Surah Ha-Meem As-Sajdah, Footnote No. 14

14. At this point, three matters need clarification:

First, that by “heaven” here is meant the entire universe, as is clear from the subsequent phrases. In other words, “turning attention to the heaven” means that Allah turned His attention to the creation of the universe.

Second, that by “smoke” is meant that initial state of matter in which, before the shaping of the universe, it was spread out in space like a shapeless, dispersed dust cloud. Present-day scientists express this very thing as a “nebula,” and their conception of the beginning of the universe is likewise that before creation, the matter from which the universe was formed was dispersed in this smoke-like or nebulous form.

Third, it is not correct to understand from “then He turned His attention to the heaven” that He first made the earth, then carried out the work of setting mountains firmly in it, placing blessings in it, and providing food supplies in it, and then, after finishing with that, turned His attention to the creation of the universe. This misunderstanding is removed by the sentence that follows: “He said to the heaven and the earth, ‘Come into being, willingly or unwillingly,’ and they said, ‘We come, obediently.’” This makes it clear that this verse and the verses that follow are speaking of a time when there was neither earth nor heaven, but rather the beginning of the creation of the universe was taking place. The mere word “thumma” (then) cannot be made the basis for the claim that the earth’s creation had already taken place before the heaven’s. There are numerous examples in the Qur’an showing that the word “thumma” is not necessarily used for chronological sequence, but is also used for sequence of narration/exposition (see Tafhim al-Qur’an, Vol. 4, Surah Az-Zumar, Footnote No. 12).

Among the earlier commentators, this debate continued for a long time as to whether, according to the Qur’an, the earth was made first or the heaven. One group argues from this verse and verse 29 of Surah Al-Baqarah that the earth was made first. The other group brings evidence from verses 27–33 of Surah An-Nazi’at that the heaven was made first, because there it is explicitly stated that the creation of the earth took place after the heaven. But the reality is that nowhere in the Qur’an is the creation of the universe mentioned in order to teach physics or astronomy; rather, while inviting people to believe in the doctrines of Tawhid and the Hereafter, the creation of the earth and heaven, like countless other signs, has been presented for reflection. For this purpose, it was entirely unnecessary to state the chronological order of the creation of the heaven and earth, or to specify whether the earth was made first or the heaven. Whichever of the two was made first, both are, in any case, witnesses to Allah’s being the One God, and testify to the fact that their Creator did not build this entire workshop as a plaything for some frivolous person. This is why the Qur’an sometimes mentions the creation of the earth first, and sometimes the creation of the heaven first. Where the purpose is to make man conscious of God’s favors, it generally mentions the earth first, because it is closer to man. And where the purpose is to convey a sense of God’s greatness and the perfection of His power, it generally mentions the heavens first, because the spectacle of the revolving heavens has always instilled awe in the human heart.

Surah Ha-Meem As-Sajdah, Footnote No. 15

15. In these words, Allah has described the manner of His method of creation in such a way that the difference between divine creation and human craftsmanship becomes completely clear. When a human being wants to make something, he first fixes its design in his mind, then gathers the material required for it, then makes continuous effort and struggle to shape that material according to his design, and during this effort, the material which he wants to mould into his mental design keeps continuously resisting him — until sometimes the resistance of the material succeeds and the thing does not come out properly according to the intended design, and sometimes the man’s effort prevails and he succeeds in giving it the shape he wanted. For example, a tailor wants to make a shirt. For this, he first brings the image of the shirt’s form to his mind, then, procuring cloth, he tries to cut and sew it according to his conception of the shirt, and during this effort he has to continuously contend with the cloth’s resistance, since it is not easily ready to be moulded to the tailor’s conception — until sometimes the cloth’s resistance prevails and the shirt does not come out properly, and sometimes the tailor’s effort prevails and he gives the cloth exactly the shape according to his conception.

Now observe Allah’s manner of creation. The matter of the universe was spread out in the form of smoke. Allah willed to give it the form that the universe now has. For this purpose, He did not have to sit down like a human craftsman and fashion the earth, the moon, the sun, and the other stars and planets; rather, He merely commanded that design of the universe which was in His mind to come into being — that is, He commanded the matter spread out like smoke to be moulded into the form of those galaxies, stars, and planets which He wished to create. This matter did not have the power to resist Allah’s command. Allah did not have to make any effort or exertion to mould it into the form of the universe. The command was given, and on the other side, that matter contracted and condensed, moulding itself obediently to its Master’s design, like obedient servants, until within 48 hours the entire universe, including the earth, was made ready.

This very characteristic of Allah’s method of creation has been described at several other places in the Qur’an in this way: that when Allah decides upon some matter, He simply commands it, “Be,” and it comes to be. (See Tafhim al-Qur’an, Vol. 1, pp. 105, 252, 259; Vol. 2, pp. 541–542; Vol. 3, p. 67; Vol. 4, Ya-Sin, verse 82; Al-Mu’min, verse 68.)

Surah Ha-Meem As-Sajdah, Footnote No. 16

16. To understand these verses, it will be useful to study the following places in Tafhim al-Qur’an: Vol. 1, p. 61; Vol. 2, pp. 441–442, 500–502; Vol. 3, pp. 155–157, 248, 270; Vol. 4, Ya-Sin, Footnote No. 37; As-Saffat, Footnotes No. 5–6.