and the pasture actually emerged from it only after the heaven had been created, even though these things had already been allotted within it in potential form. As the Exalted says:

“He blessed it and apportioned in it its sustenance” (Fussilat 41:10),

meaning that He prepared the sites for cultivation and the channels for springs and rivers. Once He had completed the fashioning of the lower and the upper realms, He spread the earth and brought forth what had been deposited within it: the springs gushed, the rivers flowed, and crops and fruits sprouted.

For this reason the verb dahaʾ (to spread) has been explained as “bringing forth its water and pasture and anchoring the mountains,” as in His words:

“And the earth, after that, He spread it—He brought forth from it its water and its pasture—and the mountains He set firmly” (al-Nāziʿāt 79:30-32).

His saying, “and the mountains He set firmly,” means that He fixed them in the places He appointed for them, strengthening and consolidating them.

Likewise His words:

“We built the heaven with strength, and surely We are expanding it; and the earth We spread out—how excellent a spreader We are! And of everything We created pairs, so that you might take heed” (adh-Dhāriyāt 51:47-49).

“With strength” here means “with power.” The phrase “surely We are expanding it” refers to the fact that whatever is higher is more spacious: every heaven above the next is broader than the one beneath it. Thus the Kursī is above the heavens and wider than all of them, and the Throne is far greater than all of that by a vast measure.

Then He says:

“And the earth We spread out,” that is, We leveled it and made it a cradle—stable and still, neither shaking nor tilting beneath you. Hence the verse adds, “how excellent a spreader We are!” The conjunction waw here does not indicate chronological order; in Arabic it merely conveys an unrestricted statement. Allah knows best.

Al-Bukhārī relates: ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth narrated to us—my father narrated to us—al-Aʿmash narrated to us—Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād narrated—from Ṣafwān ibn Muḥriz, who reported from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn:

I entered upon the Prophet ﷺ after tethering my camel at the door. A group from Banū Tamīm came to him and he said, “Accept the glad tidings, O Banū Tamīm!” They replied, “You have already given us glad tidings, so grant us something,” and they repeated this twice. Then a group from Yemen entered, and he said, “Accept the glad tidings, O people of Yemen, since Banū Tamīm would not accept it.” They said, “We accept, O Messenger of Allah. We have come to ask you about this matter.” He said, “Allah existed and nothing else existed with Him. His Throne was upon the water. He then wrote in the Record every thing, and He created the heavens …”