“because it has only just come from its Lord.”

The same report was transmitted by Abū Dāwūd in the Book of Manners and by Aḥmad (3/133, 267). The wording cited here, however, is that of the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī, which the author relates with his own chain from him. The ḥadīth is likewise found in Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim’s al-Sunnah (823) and in al-Dārimī’s Refutation of the Jahmiyyah (p. 25).

26- Ibn ʿAbbās reported: A man came to him and said, “I find certain statements in the Quran that seem contradictory to me, and this has weighed upon my heart.” Ibn ʿAbbās asked, “Is it doubt in its truth?” He replied, “It is not denial, but apparent discrepancy.” Ibn ʿAbbās said, “Come, state what has troubled your breast¹.”

The man said, “I hear Allah say”—he mentioned several verses and then continued—“and in His words: ‘Has He not built the heaven? He raised its vault and proportioned it, He darkened its night and brought forth its morn, and after that He spread out the earth’ (79:27-30) He speaks here of creating the heaven before the earth. Yet in another verse He says, ‘…He apportioned therein its sustenance in four days—alike for those who ask. Then He turned to the heaven while it was smoke…’ (41:10-11), and there He mentions creating the earth before the heaven.”

Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “As for His words, ‘Has He not built the heaven…,’ He created the earth in two days before the heaven; then He rose over the heaven and fashioned the seven heavens in another two days; after that He descended to the earth and spread it out. Its spreading (dahy) means that He brought forth from it water and pasture.”

It was recorded by al-Bukhārī².

27- Abū Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Allah, the Exalted, says,

“I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him whenever he remembers Me. If he remembers Me inwardly, I remember him inwardly; and if he remembers Me in an assembly, I remember him in an assembly better than theirs. If he draws near to Me a handspan, I draw near to him an arm’s length; if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom; and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.”³

This is an authentic ḥadīth. It clearly distinguishes between internal speech and audible speech: the Exalted speaks by both. He is the One who spoke directly to Moses and called to him from