The Exalted has said: “It is He who created for you all that is on the earth; then He turned toward the heaven and fashioned it into seven heavens, and He has full knowledge of all things” (al-Baqarah 2:29).

He also said: “Say, ‘Do you really disbelieve in the One who created the earth in two days and set up rivals to Him? That is the Lord of all worlds. He placed upon it firm mountains above it, blessed it, and apportioned its sustenance within it in four days—exactly for all who ask. Then He turned toward the heaven while it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, “Come, willingly or unwillingly.” They answered, “We come willingly.” So He completed them as seven heavens in two days, and in each heaven He revealed its command. And We adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and as a protection. That is the determination of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing’” (Fussilat 41:9-12).

These verses show that the earth was created before the heaven, for it is like the foundation of a building. Allah, Most High, says: “Allah is the One who made the earth a stable place for you and the heaven a canopy, who formed you and perfected your forms and provided you with good things. Such is Allah, your Lord; blessed is Allah, Lord of all worlds” (Ghāfir 40:64).

He likewise says: “Have We not made the earth a cradle, and the mountains pegs … and built above you seven mighty heavens and set therein a blazing lamp” (al-Nabaʾ 78:6-13).

And He says: “Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, then We split them apart, and We made from water every living thing—will they not then believe?” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:30), meaning that We separated the heaven and the earth so that the winds could blow, the rains descend, the springs and rivers flow, and living creatures thrive. He then said: “And We made the sky a protected roof, yet they turn away from its signs” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:32), that is, from the fixed stars, the moving planets, the brilliant constellations and luminous bodies He placed therein, and the proof all of this offers of the wisdom of the Creator of the earth and the heavens. As He also says: “How many a sign there is in the heavens and the earth that they pass by while turning away from it! And most of them do not believe in Allah except while associating others with Him” (Yūsuf 12:105-106).

As for His words: “Are you the harder to create, or the heaven? He built it, raised its vault and proportioned it, darkened its night and brought forth its daylight; and after that He spread out the earth, bringing forth from it its water and its pasture, and set the mountains firmly, as provision for you and your livestock” (al-Nāziʿāt 79:27-33), some people have clung to this verse to argue that the creation of the heaven preceded that of the earth, thereby contradicting the two explicit passages cited earlier. They failed to understand this noble verse correctly, for what it actually indicates is that the spreading of the earth and the extraction of its water