Hello
Thank you for your previous reply to my question about the creation of the earth in 6 days. To recap, your latest answer was:
Brother, the reference to units is a relative issue. Surely 6 American dollars are not equal to to 6 Zimbabwean dollars. If a Zimbabwean is told by an American that he will be given 6 dollars, it is less likely to be Zimbabwean dollars. Similarly, six steps of a baby are never equal to 6 steps of an adult. Six steps of an ant are not equal to six steps of an elephant. When Allah refers to 6 days, we should understand that in the context of Allah’s power and might, not in a finite or a comparative way. Allah Ta’ala is above time
As the quran clearly states that the earth was created in 6 ‘days’ and not 5 ‘days’, you have not clearly defined what unit of time one ‘day’ encompasses. You cleverly changed what we mean ‘day’ to mean i.e. a very fixed period of time of 24 hours, 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds into some arbitrary ‘epoch’ which can mean anything. When one speaks of time, currency, distance etc we expect our words to refer to a known, precise unit. So if i speak of one American dollar, we can agree that i’m referring to an equivalent of 100 American cents – but you are saying ‘actually one American dollar is 1 million American cents’. Your example of Zimbabwean dollars to American dollars is comparing apples to oranges – the issue here is that you’re twisting an agreed definition of something to another thing entirely. In that case, the language of the quran is completely unreliable as a guide if we apply these vague semantics to it’s words. We can go round the houses arguing about definitions about ‘days’ – YOUR ARGUMENTS ARE WEAK AND FAIL TO CONVINCE ME AT ALL !!!
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Once again, you have completely failed to understand our argument. We did not say that 1 American Dollar is equivalent to 1 million cents. Not a single statement from our previous answer insinuates the conclusion that you have deducted. Is it your incapability of understanding and comprehending basic examples or is it because you are unwilling to accept the truth?
We were clear from the very first answer that the word Yaum in the ayah does not deal with a unit of time. However, based on your perception of the issue, we came up with the example of Zimbabwean and American Dollars. We both agree, each dollar from both currencies constitute of 100 cents, but are they equal in monetary value? Absolutely not! This example is merely to show the difference a single unit may have, based on the countries they are used in. Having a same name does not make two things similar in everything.
In a similar way, you are trying to find out an answer to the time unit for each Yaum which belongs to a world that is completely unknown to mankind, based on the time units used by us on earth. How is that in any way rational? Doing that would be a case of comparing apples to oranges. We have simply compared a very small apple to a large apple.
Your main misconception arises because you are seeing the word Yaum as daystime period. You are standing on a faulty ground which eventually makes your observation of the verse faulty as well. You keep on asking the same question “what unit of time one ‘day’ encompasses?” again and again. We have stated in several places, that “Yaum” in this context has literally nothing to do with time in of itself. Allah is not describing a time duration that you may ask for a time unit. Allah is speaking of 6 stagesepochsphases. Once this fact is agreed upon then the issue of time would arise, which is a secondary issue. Only then one may ask about the duration of each stageepochphase. Let me give you an easy to understand example:
Supposedly, you get hold of a pamphlet from a Tech agency, advertising and offering a course in web designing. Knowing that it is just a brief introduction, the company only sufficed with mentioning that the course will commence from a said date and that the whole course will constitute of 20 sessions. Now despite you not knowing the duration of each session, this statement will completely make sense to you. If a person does not enrol himself for the course, he might remain ignorant about the duration of each session for probably his entire life. Knowing about the duration of each session is a secondary issue. All that the tech company for now intends is to inform you of the course which constitutes of 20 sessions.
Is there anything wrong with the above statement? You can’t say that the statement in the pamphlet is incorrect. From your perspective, the most that can be said is that it lacks detail. However, you should bear in mind that through this pamphlet only a brief introduction to the web designing course was intended by the company. This was just a tool to achieve the main objective, which is to inform students of the course and attract them towards joining the course. If you start nit-picking by stating that not having the time mentioned in the pamphlet for each session makes it imprecise, then this objection holds no weight. The company has wisely done its job and has been able to attract several students, a single person not understanding how marketing works is his issue. More so, if not mentioning the details makes the information vague, then why would you even stop with the enquiry of time, you may also question about the mode of communication, the computers that are used, the number of the students that are accepted at a time, the colour of the paint on the wall of the class, etc. By applying your logic, the company will then have to write a whole book instead of a small pamphlet, so that they could meet your requirements. Does this make sense? Was this pamphlet intended for all such details? This infact defeats the whole purpose of the advertisement. As a brief introduction to the course, only what was necessary for the public to know was brought to their knowledge. Not mentioning the details in the pamphlet does not necessitate that they did not have the structure of the course in their mind.
In this world of scientific calculation and technological advancement, there are too many terms and abbreviations used that are not understood by most people. We do not even bother to question such terms and abbreviations. Infact, we may not even understand them. Yet, they are printed and published. We simply rely on whatever the term would mean according to their experts. Would it be correct to state they are not communicating in clear terms for everyone to understand?
Similarly, all that Allah wants us to believe in, is that he created the Heavens, the Earth and all that is in between, in 6 stagesphasesepochs. Allah does not mention any fixed time period and neither does Allah elaborate much on the topic. The Quran is not a book of science that it needs to have an in-depth discussion on the creation process. Allah portrays His might to His creation through such verses and this is achieved by the verse and similar other verses without the need of adding anything else.
Brother, we fail to understand that how could you keep insisting for a precise unit of time from this world, whilst you have clearly been informed that the sun, according to which time is calculated, had not even come into existence at the time of creation. This is no rocket science that you are finding it so hard to understand. Repeatedly asking about the time unit despite knowing that the sun did not exist at that time does not make any sense.
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Naved Akhtar Ibn Shabbir.
Student – Darul Iftaa
Shillong, India.
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.