593- Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda regarding His statement: "Then He proportioned them into seven heavens," he said: Some of them above others, between every two heavens is a journey of five hundred years.
594- Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās regarding His statement—where He mentioned the creation of the earth before the heaven, then mentioned the heaven before the earth, in that God created the earth with its provisions without spreading it out before the heaven—"Then He directed Himself to the heaven and proportioned them into seven heavens," then He spread out the earth after that; so that is His statement: {And the earth after that He spread out} [Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt: 30].
595- Al-Muthannā narrated to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, saying: Abū Maʿshar narrated to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām that he said: God began creation on Sunday; He created the earths on Sunday and Monday, He created the provisions and firm mountains on Tuesday and Wednesday, and He created the heavens on Thursday and Friday. He finished in the last hour of Friday, creating Adam therein in haste. That is the hour in which the Hour will be established.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of the statement, then, is: He is the One who bestowed favor upon you, creating for you all that is on earth and subjecting it to you out of grace from Him toward you, that it may be sustenance for you in your worldly life and enjoyment until the arrival of your appointed terms, and a proof for you of the Oneness of your Lord. Then He elevated above the seven heavens while they were smoke, proportioned them and fashioned them, set in motion in some of them His sun, His moon, and His stars, and decreed in each one of them what He decreed of His creation.(1)
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