after this existence. His words, Most High:

‘Then He turned towards the heaven while it was smoke’ [Fussilat: 11]

indicate, in their apparent meaning, that the heaven was created from something. Nor do the speculative theologians adhere, in their account of the world, to the apparent meaning of revelation; rather, they resort to reinterpretation. For revelation does not state that Allah existed alongside absolute nonexistence, nor is any such statement ever to be found in it. How, then, can it be imagined that consensus was reached on the speculative theologians’ interpretation of these verses, when the apparent meaning of revelation concerning the world’s existence, as we have described it, has been upheld by a group of philosophers?”

I say:

No one among the early generations of the Muslim community or its leading scholars has said that these heavens and this earth were created and came into being without being preceded by anything created. Although some speculative theologians suppose this to be the case or argue for it, this is a false view. For Allah has stated that He created the heavens and the earth in six days, and that His Throne was upon the water.

In Sahīh al-Bukhārī, it is reported from ‘Imrān ibn Husayn that the people of Yemen asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, about the beginning of this matter, and he said: