Does Quran really say that Earth was created before the heavens?

Brother Dahen, I first appreciate your willingness to share some of the doubts that you have about Islam. Now let me look into your claim and see whether it is justified or not. You said,

“Read attentively, about the creation of earth and heavens; in 2:29, he’s saying: made earth then heavens. But in 79:30: made heavens then earth. Is’nt that contradiction?!”

According to you, in 2:29 of the noble Quran, Allah says that he made Earth first and THEN he made the Heavens. Is this really true? Lets see: –

“: He it is Who created for you all that is on earth. Then He Istawa (rose over) towards the heaven and made them seven heavens and He is the All-Knower of everything.” – The Noble Quran 2:29 (Muhsin Khan)

These are the points to be noted here: –

1. Nowhere does Allah say here that he made Earth first and then he made heaven. He merely says that he made all that is on earth and then he turned to heaven that was already created. If Allah had really created heaven AFTER he created the earth then why would he say “Then He Istawa (rose over) towards the heaven”? After the creation of earth, how can he “Istawa (rise over) towards the heaven” when he hasn’t created it yet in the first place. The only possible explanation for this is that Heaven and Earth were already created.

Does this verse say Allah created the Earth? No! This verse talks only about the “things on earth” and not earth itself!

2. This verse doesn’t even refer to the creation of the earth. Does Allah say that he created earth in this verse? Read again. This verse only says that Allah created “all that is on earth”. Meaning, Earth was ALREADY CREATED by Allah and in this verse Allah is talking only about the THINGS PRESENT ON EARTH AND NOT EARTH ITSELF. So your allegation that the Quran says that God created Earth first and then Heaven is totally false and does not hold any ground because this verse doesn’t talk about Allah creating the Earth at all!

This verse speaks only about the division of heaven and not about its creation

3. Similarly, where does this verse say that Allah created heavens? Just where? This verse only talks about Allah dividing the heaven THAT WAS ALREADY CREATED into SEVEN PARTS. Brother Dahen, there is a difference between “Division” and “creation”. You cannot “divide” a thing unless it is already “created”. So if Allah has to divide the heaven into seven parts then he must have already created it. That’s common sense. So your allegation that the Quran says that God created Earth first and then Heaven is totally false and does not hold any ground because this verse doesn’t talk about Allah creating the Heaven at all! Probably you may have better luck with other alleged contradictions that you have. Let’s see. Give them all to me. Don’t miss out even one of them because I swear by Allah, that I will refute each and every one of them with justice, fairness, good reason and logic.

The Real meaning of this verse: –

Allah doesn’t talk about creation of heaven or earth in this verse at all. He merely talks about creation of the things present on/in Earth when he says “all that is on earth”. You know, in the near future this world may have flying cars. So you may ask, if Allah created all things on earth according to this verse then how come we don’t have flying cars now. Dear friend, to the best of my little knowledge, by “all that is on earth” Allah actually means “all basic elements” present on earth.

Then, when Allah says, “Then He Istawa (rose over) towards the heaven and made them seven heavens” it means that he divided a single heaven into seven parts. Here Allah is referring to the seven different layers of atmosphere that we all know are : –

1. Troposphere

 

2. Stratosphere

3. Ozone layer

4. Mesosphere

5. Thermosphere

6. Ionosphere

7. Exosphere

The grand finale – This verse may mean that Allah made all things on earth and THEN divided the heaven into seven parts; still it is absolutely 100 % correct. This is because the atmosphere around the earth was formed AFTER earth was created.

Long long ago, earth was a barren, dead planet with no atmosphere. Then as time passed by, the gases present within the earth rose up and escaped the earth’s surface only to be held back by earth’s gravitational force in the empty space surrounding the earth. This was how atmosphere was formed. So there you go, either way the verse 2:29 of the holy Quran is a scientific wonder. This is a scientific miracle to the eye of any decent human because how on earth could a desert nomad like Mohammad (peace on him) know that the sky above him (atmosphere) is divided into seven parts and that it was made AFTER earth was made. This is in fact a double miracle in a single verse.