6 Days of Creation

Was the Creation Six Days or Eight?

Resolving an Oft-Cited Apparent Contradiction in the Quran and Hadith

Overview

Verses 7:54, 10:3, 11:7, and 25:59 clearly state that Allah created the heavens and the earth in six days.

But does the detailed description in 41:9–12 of the creation procedure add up to eight days?

This is the common contention and one of the undeservingly pervasive “mathematical errors in the Quran.” Below is a full breakdown of why this claim is grammatically, linguistically, and scholastically unfounded.

Part One: Surah Fussilat 41:9–12

The Claim

Critics point to Surah Fussilat (41:9–12) and count:

2 days — creation of the earth (v. 9)
4 days — measuring of sustenance (v. 10)
2 days — creation of the heavens (v. 12)

Arriving at a total of 8 days — which they claim contradicts the Quran’s repeated statement of six.

The Grammatical Key: wa vs. thummah vs. fa

The answer lies in Arabic grammar.

Verses 11 and 12 use the adverbs ثم (thummah) and ف (fa) — both implying consecutiveness (one after another).
Verse 10 — the only verse mentioning four days — uses و (wa) — implying parallel or overlapping action.

This is the decisive point: the four days of “measuring the earth’s sustenance” are not four additional days. They include the original two days of creating the earth plus two further days of spreading out its features.

The grammar makes this explicit.

The Hasan Analogy

“Hasan is now 34 years old. He started primary school when he was 6, then spent 12 years studying in high school, and spent 24 years training to be the world’s greatest theologian. Then he settled down over the last 4 years being a great chef.”

The critic’s logic: 6 + 12 + 24 + 4 = 46 ≠ 34

But notice — it says he “spent 24 years training,” not “then spent 24 years.” The word and signals overlap: he trained as a theologian whilst in high school.

The same grammatical principle applies to verse 41:10.

The Correct Breakdown

Stage	Days
Creation of the earth (v. 9)	2
Mountains + sustenance — included in the same count (v. 10)	+2 (total so far = 4)
Creation of the seven heavens (v. 12)	+2
Total	6 days

No contradiction exists.

What the Classical Scholars Said

This is not a modern reinterpretation. The classical mufassireen addressed this directly:

Al-Qurtubi

“In four days — this is like someone saying, ‘I set out from Basra to Baghdad in ten days and to Kufa in fifteen days,’ meaning a total of fifteen days.”

📚 al-Jaami’ li Ahkaam al-Qur’aan, vol. 15, p. 343

Al-Baghawi

“In four days means the creation of what is in the earth. The measuring of the sustenance was on Tuesday and Wednesday, which along with Sunday and Monday add up to four days. This is like saying ‘I was married to a woman yesterday and today I’m married to two’ — one of whom is the woman he married the day before.”

📚 Tafseer al-Baghawi, 7/165

Al-Zajjaaj

“In four days means two days added to the previous two days.”

📚 Al-Kashshaaf, vol. 3, p. 444

Summary from the Scholars

Earth: 2 days
Mountains + sustenance: 2 more days (= 4 total, not 4 new)
Heavens: 2 days
Grand total: 6 days — precisely as the Quran states

Part Two: The Hadith of Abu Hurairah

The Hadith

Arabic:

أخذ رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم بيدي فقال: خلق الله التربة يوم السبت، وخلق فيها الجبال يوم الأحد، وخلق الشجر يوم الاثنين، وخلق المكروه يوم الثلاثاء، وخلق النور يوم الأربعاء، وبث فيها الدواب يوم الخميس، وخلق آدم عليه السلام بعد العصر من يوم الجمعة

Translation:

“The Messenger of Allah took my hand and said: Allah created the earth on Saturday, and over it He created the mountains on Sunday. He created the trees on Monday, He created things entailing labour on Tuesday, He created light on Wednesday, He scattered the animals in it on Thursday, and He created Adam, peace be upon him, after Asr on Friday, the last of creation, in the last hour of Friday, between Asr and nightfall.”

The Meaning of Yawm (يوم)

That yawm need not mean a literal 24-hour day is well-established:

E.W. Lane (Arabic-English Lexicon, 3064): “time absolutely, whether night or not, little or not: this is the proper signification”
Hans Wehr (A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 1110): “also: age, era, time…”
Raghib al-Asbahani — same in al-Mufradat fi Gharib al-Qur’an, 894

The word is inherently unrestricted. Context determines its scope.

Status of the Hadith: The Isnad Debate

Scholars Who Questioned Its Chain

Al-Bukhari — Tarikh al-Kabir, Vol. 1, 413
‘Ali bin al-Madini — al-Bayhaqi, al-Asma’ wa as-Sifat, Vol. 2, 256
Ibn Kathir — Tafsir al-Qur’an al-‘Azim, Vol. 1, 123
Ibn Taymiyyah — Majmu’a al-Fatawa, Vol. 17, 235
Ibn al-Qayyim — al-Minar al-Manif fi as-Sahih wa Da’if, 84–85

Scholars Who Accepted it as Authentic

Muslim bin Hajjaj — Sahih Muslim
Ibn Hibban — as-Sahih, Hadith 6161
Ibn al-Anbari — Ibn al-Jawzi, Zad al-Maysar, Vol. 2, 127
Ibn al-Jawzi / Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi — Kashaf al-Mushkil, Vol. 3, 580
Ash-Shawkani — Fath al-Qadir, Vol. 1, 73
Al-Muallimi — al-Anwar al-Kashifa, Vol. 1, 188–193
Ahmad Shakir — Musnad Ahmad, Vol. 8, 282, Hadith 8323
Al-Albani — Silsala Ahadith as-Sahiha, Vol. 4, 449, No. 1833

Note: The majority of those who graded it sahih — such as Ibn Hibban and Abu Hayyan — are known as lenient graders.

Was It Derived from Israeliyyat (Ka’b al-Ahbar)?

Some scholars suggested the report traces to Ka’b al-Ahbar, a Jewish convert known for incorporating Jewish traditions. This is easily refuted:

The hadith mentions earth being created on Saturday — directly contradicting the Jewish belief that Saturday is a day of rest (Sabbath), not creation.
Ka’b’s own narrations (at-Tabari) state:

“Allah started the creation with the heavens and the Earth on Sunday and Monday.” 📚 al-Tabari, Tarikh ar-Rusul wal Muluk, Vol. 1, 44

Another Jewish convert, Abdullah bin Salam, reported the same Sunday-start account. 📚 Al-Dhahabi, al-‘Uluw li-‘Aliy al-Ghaffar, Hadith 312

Their accounts begin on Sunday and end on Friday — consistent with their Jewish background. The hadith of Abu Hurairah begins on Saturday, which rules out Ka’b as the origin.

The Nasa’i Version — Decisive Evidence

A version preserved in al-Nasa’i’s Sunan al-Kubra (Hadith 11328, graded jayyid by al-Albani) explicitly combines both accounts:

Arabic:

يا أبا هريرة، إن الله خلق السموات والأرضين وما بينهما في ستة أيام، ثم استوى على العرش يوم السابع، وخلق التربة يوم السبت، والجبال يوم الأحد…

Translation:

“O Abu Huraira! Verily Allah created the heavens and the earths and whatever is between them in six days. Then He ascended to the Throne on the seventh day. He created earth on Saturday, and mountains on Sunday…”

This single narration confirms:

The six Quranic ayyam and the seven weekdays of the hadith are entirely separate references
The hadith is not expounding the Quranic creation account

Al-Albani’s Explanation

“The six days mentioned in the Quran are different from the seven days mentioned in this hadith. The hadith talks about a stage from the stages of creation on the surface of the Earth until it became suitable for life. This is supported by the fact that Quran says some days (ayyam) with Allah are equal to a thousand years and some are fifty-thousand years. What forbids six days to be from this kind and the seven days of the hadith to be like our days, as it is explicit in the hadith?”

📚 al-Albani, Tahqiq al-Mishkat, Vol. 3, 1597–1598, Hadith 5734

The Five Common Objections — Answered

Claim 1: The Hadith Contradicts the Quran by Mentioning Seven Days Instead of Six

Answer: The hadith is not explaining the Quranic creation account. It is an independent narrative with a separate purpose. The six Quranic ayyam are unspecified epochs. The seven weekdays mark when each creation was finalized — these coexist without contradiction.

Claim 2: The Hadith Contradicts the Report in al-Tabari that Creation Began on Sunday

Answer: That report — transmitted via Abu Sa’d al-Baqqal — was graded da’if (weak) by:

Adh-Dhahabi (al-Mustadrak annotations, Hadith 3997): “Ibn Ma’in said, ‘his narrations are not to be written.’”
The researcher of al-Asbahani’s al-‘Azmah — al-Mubarakpuri, Vol. 4, 1362–163
The critical edition of Tarikh at-Tabari — al-Barzinji and Hallaq, Da’if Tarikh at-Tabari, Vol. 1, 9, No. 12

As-Suhayli stated:

“The hadith with which at-Tabari sought evidence is not like the hadith we have brought forward.” 📚 Rawd al-Unuf, Vol. 4, 60

Claim 3: The Hadith Contradicts the Scholarly Consensus that Creation Began on Sunday

Answer: The alleged consensus is questionable. Ibn al-Anbari explicitly claimed ijma’ (consensus) on creation starting on Saturday: 📚 Ibn al-Jawzi, Zad al-Maysar, Vol. 2, 127; Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi, al-Bahr al-Muhit, Vol. 5, 64

Even Ibn Taymiyyah, who questioned Ibn al-Anbari’s claim, thereby refutes the consensus of at-Tabari.

Claim 4: The Hadith Makes No Mention of the Creation of the Heavens

Answer: The hadith is not presenting an exhaustive creation account and was never intended to enumerate all of creation. This objection misses the point entirely — the hadith’s silence on the heavens is no more problematic than its silence on countless other aspects of creation.

Claim 5: Trees Were Created before Light — a Scientific Impossibility

Answer — two responses:

First: The conjunction wa (و) does not imply sequence. As Fakhr al-Razi repeatedly stated:

“The letter waw denotes unrestricted conjunction and not relative order.” 📚 Mafatih al-Ghayb, Vol. 8, 319

Second: The word noor in this hadith may not mean physical light. Ibn al-Athir al-Jazri explained:

“al-Makruh: Opposite of the liked. Here it means evil — as the hadith further says, ‘And He created al-noor on Wednesday.’ Nur is goodness.” 📚 Jami’ al-Usul fi Ahadith ar-Rasul, Vol. 4, 25

Under this interpretation: He created trees on Monday, evil on Tuesday, goodness on Wednesday — making the question of trees before light entirely irrelevant.

The True Purpose of the Hadith

As-Suhayli (d. 581 AH) explained:

“The Jews specified Saturday for they believed it is the seventh day. Moreover, they increased in their blasphemy by saying that Allah rested on this day — Allah is exalted above what they say! This is because to them creation started on Sunday and the last of the six days was Friday. Same is the stance of the Christians. They specified Sunday because to them it was the first of the days. And the Messenger of Allah testified that both have missed the day. He, as in Sahih Muslim, said: ‘Allah created Earth on Saturday.’”

📚 as-Suhayli, Rawd al-Unuf, Vol. 4, 57

Ahmad ‘Abdur-Rahman al-Banna as-Sa’ati (d. 1378 AH):

“In the mention of creation of Earth on Saturday is the rejection of the Jewish belief that Allah started the creation of the universe on Sunday, finished it on Friday, and rested on Saturday (Sabbath). They say, ‘We take rest on this day as God rested.’ This is from their ignorance, for fatigue can affect only the non-Eternal.”

📚 al-Fath ar-Rabbani ma’ Bulugh al-Amani, Vol. 3, 3620

Conclusion

✅ The claimed contradiction between Surah Fussilat (41:9–12) and the rest of the Quran is resolved by Arabic grammar — the adverb wa in verse 10 indicates overlapping, not consecutive, action. Total = 6 days.
✅ The classical scholars — al-Qurtubi, al-Baghawi, al-Zajjaaj, and others — addressed this centuries ago and reached the same conclusion.
✅ The hadith of Abu Hurairah does not explain or contradict the Quranic six-day account. It records which weekday each creation was completed.
✅ The word yawm is linguistically unrestricted — it denotes an unspecified period of time, as confirmed by classical lexicographers and the Quran itself (2:47, 22:47, 32:5).
✅ The purpose of the hadith is to refute Judeo-Christian beliefs about Sabbath — not to outline a cosmological timeline.

What Are 6 Days? ( advanced)

The Doubt of the Six Days

1. The Doubt of the Six Days

Arab secularists claim that the six days mentioned in the Holy Qur’an are a scientific error borrowed from the Old Testament. They argue that it is impossible for the universe to have been created in six days. They also claim that saying these six days are not earthly days contradicts the texts, especially the prophetic hadiths and the statements of the predecessors, which mention that the six days in which Allah created the heavens and the earth were from Saturday to Thursday, and that Adam was created on Friday.

2. Misunderstanding the Six Days

The real cause behind many atheistic doubts regarding the six days is that some people who spoke about scientific miracles hastily linked the six days to the origin of the universe itself. This is a major mistake. The term “universe” is entirely different from the Islamic term “the heavens and the earth.” The heavens are from the unseen, whereas the universe is from the witnessed world. The visible universe may be part of the lowest heaven, but it is not correct to equate the two without evidence.

The Qur’anic and prophetic texts confirm that there was a stage of creation before the six days. This earlier stage included the creation of the Throne, the water, the Preserved Tablet, the Pen, the Footstool, the smoke, and other creations. Therefore, the six days do not refer to the very first beginning of all existence.

The mention of the six days in the Qur’an and Sunnah came partly as confirmation of the Torah’s account. Even the Book of Genesis begins by mentioning the creation of the heavens and the earth before the sequence of days begins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Thus, the claim that the six days refer to the total creation of the entire universe is based on a misunderstanding.

The Qur’an also distinguishes between “the heaven” and “the seven heavens.” The creation of the heaven as a whole preceded the formation of the seven heavens. In Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah says:

“It is He who created for you all that is on the earth. Then He directed Himself to the heaven and made them seven heavens.”

This shows that the heaven existed first, then it was fashioned into seven heavens later.

3. The Great Disagreement About the Number of the Six Days

There is a major disagreement among scholars regarding the duration of each of the six days. Imam al-Tabari transmitted narrations from Ibn Abbas and others among the Salaf that each of the six days was equal to a thousand years. However, Imam al-Tabari himself also held the opinion that they were ordinary earthly days.

The response to this disagreement is that time for mankind is different from time in relation to Allah. A second, an hour, a day, and a year are measures for human beings. As for Allah, time does not bind Him in any way. The Qur’an itself says:

“And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of those which you count.”

This indicates that divine time cannot simply be equated with human time.

There is also another doubt concerning whether the heavens and the earth were created in six days or in more than six days. The apparent meaning of the texts is that the heavens and the earth were created in six days, while the earth itself took four days within those six days. At the same time, there are other texts indicating that the earth itself, with its mountains, trees, rivers, and seas, underwent additional stages amounting to six separate days.

Allah says in Surah Qaf:

“And We certainly created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and no fatigue touched Us.”

This verse establishes that the heavens, the earth, and whatever is between them were created in six days.

In Surah Fussilat, Allah says:

“Say: Do you indeed disbelieve in He who created the earth in two days… And He placed therein firm mountains above it and blessed it and measured therein its sustenance in four days.”

These verses indicate that the earth and its mountains took four days within the total six-day framework.

There are also narrations from Abu Hurairah describing the sequence of creation: the soil on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, what is disliked on Tuesday, light on Wednesday, animals on Thursday, and Adam on Friday. Some scholars viewed these narrations as problematic, while others argued that they are consistent with the Qur’anic description of stages of creation.

The Meaning of Saturday, Sunday, and the Other Days

A further doubt arises because the prophetic narrations mention Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and the rest of the week. Some assume that this means these days were equal in length to the current seven-day week. However, the names of the days in Arabic are linguistic labels rather than technical measurements.

Saturday refers to the beginning of time, Sunday to the first stage after it, Monday to the next, Tuesday to the third stage, and so on. The purpose of these names is to show sequence, not necessarily equal duration.

There are also prophetic narrations proving that not every “day” has the same length. The hadith about the Antichrist states that one of his days will be like a year, another like a month, another like a week, and the rest like ordinary days. This demonstrates that the concept of a “day” in revelation is not always fixed to a 24-hour period.

The Salaf also held that these days were far longer than earthly days. Narrations from Ibn Abbas and others state that each of the six days was equivalent to a thousand years.

The Strongest Opinion

The strongest opinion on this issue is that the six days are from the unseen. Their exact duration is unknown. This was the view of Ibn Taymiyyah, who explained that these six days were measured by something other than the movement of the sun and moon, because the sun and moon themselves were created after the heavens and the earth.

This opinion is strongest for three reasons:

There is no explicit text in the Qur’an or Sunnah defining the exact duration of these six days.
The statements of the predecessors about them being a thousand years are interpretations, not explicit prophetic texts.
The Qur’an speaks of different kinds of six-day periods, one for the heavens and earth together and another for the earth and what is upon it.

The correct approach is to affirm the texts exactly as they came, without adding to them or subtracting from them.

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