(83): On the Place of the Throne of Allāh before the Creation of the Heavens
593. (1) Muhammad b. Maᶜmar b. Ribᶜī and Abū Ghassān Mālik b. Saᶜd al-Qaysiyyān → Rawḥ → al-Masᶜūdī → Abū Ṣakhrah Jāmiᶜ b. Shaddād → Ṣafwān b. Muḥriz → ᶜImrān b. Ḥuṣayn:
A group of people came to the Prophet. They began asking the Prophet for favours and continued making requests until he grew weary of them. Then they left him. Another group of people came to him and said, “We have come to greet the Prophet, understand the religion, and know about the beginning of the created world.” The Prophet said, “Receive glad tidings from Allah (bibushrā allāhi), (Ibn Maᶜmar used the words: bushrā allāhi, good news from Allah), for they (the first group) did not receive it.” He meant to refer to those who just left him. These people said, “We receive it, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet of Allah said, “There was only Allāh and nothing else. The Throne was on water. He wrote everything in the Book (al-dhikr). Then Allāh created the seven heavens.”
Then someone came to him (ᶜImrān) and said, “Your she-camel is gone.” So, I went away and could not see the she-camel because of the mirage. By Allah, I wished I had abandoned that she-camel.
594. (2) Muhammad b. Maᶜmar and Abū Ghassān → Rawḥ → al-Masᶜūdī → ᶜĀṣim b. Bahdalah → Zirr b. Ḥubaysh → ᶜAbd Allāh b. Masᶜūd:
There is a distance of five hundred years between the heaven and the earth. Each heaven has a thickness equal to a distance of five hundred years. Every two heavens are separated by a distance of five hundred years. The Throne and the water are separated by a distance of five hundred years.
Ibn Maᶜmar did not report the words, “Each heaven is five hundred years thick.” Nor did he report the words, “The Throne and water are separated by a distance of five hundred years.”
The Throne is placed on the Water. Allāh is on the Throne. Nothing of your affairs is hidden from Him.
595. (3) Aḥmad b. ᶜUthmān b. Ḥakīm al-Awdī → ᶜAmr b. Ḥammad b. Ṭalḥah al-Qannād → Asbāṭ b. Naṣr al-Hamdānī → al-Suddī → Abū Mālik → Abū Ṣāliḥ → Ibn ᶜAbbās
and also Murrah al-Hamdānī → Ibn Masᶜūd → some of the Companions:
“It is He Who hath created for you all things that are on earth; Moreover His design comprehended the heavens, for He gave order and perfection to the seven firmaments” (Q 2:28) He (the Prophet) said:
Allāh Almighty was on His Throne which was on the water. Then He had not created anything except what He had created before, that is water. When He decided to create all the creatures, He made smoke rise out of water. It rose higher and above the water. This He called the heavens (al-samāᵓ). Then He made the water dry up and made of it a single earth. Then He divided it into seven earths in two days, the first day and the second day. Then He created the earth on a fish which finds mention in the following verse of the holy Qurᵓān: “Nūn. By the Pen.” (Q 68:01) The fish was in the water, the water on the hill, the hill on the back of an angel, the angel on a rock, the rock in the air. It is this rock which has been mentioned by Luqmān who said that it is neither in heaven nor on earth. When the fish moved and quivered, the whole earth was shaken. That is why the mountains were fixed on it. So it became quiet. The mountains are proudly standing on the earth. This is why the Almighty said: “And He has set up on the earth, mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with you.” Then He created the mountains on the earth. He created for the dwellers of earth sustenance and planted it in two days, the third and fourth days. It is about it He says: “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” (Q 41:9-10)
He says:
He made plants grow on it and determined the sustenance of those living on it in four days in accordance with (the needs of) those who seek (sustenance).
He says:
Whoever asks should know that it is how I have determined. Then, He established on the heavens while it was smoke. This smoke was due to the breathing of the water when it breathed. He made it a single heaven. Then He partitioned it into seven heavens in two days, al-Khmīs (Arabic for Thursday) and al-JumuᶜAh (Friday). This day is named al-JumuᶜAh for it is on this very day Allah gathered together the creations of the earth and the heavens.
596. (4) Yaᶜqūb b. Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī → Abū Sufyān al-Ḥimyarī Saᶜīd b. Yaḥyā al-Wāsiṭī → Maᶜmar → Ibn Abī Najīḥ → Mujāhid:
[Commenting on the verse]: “It is He Who hath created for you all things that are on earth; Moreover His design comprehended the heavens” (Q2:29) He said, “Allāh created the earth before the heaven. When He created the earth, a smoke arose from it. That is why He says: “Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke.” (Q 41:11) He said:
He made them into the seven firmaments. He said: One over the other. And seven earths, one below the other.
The above passage is translated from Kitāb al-Tawḥīd by Imām Abū Bakr Ibn Khuzaymah (d. 311 AH). English translation by Dr Tariq Mahmood Hashmi.
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