, by the route of Qutayba.
Chapter of what has come concerning the seven earths: « Allah is He who created seven heavens, and of the earth, the like of them: the command descends among them, that you may know that Allah is over all things competent, and that Allah has encompassed all things in knowledge » (at-Talaq, 12).
Ali ibn Abdallah narrated to us: Ibn 'Ulayya informed us, from Ali ibn al-Moubarak: Yahya ibn Abi Kathir narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Harith, from Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman, while he had with some people a dispute over a land: « O Abu Salama, beware of the land, for the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: whoever is unjust by a span will have it as a collar from among the seven earths. » He also related it in the Book of Injustices, and Muslim by routes, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir. Ahmad related it from the hadith of Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, from Abu Salama. Ahmad also related it from Yunus, from Aban, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from Abu Salama, from Aïsha, the same.
Bichr ibn Muhammad narrated to us: Abdallah informed us, from Moussa ibn 'Oqba, from Salim: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Whoever takes anything of the earth without its right will be sunk with it into it on the Day of Resurrection, down to the seven earths. » He also related it in the Book of Injustices, from Muslim ibn Ibrahim, who is Abdallah ibn al-Moubarak, from Moussa ibn 'Oqba: and he is its sole transmitter.
Al-Bukhari cited here the hadith of Muhammad ibn Sirin, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Time has come round as it was the day Allah created the heavens and the earth: the year is twelve months. » Its meaning, and Allah knows best, is: « Allah is He who created seven heavens, and of the earth, the like of them »: that is, in number, just as the number of months today, twelve, corresponds to the number of months with Allah in His first Book: this is a correspondence in time as that is a correspondence in place.
'Ubayd ibn Isma'il narrated to us: Abu Usama narrated to us, from Hicham, from his father: he was accused of curtailing a right, and she claimed he had curtailed it for her to Marwan. He said: « Saïd! I, curtail one of her rights? I testify that I heard the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: whoever takes a span of land unjustly, a collar of it from among the seven earths will be placed around his neck on the Day of Resurrection. »
Hassan and Abu Sa'id, client of Bani Hashim, narrated to us: Abdallah ibn Lahi'a narrated to us: 'Ubaydallah ibn Abi Ja'far narrated to us, from Abu Abd ar-Rahman: I said: O messenger of Allah, which injustice is greatest? A span of land for which a man curtails the right of his Muslim brother: there is no pebble of the earth that one takes but it will be placed around his neck on the Day of Resurrection down to the bottom of the earth, and none knows its bottom but He who created it. Ahmad alone extracted it, and it is an isnad without fault.
'Affan narrated to us: Wouhayb narrated to us: Souhayl narrated to us, from his father: « Whoever takes a span of the earth without its right will have it as a collar from among the seven earths. » He is alone in it by this route, and it is according to the criterion of Muslim. Yahya narrated to us, from Ibn 'Ajlan: my father narrated to me: « Whoever cuts off a span of the earth without its right will have it as a collar down to the seven earths. » He is alone in it too, according to the criterion of Muslim.
'Affan narrated to us: Abu 'Awana narrated to us, from 'Oumar ibn Abi Salama, from his father: « Whoever takes from the earth a span without its right will have it as a collar from among the seven earths. » He is alone in it too. At-Tabarani related it from the hadith of Mou'awiya ibn Qourra, from Ibn Abbas, raised to the Prophet, the same.
These hadiths are almost mutawatir in affirming the seven earths, and the meaning of that is that each of them is above the other, and the one beneath it, in its center, according to the cosmographers, until the matter reaches the seventh, which is solid, with no hollow; and in its center is the center, which is an imagined, conceived point: it is the resting place of weights, toward which what descends from every side descends when no hindrance stops it. They differed: are they stacked with no spaces between them, or is there between each one and the one following it a void? Two views: and this disagreement applies to the celestial spheres too. « Allah is He who created seven heavens, and of the earth, the like of them: the command descends among them. »
Surayj narrated to us: al-Hakam ibn Abd al-Malik narrated to us, from Qatada, from al-Hasan: while we were with the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), a cloud passed: « Do you know what this is? » « Allah and His messenger know. » « The clouds and the corners of the earth which Allah drives to those of His servants who do not thank Him and do not call upon Him. Do you know what is above you?
» « Allah and His messenger know. » He said: « the Raqî': a restrained wave and a protected roof. Do you know how much is between you and it? » « Allah and His messenger know.
» « A journey of five hundred years. Do you know what is above it? » « Allah and His messenger know. » « A journey of five hundred years », until he counted seven heavens.
« Do you know what is above that? » « Allah and His messenger know. » « The Throne. Do you know how much is between it and the seventh heaven?
» « Allah and His messenger know. » « A journey of five hundred years. Do you know what is beneath you? » « Allah and His messenger know.
» « An earth. Do you know what is beneath it? » « Allah and His messenger know. » « Another earth.
Do you know how much is between them? » « Allah and His messenger know. » « A journey of seven hundred years », until he counted seven earths. « And by Allah, were you to point out the way to the lowest seventh earth to one of you, he would descend to it.
» Then he recited: « He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is of all things Knowing » (al-Hadid, 3). At-Tirmidhi related it, by the route of Abd ibn Humayd and others, from Yunus ibn Muhammad al-Mou'addib, from Chayban ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Qatada: al-Hasan narrated from Abu Hurayra, and mentioned it, except that he mentioned the distance between each earth as five hundred years, and mentioned at the end a word we cited in the commentary of this verse of sura al-Hadid: this hadith is strange from this standpoint. It is related from Ayyoub and Yunus ibn Ubayd: al-Hasan did not hear from Abu Hurayra. Abu Muhammad Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim related it in his Tafsir from the hadith of Abi Ja'far ar-Razi, from Qatada, from al-Hasan, from Abu Hurayra: he mentioned it as Tirmidhi's wording, without the addition at the end.
Ibn Jarir related it in his Tafsir from Bichr, from Yazid, from Sa'id ibn Abi 'Arouba, from Qatada, without a complete chain: and this latter is perhaps more probable: and Allah knows best.
The two hafiz scholars Abu Bakr al-Bazzar and al-Bayhaqi related it from the hadith of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), in like manner: but its isnad is not sound: and Allah knows best.
And what has already come, in the description of the Throne, from the hadith of the Aoual, contains what contradicts this in the elevation of the Throne above the seventh heaven, and what attests to it.
As for the view of some theologians on the hadith, that they are seven climes: it is a view that contradicts the apparent meaning of the verse, the authentic hadith, and the plain wording of many of its texts, in addition to what we mentioned of the hadith we cited by the route of al-Hasan, from Abu Hurayra. Then he interpreted the hadith and the verse contrary to their apparent meaning, without any foundation or proof: and Allah knows best.
And likewise what many of the People of the Book mention, which a group of our scholars received from them: that this earth is of dust, the one beneath it of iron, the next of stones of sulphur, the next of such and such: all of that, when no one reports it and its chain to an infallible one is not sound, is rejected back upon its author. « In each earth of the creation is what is in this earth, down to an Adam like your Adam, and an Ibrahim like your Ibrahim. » Ibn Jarir mentioned it briefly, and al-Bayhaqi detailed it in Names and Attributes: it is to be understood, if his transmission of it is sound, as Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) having taken it from the isra'iliyyat: and Allah knows best.
Yazid narrated to us: al-'Awwam ibn Hawchab narrated to us, from Sulayman ibn Abi Sulayman, from Anas ibn Malik: when Allah created the earth, it began to sway: so He created the mountains and cast them upon it, and it settled. The angels wondered at the creation of the mountains: « O Lord, is there anything of Your creation harder than the mountains? » « Yes: iron. » « O Lord, is there anything of Your creation harder than iron? » « Yes: fire. » « O Lord, is there anything of Your creation harder than fire? » « Yes: water. » « O Lord, is there anything of Your creation harder than water? » « Yes: the wind. » « O Lord, is there anything of Your creation harder than the wind? » « Yes: the son of Adam, who gives charity with his right hand and conceals it from his left. » Ahmad alone extracted it.
The scholars of astronomy mentioned the number of the mountains of the earth in all its quarters, east and west, and mentioned their lengths, the extent of their stretching, their heights, and spoke at length on that, to the point that its exposition would be long here. Among the mountains are roads, white and red, of differing colors, and black lofty mountains: « And you see the mountains, thinking them still, while they pass as clouds: the work of Allah, who perfected all things. Indeed He is Acquainted with what you do. » « The roads »: the ways.
« The black lofty mountains »: the tall black mountains: and this is what is seen of the mountains in all the earth, varying as its quarters and colors vary. Allah the Most High mentioned in His Book the Djoudi by name: it is a great mountain east of the island of Ibn 'Oumar, on the side of the Tigris, near Mossoul: it stretches from south to north a journey of three days, and its height is half a day's journey, and it is verdant, for it bears oak trees: and on its side is a village called the village of the eighty, after the inhabitants of those who were saved in the ark with Nuh (peace be upon him) at its site: thus more than one exegete mentioned it: and Allah knows best. And the Most High mentioned Mount Sinai.
The hafiz al-Baha' Ibn Asakir mentioned in his book, in the biography of the sacred mountains, by the route of 'Amr ibn Bakr, from Thawr ibn Yazid, from Khalid ibn Ma'dan: Our Lord (may His glory be exalted) swore by four mountains when He said: « By the fig and the olive, and Mount Sinai, and this secure city » (at-Tin, 1-3). The fig: it is the Sinai of our Lord: the mosque of Bayt al-Maqdis; and the olive: the Sinai of our Lord and this secure city: the mountain of Mecca. The fig is a mountain upon which is Damascus, and the olive a mountain upon which is Bayt al-Maqdis. And the hafiz Ibn Asakir related: « Four mountains on the Day of Resurrection: the mountain of the Khalil, that of Lebanon, the Tour and the Djoudi: each of them will be on the Day of Resurrection a white pearl shining between the heaven and the earth; they will return to Bayt al-Maqdis until they are placed at its corners as light, and He will set His throne upon them until He judges between the people of Paradise and the Fire. »
« And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne, exalting the praise of their Lord. And it will be judged between them in truth, and it will be said: praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds. »
Surat az-Zoumar, 75
And by the route of al-Walid ibn Muslim: 'Uthman ibn Abi 'Atika transmitted, from Ali ibn Yazid: Allah revealed to the mountain Qasyoun: « Give your shade and your blessing to the mountain of Bayt al-Maqdis. » It did so. « Since you have done so, I will build for Myself a house in your bosom. » Abd ar-Rahman said: al-Walid said: « in your bosom »: that is, in its midst: and it is this mosque: the mosque of Damascus: « I will be worshipped in it for forty years after the ruin of the world, and the days and nights will not pass but that I return to you your shade and your blessing. » It is therefore, with Allah, like the weak believer who draws pity. And Khalil (peace be upon him) said: Safiyya, wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), came to the edge of Bayt al-Maqdis and prayed there, then climbed the Sinai of our Lord and prayed there: it is from there that the people will separate on the Day of Resurrection to Paradise and to the Fire.
« And it is He who subjected the sea for you to eat from it tender flesh, and extract from it ornaments which you wear, and you see the ships plowing through it, and that you may seek of His bounty, and perhaps you will be grateful. And He cast into the earth firm mountains, lest it shift with you, and rivers and roads, that you may be guided. And landmarks. And by the star they are guided.
Then is He who creates like the one who does not create? Will you not be reminded? And if you tried to count the favors of Allah, you could not enumerate them: Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. »
Surat an-Nahl, 14-18
« And the two seas are not alike: this one is sweet, fresh, pleasant to drink, and that one is salty, bitter: and from each you eat tender flesh, and extract ornaments which you wear, and you see the ships plowing through it, that you may seek of His bounty, and perhaps you will be grateful. »
Surat Fatir, 12
« And it is He who released the two seas: this one sweet, fresh, and that one salty, bitter. And He placed between them a barrier and a forbidding partition. »
Surat al-Fourqan, 53
« He released the two seas »: they meet, and between them a barrier: they do not mingle. « The salty, bitter sea »: and that is the bitter one; and the fresh sea: these are these rivers flowing between the lands for the welfare of the servants: thus said Ibn Jurayj and more than one imam. « And of His signs are the ships upon the sea like mountains » (ach-Choura, 32): « If He wills, He stills the wind, and they remain motionless on its back: indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful. Or He breaks them for what they earned?
And He pardons much. » « Do you not see that the ships sail through the sea by the favor of Allah, that He may show you of His signs? Indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful. And when a wave like canopies covers them, they call upon Allah, sincere to Him in religion; but when He saves them to the land, some of them moderate: and none denies Our signs except every treacherous ingrate.
» « In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, and the ships that sail through the sea with what benefits the people, and what Allah sent down from the sky of water by which He gave life to the earth after its death, and dispersed therein every creature, and the directing of the winds, and the clouds controlled between the heaven and the earth: are signs for a people who reason » (al-Baqara, 164).
The Most High therefore bestowed favor upon His servants with what He created for them of seas and rivers. The sea surrounds all the regions of the earth, and what gushes from it in all its quarters is salty to the taste, bitter: and in this is great wisdom for the health of the air: for were it sweet, the air would become foul and the air would corrupt, because of the great animals that die in it: that would lead to the annihilation of the children of Adam and the corruption of their means of livelihood. The penetrating wisdom therefore required that it be of this description, for this welfare. That is why, when the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked about the sea: « its water is purifying, its dead lawful »: « Two dead things and two bloods have been made lawful for us: the fish and the locust, the liver and the spleen. » Related by Ahmad and Ibn Majah: and its chain requires scrutiny.
As for the rivers: wisdom required that their water be sweet, fresh, flowing, pleasant for the drinkers, and He made them flowing, gushing: the Most High makes them spring in one land and conducts them to another, as provision for the servants: among them are great ones, and among them small ones, according to need and welfare.
The scholars of astronomy and geography have spoken of the enumeration of the seas and the great rivers, the origin of their sources, and where their course ends, with words containing wisdoms, and indications of the power of the Creator Most High, and that He acts by choice and by wisdom. As for « the sealed sea » (al-Kahf, 61), what is meant by it is the sea beneath the Throne mentioned in the hadith of the Aoual, which is above the seven heavens, between its lowest and its highest as between one heaven and another: it is the one from which rain descends before the resurrection, and the bodies are revived by it from their graves: and this is the view chosen by ar-Rabi' ibn Anas; « al-bahr » is a generic name encompassing all the seas that are in the earth: and that is the view of the majority.
« Al-mamlou' » (the filled): it will become on the Day of Resurrection a fire blazing up and surrounding the people of the place of standing, as we mentioned in the Tafsir from Ali ibn Abi Talib, Ibn Abbas, Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Mujahid and others. « Al-mamnou' »: the restrained, held back, protected from overflowing so as to drown the earth and whoever is upon it, so they drown. Al-Walibi related it from Ibn Abbas: and it is the view of as-Souddi and others. Yazid narrated to us: al-'Awwam narrated to us: I met Abu Salih, client of 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab, who said: 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab narrated to us: there is no night but that during it the sea rises three times, asking Allah (exalted is He) permission to surge over them: and Allah restrains it.
Ishaq ibn Rahawayh related it, from Yazid ibn Haroun: I went out one night for the guard duty, and no one of the guard had gone out but me: I came to the port and climbed, and it kept seeming to me that the sea was rising to the height of the tops of the mountains: and that happened repeatedly while I was awake. I met Abu Salih, who said: 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab narrated to us that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: there is no night but that the sea rises three times, asking Allah permission to surge over them: and Allah restrains it. In its chain there is an unknown man: and Allah knows best.
And this is among His graces upon His servants: He restrained the evil of the sea from overflowing upon them, and subjected it for them: it carries their ships so they reach by it the distant lands for trade and other, and He guided them in it by what He created in the sky and the earth of stars, and the mountains He made for them as landmarks by which they are guided in their travel, and by what He created for them in it of ornament they wear: the pearls and precious stones, rare, beautiful and precious, found only in it, and by what He created in it of strange creatures: « Lawful to you is the hunt of the sea and its food. » « Its water is purifying, its dead lawful. » Two dead things and two bloods have been made lawful to us: the fish and the locust, the liver and the spleen. Related by Ahmad and Ibn Majah: and its chain requires scrutiny.
I found in my book, from Muhammad ibn Mou'awiya al-Baghdadi: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abdallah ibn 'Oumar narrated to us, from Souhayl ibn Abi Salih, from his father: Allah (exalted is He) spoke to this western sea: « I carry in you servants of My servants: what will you do with them? » « I will drown them. » « Your might is in your waves. » And He forbade it ornament and hunt: « I carry in you servants of My servants: what will you do with them? » « I will carry them upon my palm and be to them like a mother to her child. » He repaid it therefore ornament and hunt. We know no one who related it from Souhayl except Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abdallah ibn 'Oumar: and it is a rejected hadith. And Souhayl also related it from an-Nou'man ibn Abi 'Ayach, who is nothing: I heard it from him, then I tore up his hadith: he was a liar, and his hadiths are rejects. And it was weakened by Ibn Ma'in, Abu Zur'a, Abu Hatim, al-Jouzajani, al-Bukhari, Abu Dawud and an-Nasaï: and Ibn 'Adi said: most of his hadiths are rejects, and the most outrageous of them is the hadith of the sea.
The scholars of geography, the theologians of the climes, the longitudes, the seas, the rivers, the mountains, the surfaces, what the earth contains of cities, ruins and settlements, the seven true climes in their terminology, the multiple customary climes, and what the lands and climes contain of particularities and plants, said: the earth is submerged by the great water except for the measure of a quarter of it, which is ninety degrees: and the divine providence required the withdrawal of the water from that measure of it, that the animals may live upon it, and crops grow: « And He laid the earth for the creatures: in it fruits, and the palm tree with sheaths, and the grain with husks, and the aromatic plant. Which of the favors of your Lord do you both deny? » (ar-Rahman, 10-13). « The inhabited » part of this desert is close to two-thirds of it, or a little more: and it is sixty-five degrees.
They said: the western encircling sea, called the Ocean, borders the lands of the Maghreb: in it are the inhabited islands, and between it and its shore are ten degrees: about a month's journey: and it is a sea that cannot be traveled, nor sailed, because of its great agitation and turbidity and the winds in it, and the waves: there is no hunting in it, nothing is extracted from it, and no one travels in it for trade or otherwise: it extends on the southern side until it stops at the Mountains of the Moon, also called the Mountains of the Moon, from which is the origin of the source of the Nile of Egypt, and it crosses the line of the equator, then extends east and becomes the southern side of the earth: in it there are the islands of the Zanj: and on its shores much ruin; then it extends east and north until it joins the sea of China and of India, then extends east until it stops at the easternmost exposed end of the earth: there are the lands of China:
then it curves east of China toward the north until it passes the lands of China and stops at the barrier of Gog and Magog, then it curves and comes around over lands of unknown condition, then extends westward in the north of the earth, stops at the lands of the Rous and passes them, curves west and south, comes around over the earth and returns toward the direction of the west, and gushes from the western one toward the flank of the earth a narrow channel whose farthest end reaches the confines of Cham on the west, then it goes through the lands of the Romans until it joins Constantinople and their other lands.
From the eastern ocean arise other seas, in which are many islands: to the point that it is said there are in the sea of India a thousand islands, and seven hundred islands containing cities and settlements, besides the abandoned islands: « The Green Sea »: to its east the sea of China, to its west the sea of the Yemen, to its north the sea of India, and to its south an unknown region.
They mentioned that between the sea of India and the sea of China there are mountains separating the two, and in them channels through which the ships pass: He who created them conducts them for them, as He made the like of them on land too: « And We placed firm mountains upon the earth, lest it shift with them, and We made therein passes: roads, that they might be guided » (al-Anbiya, 31).
And Ptolemy, one of the kings of India, mentioned it in his book called the Almagest, which was translated into Arabic in the time of al-Ma'moun, and which is the origin of these sciences: the seas gushing from the western ocean, the eastern, the southern and the northern are very numerous: some are a single sea, but named after the adjacent lands: among that the sea of Qoulzoum, and Qoulzoum is a village on its shore, near Ayla; the sea of Persia, the sea of the Khazars, the sea of Warank, the sea of the Romans, the sea of Bantiach, the Blue Sea: a city on its shore: and it is also the sea of the Crimea, which narrows until it pours into the sea of the Romans south of Constantinople: it is the gulf of Constantinople: that is why the ships go quickly in their course from the Crimea to the sea of the Romans, and slow down when they come from Alexandria to the Crimea, meeting the current of the water: and this is among the wonders of the world: every flowing water is sweet except this one, and every still sea is salty and bitter except what is mentioned of the sea of the Khazars, which is the sea of Jourjan, and the sea of Tabaristan: in them is a great portion of sweet, fresh water, according to what the travelers reported.
And it is a sea rounded of shape toward the length, or not: it is triangular like a heap, and it is not connected to anything of the encircling sea, but is isolated alone: its length is eight hundred miles, and its width six hundred, more than that perhaps: and Allah knows best.
Among that is the sea from which the tide and the ebb come at Bassora, and in the land of the Maghreb there is its counterpart too: the water grows from the beginning of the month, and keeps increasing until the fourteenth night of it: that is the tide; then it begins to decrease: that is the ebb, until the end of the month.
They mentioned the delimitation of these seas, their beginning and their end, and mentioned what the earth contains of lakes gathered from the rivers and other currents: those are the marshes. And mentioned what the earth contains of famous, great rivers, and mentioned their beginning and their end. We are not at the point of expanding on that and elaborating: we speak only of what concerns the rivers mentioned in the hadith.
« Allah is He who created the heavens and the earth and sent down from the sky water, by which He brought forth fruits as provision for you. And He subjected for you the ships that they may sail through the sea by His command, and He subjected for you the rivers, and He subjected for you the sun and the moon, constant, and He subjected for you the night and the day, and He gave you of all you asked Him. And if you tried to count the favors of Allah, you could not enumerate them: indeed the man is most unjust, most ungrateful. »
Surat Ibrahim, 32-34
There is in the two Sahihs, by the route of Qatada, from Anas ibn Malik, that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when he mentioned the lote-tree of the boundary, said: « then there come out from its root two hidden rivers, and two manifest rivers: as for the hidden ones, they are in Paradise; as for the manifest ones, they are the Nile and the Euphrate. » And in a wording of al-Bukhari (may the mercy of Allah be upon him): « their source, or their shape »: that is, their source or their shape, according to their description and qualification: and there is in this world of what is in Paradise only the names. And in the Sahih of Muslim, from the hadith of Abdallah ibn 'Oumar, from Khoubayb ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Hafs ibn 'Asim: « Sayhan, Jayhan, the Euphrate and the Nile: all of them rivers of Paradise. »
Ibn Noumayr and Yazid narrated to us: Muhammad ibn 'Amr informed us, from Abu Salama: « Four rivers were made to gush from Paradise: the Euphrate, the Nile, Sayhan and Jayhan. » And it is an authentic isnad according to the criterion of Muslim. And it appears, and Allah knows best, that the meaning of this is that these rivers resemble the rivers of Paradise in their purity, sweetness and flowing, and are of the kind of those in these qualities and their like, as He said in the other hadith related by at-Tirmidhi, which he authenticated by the route of Sa'id ibn 'Amir, from Muhammad ibn 'Amr, from Abu Salama: « the ajwa is from Paradise, and in it is a cure for poisons »: that is, it resembles the fruit of Paradise, not that it is picked from Paradise: for the senses testify to the contrary, and it becomes certain the meaning is other. « Fever comes from the breath of Hell: so cool it with water. » The intensity of the heat is from the breath of Hell: and likewise these rivers: the origin of their source is seen on the earth.
As for the Nile: it is the river to which none of the rivers of the world resembles it in its lightness, its softness, the length of its course from its beginning to its end. Its beginning comes from the Mountains of the Moon, so named by reference to the star: they are in the west of the earth, behind the line of the equator, on the southern side. They are red: springs gush from between them, then they gather from ten distant watercourses, then each five of them gather into a sea, then six rivers come out of it, then all of them gather into another lake, then a single river comes out of it: it is the Nile.
It passes over the lands of the Sudanese in Abyssinia, then over Nubia and its great city Dongola, then over Assouan, then comes toward the lands of Egypt: it carried from the lands of Abyssinia the excess of its rains and swept off its soil, and Egypt needs both: for its rain is scarce, insufficient for its crops and its trees, and its soil is sands that grow nothing until the Nile comes with its flood and its silt: then grow in it what they need: « Have they not seen that We drive the water to a barren land and bring forth thereby crops of which their livestock and themselves eat? Will they not then see? » (as-Sajda, 27).
Then the Nile passes a little beyond Egypt and divides into two branches near a village on its bank called Chatanouf: the western one passes Rachid and pours into the salty sea; as for the eastern one, it also divides near Djoujar into two branches: the western of them passes Damietta west of it and pours into the sea, and the eastern passes Achmoun Tannah and pours there into a lake east of Damietta called the lake of Tinnis, the lake of Damietta. The Nile has peculiarities below the waters of the rest of the earth: among them, that it is the farthest of them in distance from its course to its farthest end; among them, that it flows over rocks and sands in which there is no fissure, no algae, no mud; among them, that no stone nor pebble turns green in it: and that is because of the soundness of its temperament, its sweetness and its fineness; among them, that its flood comes in the days of the decrease of the other rivers, and its decrease in the days of their flood and abundance.
As for what some mention: that the source of the Nile comes from a raised place which some people climbed and saw there a great horror, beautiful slave girls and strange things, and that whoever climbs there cannot speak afterward: that is from the fables of the historians and the lies of the fabulists.
When Egypt was conquered, its people came to 'Amr ibn al-'As when the month of Baouna of the Persian months of the Copts entered, and said: O commander, our Nile has a custom without which it does not flow. And what is that? They said: when twelve nights of this month have passed, we seek a virgin girl with her parents, secure her parents' consent, adorn her with the finest jewelry and clothes, then cast her into this Nile. « That does not happen in Islam: and Islam demolishes what came before it.
» They stayed until Baouna, and the Nile did not flow, neither little nor much: and in one report: they stayed through Baouna, Abib and Misra, and it did not flow, until they resolved to leave. 'Amr wrote therefore to 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab about that, and 'Oumar wrote to him: you have done well by what you did, and I have sent you within this letter of mine a tablet: throw it into the Nile. « From the servant of Allah 'Oumar, commander of the believers, to the Nile of Egypt. Now then: if you flow only of yourself, then do not flow; and if it is Allah, the One, the Subduer, who makes you flow, we ask Allah to make you flow.
» 'Amr therefore threw the tablet into the Nile: it was the day of Saturday, and Allah had made the Nile flow sixteen spans in a single night: and Allah cut off that custom from the people of Egypt to this day.
As for the Euphrate: its source comes from the north of Arzan of the lands of the Romans: it passes toward Qorb of Malatiya, then passes Samosate, then the southern part of Ilibira, then turns east to Balis and the fortress of Ja'bar, then to ar-Raqqa, then to the northern side of ar-Rahba, then to 'Ana, then to Hit, then to Koufa, then goes out to the plains of Iraq, pours into great marshes: lakes: and returns to them, and out of them come great known rivers that pour at Bassora.
As for Sayhan, also called Sayhoun: its beginning is from the lands of the Romans: it flows from the north and west toward the south and east: it is west of the course of the Jayhan, smaller than it in volume, and it is in the land of the Armenians known today as the lands of Sis: and they were at the beginning of the Islamic state in the hands of the Muslims: then when the Fatimids overcame the lands of Egypt and possessed Cham and its districts, they were unable to guard it from the enemy: Nicéphore the Armenian overcame these lands: I mean the lands of Sis: around the year three hundred, until our day: and Allah is asked to return it to us by His power and strength. Then Sayhan and Jayhan join at 'Adana and become a single river, then pour into the sea of the Romans between Ayas and Tarsous.
As for Jayhan, also called Jayhoun, which the common people call Jahan: its source is in the lands of the Romans: it travels in the land of Sis from north to south, and it is comparable to the Euphrate in volume: then it and Sayhan join at 'Adana and become a single river, then pour into the sea at Ayas and Tarsous: and Allah knows best.
Chapter
« Allah is He who raised the heavens without pillars that you see, then established Himself upon the Throne, and subjected the sun and the moon, each running for a specified term. He manages the affair and details the signs, that you may be certain of the meeting of your Lord. And it is He who spread the earth and placed therein firm mountains and rivers, and of all the fruits He made therein two mates: He covers the night with the day. Indeed in that are signs for a people who reflect.
And upon the earth are tracts neighboring one another, and gardens of vines, and crops, and palm trees in clusters and not in clusters, watered with one water, and We make some of them excel others in taste: indeed in that are signs for a people who reason. »
Surat ar-Ra'd, 2-4
« He who created the heavens and the earth and sent down for you from the sky water, by which We caused gardens to grow of joy: it was not within your power to grow their trees. Is there a deity with Allah? No, but they are a people who equate others with Him. He who made the earth a firm abode and placed rivers in its midst, and placed for it firm mountains, and placed between the two seas a barrier.
Is there a deity with Allah? No, but most of them do not know. »
Surat an-Naml, 60-61
« It is He who sent down from the sky water for you: of it a drink, and of it trees in which you pasture. He causes to grow for you thereby the crops, the olive, the palm tree, the vines, and of all the fruits: indeed in that is a sign for a people who reflect. And He subjected for you the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, and the stars are subjected by His command: indeed in that are signs for a people who reason. And what He created for you upon the earth, of varied colors: indeed in that is a sign for a people who remember.
»
Surat an-Nahl, 10-13
The Most High therefore mentioned what He created upon the earth of mountains, trees, fruits, plains and deserts, and what He created of kinds of creatures, inanimate and animal, in the plains, the barren lands and the seas: indicating His greatness, His power, His wisdom and His mercy in His creation, and what He made easy for every creature of provision it needs in its night and its day, its summer and its winter: « And there is no creature on the earth but that upon Allah is its provision, and He knows its place of dwelling and place of storage: all is in a clear Book » (Hud, 6).
The hafiz Abu Ya'la related, from Muhammad ibn al-Mouthanna, from 'Ubayd ibn Waqid, from Muhammad ibn Issa ibn Kayssan, from Muhammad ibn al-Mounkadir, from Jabir: I heard the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: « Allah created a thousand communities: six hundred in the sea, and four hundred on the land. And the first of these communities to perish is the locust: when it perishes, they follow one another like the fringe when its thread is cut. » 'Ubayd ibn Waqid: Abu 'Ibad al-Basri: Abu Hatim weakened him. And Ibn 'Adi said: most of what he relates is not corroborated, and his sheikh is weaker than he: al-Fallas: a rejected hadith. And Abu Zur'a said: one should not narrate from him: and Ibn Hibban and ad-Daraqutni weakened him: and Ibn 'Adi rejected this hadith in particular, and others: and Allah knows best.
« And there is no creature on the earth, nor bird flying with its two wings, but that they are communities like you: We have neglected nothing in the Book: then to their Lord they will be gathered. »
Surat al-An'am, 38