This World

[Raheel]

TOnite i met a so called Shah Sahab, he asked me that do i know that in how much time ALLAH made this world, i answered according to my belive that in a monet or so, I mean ALLAH can do anything in less den a sec if ALLAH WANT to, he replied in a question that how much Ive stdudied, I said. Ok go ahead tell me if u know he said that in 6 days ALLAH made this world. Ehem I mean i wanna clear myself upto this one, I can't understand, coz on the other hand he told me that a day there at ALLAH's end is like 10000 days of ours. SO that means ALLAH made this world in 60000 days?????????????

[Mossy]

It's because there are two types of time - time within creation and the concept of "duration" - that which is outside creation. The general exegesis of the relevant verses is that since the creator is outside of his creation, these indicate the fact that the exact duration of "time" as percieved by Allah (swt) is incomprehensible to the human mind.

[Raheel]

But my question is this that in how much time ALLAH made this world if its written or in knowledge of us humans? I mean did it really took 6 days or that SHah Sahab was bugging me?

[Abu Usama]

Six days is correct to say, but by that we do not mean that a day is a period of 24 hours. We say "Allah knows best" how long one day is in regards to this statement.

[Muawiyah]

The Shah Sahib was not wrong, 6 days is written in the Quraan, Surat ul 'Aaraaf ayah 54 and Surah Younus ayah 3 and may be elsewhere as well.

Also "Shah Sahib" is usually a reference to a person being from the Aal Rasool (Sallalaahu 'alyhi wa Sallam). So it does not necessitate ascribing sainthood or knowledge to a person.

[Mossy]

It does say days.. The Qu'ran is in arabic after all ;)

If you look, you will see that a "day" of Allah (swt) is also equivalent to 50,000 years of our time (70.4) - hence there is a contradiction here as, in the end, the two are simply not comparable and we may not compare them or think of him being limited in this way.

Time is a part of creation. Allah (swt) exists outside creation - we cannot limit him to it. Hence according to traditional understanding we have zaman (time) vs mada (duration) describing that which we percieve and that which cannot be percieved by us.