CREATION ACCORDING TO BIBLE AND QURAN

All civilisation has their unique creation story which is about the birth of their tribe or race. Here we look at the creation stories of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, solely from their scriptures. Whether they should be taken as mythology or historical accounts, is up to one’s persuasion.


GENESIS:

Chap 1 (KJV) (This is in detail. If you already know the story, skip it.) 

(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (4) And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (5) And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (6) And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. (7) And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. (8) And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. (9) And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. (10) And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. (11) And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. (12) And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (13) And the evening and the morning were the third day. (14) And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: (15) And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. (16) And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. (17) And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, (18) And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. (19) And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. (20) And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. (21) And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (22) And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. (23) And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. (24) And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. (25) And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (29) And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. (31) And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Chap 2.1-2 (KJV)

(1) Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.


In 1976 Zachariah Sitchin wrote “The 12^th Planet” which is basically an embellishment of the idea that gods were extraterrestrials. An advanced alien race called Anunaki lived in an undiscovered planet called Nibiru. A task force arrived on Earth where they mined for gold. A revolt broke out as the workers could not take the demands of working in mines. So they bio-engineered homo sapiens to work as slaves in the mines.

Sitchin claimed to have based his book on years of studying the cuneiform tablets of the ancient Sumerians. This was the earliest recorded civilisation of humans found in Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq). The Sumerians appeared some time in 4,500 BC. Sumerian is called a language isolate which means it is one of it’s kind, not related to any known language. Which means expertise is rare. The Sumerians wrote on clay tablets in the form called cuneiform. These were first discovered in the 16^th century AD and deciphering took a long time from 19^th to mid-20^th century AD.

Sitchin’s work has been totally discredited for amateurishness with respect to the primacy of the Sumerian language, he had a Mesopotamia-centric world view and wholly misunderstood Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian literature, his scientific, archaeological, astrological, geological and biological knowledge as relates to Sumeria have been found wanting. Mainstream academia considers his works pseudo-history and pseudo-science.

Yet Sitchin’s books sold by the millions. The genre of alien-being astronaut gods has a ready market of atheists, liberals, agnostics and conspiracy theory enthusiasts who cannot get enough ‘proof’ for their anti-God anti-Christianity polemic.

Aside from the astronaut gods belief, many hold the view that Sumerian culture and religion  influenced the Jews who where guilty of plagiarism. Non-believers push the narrative Christianity evolved from pagan worship of Sumerian Sun God via Sol Invictus of the Romans brought by Constantine when he converted to Christianity. Islam to them is also a pagan religion based on Nanna the Sumerian Moon God, represented by the moon icon on every mosque. What seems most interesting is the Sumerians have a few stories as told in the Epic Of Gilgamesh, also appear in the Old Testament, such as the flood story. Supporting this view is the fact Abraham came from Ur, a city in Mesopotamia. He would have continued Sumerian pagan practices after God took him out of Ur into Canaan.

The counter arguments are many. Judaism is monotheism, Sumerians were pagans. There were Semitic people living in Sumeria as well as the region north west of Mesopotamia. It could well be the Semites influenced the Sumerians. When stories similar to the Bible are studied in detail, there are major differences. For example, in the flood story, Noah was adrift 40 days and nights and the flood was universal. Sumerian flood was localised and lasted only 6 days and nights. Flood stories are also to be found in many other cultures far away from, and had nothing to do with, Mesopotamia, such as South Americas and Polynesia. Noah’s universal flood explains it.

QURAN:

Allah created everything in 6 days, the same as the Bible. Details are different but that of course does not mean Quran is wrong. Quran is adamant the task took 6 days as it repeats this many times, for example :

Surah 10.3:

Surely your Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days, then established Himself on the Throne, conducting every affair. None can intercede except by His permission. That is Allah—your Lord, so worship Him ˹alone˺. Will you not then be mindful?

Surah 11.7:

And it is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days - and His Throne had been upon water - that He might test you as to which of you is best in deed. But if you say, "Indeed, you are resurrected after death," those who disbelieve will surely say, "This is not but obvious magic."

There are many other verses where same is mentioned, eg surahs 7.54, 25.59, 32.4, and 50:38.

So did Allah really take 6 days to complete His creation?  There is a problem counting the number of days and inconsistencies in the sequence of events. Let’s work through this.

Surah 2.29:

He it is who created for you all that is in the earth, then He went up to heaven and proportioned it as seven heavens, and He is knower of everything.

هُوَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ لَكُم مَّا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًۭا ثُمَّ ٱسْتَوَىٰٓ إِلَى ٱلسَّمَآءِ فَسَوَّىٰهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَـٰوَٰتٍۢ ۚ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌۭ ٢٩

The keyword is ثُمَّ (thumm pronounced as thoumba) which means ‘then’, something that comes after. So Earth was created first then heaven. Back then, there was no Arabic for ‘space’. Heaven here means space. Quran has a huge problem with science in this sequence. Earth does not exist in a void, it exists in space. Earth has to come into being at the same time as space or after. It is scientifically impossible for Earth to come first, for where will it be placed as there was no heaven or space yet? According to The Big Bang Theory, the universe was created in one big explosion of energy. Is Quran saying Earth was created first and then comes the Big Bang.

This error in sequence is seen again in the creation verses Surah 49.9 to 49.12.


Surah 49.9 to 49.12:

(49.9) Ask ˹them, O Prophet˺, “How can you disbelieve in the One Who created the earth in two Days? And how can you set up equals with Him? That is the Lord of all worlds.
(49.10) He placed on the earth firm mountains, standing high, showered His blessings upon it, and ordained ˹all˺ its means of sustenance—totaling four Days exactly—for all who ask.
(49.11) Then He turned towards the heaven when it was ˹still like˺ smoke, saying to it and to the earth, ‘Submit, willingly or unwillingly.’ They both responded, ‘We submit willingly.’
(49.12) So He formed the heaven into seven heavens in two Days, assigning to each its mandate. And We adorned the lowest heaven with ˹stars like˺ lamps ˹for beauty˺ and for protection. That is the design of the Almighty, All-Knowing.”


First a digression. A Facebook friend likes to promote his religion online. Nothing wrong in that. A few days back he posted regarding (49.11) the time when heaven was still like smoke. He attributed this to the greatness of Allah to see what James Webb telescope is now showing us, that primeval space indeed looks somewhat like smoke. I don’t know if he realised the error of Quran’s sequence of creation and the number of days.

These verses reinforce surah 2.29. Earth was formed first (49.9) and then space or heaven (49.11).

The Earth and its sustenance was already formed (49.9 and 49.10) when Allah then (recall thoumba) turned to heaven, aka space aka universe, which at that time was ‘still like’ smoke. He then got Earth and Heaven to willingly come together. So before Allah put Earth into the universe, shouldn’t one ask where did he place it?

If that was bad, try counting the number of days.

Now look at the sequence and number of days. First Earth was created in 2 days. The mountains and it’s sustenance, ie the waters, rivers, vegetation, rees, etc. took 4 days. Finally, He formed the heaven, or space, or universe which took another 2 days. The math clearly shows 8 days for creation, not 6.

It gets worse.

Surah 79.27-33:

(27) Are you a more difficult creation or is the heaven? Allah constructed it.
(28) He raised its ceiling and proportioned it.
(29) And He darkened its night and extracted its brightness.
(30) And after that He spread the earth.
(31) He extracted from it its water and its pasture,
(32) And the mountains He set firmly
(33) As provision for you and your grazing livestock.

Notice the sequence is now Heaven, Earth, and sustenance. The Quran changed the sequence of creation?

Notice also Adam and Eve do not appear in these creation verses.




Typo, scripting, or printing errors are understandable. But for Quran, it is an important issue because it claims for itself to be the true words of God. Word for word, it is without error and immutable. Allah is all-knowing, a statement repeated over and over again in the Holy Book. What can explain for the inconsistencies in number of days, sequence of creation and the scientific impossibility of placing Earth outside the Universe.

Quran is a simple narration of creation. It dwells not on the philosophical issue of TIME.  

The Bible presents an organised view, encapsulated in Genesis chap 1. More significantly, the Bible establishes two Truths that science has no alternative explanation. First, according to the Bible, in the beginning, there was VOID, or nothingness. Second, there was a beginning of TIME, ie when God created the Universe. This idea of a beginning of TIME so scared non-theological scientists that has them hesitating accepting The Big Bang Theory. For recognition of Big Bang means accepting there was a beginning of TIME, thus existence of a creator, GOD. 

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