within it the pathways, and creating the mountains, the sands, the hills, and all they contain, in yet another two days. This is what He means by His words,

“And the earth—after that He spread it out” (1),

and by His words,

“Do you indeed disbelieve in the One who created the earth in two days (9) and set up equals to Him? That is the Lord of all the worlds. He set upon it firm mountains rising above it, blessed it, and apportioned within it its sustenance in four days, equally for those who ask,” (2)

while the heavens were fashioned in a further two days. (3)

As for His words, “And Allah has always been All-Hearing, All-Seeing” (4), “All-Forgiving, Most Merciful” (5), and “And Allah has always been Almighty, All-Wise,” (6) it is Allah Himself who has attributed these qualities to Himself and named Himself with them; no one besides Him has bestowed them upon Him. And Allah was—meaning, has always been—so described.

Ibn ʿAbbās then said, “Commit to memory what I have told you, and know that whatever seems contradictory to you in the Quran is like what I have just explained. Allah has revealed nothing without achieving the purpose He intended—yet people do not understand. Therefore, let no part of the Quran seem inconsistent to you, for all of it is from Allah.”

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān (8) transmitted this in the same wording