Likewise, none of the early generations of this Ummah or its leading scholars said that the heavens and the earth were not created from matter. Rather, reports transmitted from them through numerous independent channels state that they were created from matter and over a period of time, as the Quran indicates. Allah Most High says:

“Do you indeed disbelieve in Him who created the earth in two days and set up equals to Him? That is the Lord of all worlds. (9) He placed firm mountains upon it, blessed it, and apportioned its sustenance in exactly four days—for those who ask. (10) Then He turned to the heaven while it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, ‘Come, willingly or unwillingly.’ They said, ‘We come willingly.’ (11) Then He formed them into seven heavens in two days.” [Fussilat: 9-12]

And He Most High says:

“It is He who created for you all that is on the earth, then turned to the heaven and fashioned them into seven heavens. And He has knowledge of all things. (29)” [al-Baqarah: 29]

What many speculative theologians—the Jahmiyyah and others like them—say concerning the beginning is comparable to what they say concerning the end: that the bodies of the universe—even Paradise and Hell—or their movements will cease to exist. Or they deny the existence of the soul and its experience of bliss and torment, saying that these belong only to the body, without a soul. They claim that the spirit is merely an accident of the body, and make other such assertions in which they contradict the Quran and Sunnah. In these matters, they and the philosophers occupy opposite extremes. These innovations of the speculative theologians are false by the consensus of the early generations of this Ummah and its leading scholars.