But if We give him a taste of favor after hardship has touched him, he will surely say, "Bad times have left me." Indeed, he is exultant and boastful -
Allah created the Heavens and the Earth in Six Days
Allah, the Exalted, informs of His power over all things, and that He created the heavens and the earth in six days. He mentions that His Throne was over the water before that, just as Imam Ahmad recorded that `Imran bin Husayn said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,
«اقْبَلُوا الْبُشْرَى يَا بَنِي تَمِيم»
(Accept the glad tidings, O tribe of Tamim!) They said, `Verily you have brought us glad tidings and you have given us.' Then he said,
«اقْبَلُوا الْبُشْرَى يَا أَهْلَ الْيَمَن»
(Accept the glad tidings, O people of Yemen!) They said, `We accept. Therefore, inform us about the beginning of this matter and how it was.' He said,
In the verses appearing above, it has been confirmed that the Holy Prophet ﷺ is a Messenger of Allah and an answer has been given to those who engineer doubts about it. At the beginning, in the first three verses (9-11), an instinctively bad human habit has been mentioned with an instruction to Muslims that they should stay away from it.
That man is naturally fickle-minded and haste-prone, and that he tends to be consumed by his immediate condition and puts all concerns of the past and future out of his mind, has been described in the first two verses (9, 10). It has been said: If We let man taste a blessing and then take it back, he loses courage and hope and turns ungrateful. And if We let him taste a blessing after he has suffered from some hardship, he forgets all about his suffering and starts bragging and boasting.
The present world was created by God in six days, that is, in six stages or six periods. There was a period when its surface was covered with water. In this part of God’s domain, only water was seen everywhere at that time. Then, at God’s behest, patches of land emerged and water filled the great hollows which became the seas and the oceans. In this way it was possible for various species of life to come into existence on the earth. God has the power to give an ideal shape to things and events, but He has chosen to fashion this world in a less than ideal way, so that it may serve as a testing ground for man. Indeed, God’s purpose in creating the world and settling human beings upon it was to single out the doers of good deeds. ‘Good deed’ is actually another name for a realistic deed, i.e. one which a man is required to perform in accordance with reality, without there being any pressure upon him to do. The realistic person is one who appreciates the hidden hand of God by peering through the cause-and-effect veil which, by design, He has drawn over His creations; he is one who, in spite of apparently having power, renders himself powerless; one who, in spite of having the option of leading an arrogant life, becomes obedient to God. In the present world, the selection of such realistic persons continues unremittingly. When the period of this selection is over, the present system will be replaced by another standard system in which all good things will be allotted only to those who perform good deeds, leaving all bad things for the wrongdoers. Almighty God does not immediately catch hold of those who deny the truth and the arrogant in view of His rule of giving respite; i.e. He gives them respite to the fullest possible extent, so that they may be warned and reform themselves, or finally prove themselves guilty. This rule of respite becomes a cause of misunderstanding to certain arrogant people. They forget their real position of powerlessness and start indulging in tall talk. But, when they are smitten by God’s scourge, they will there and then come to know how helpless they are in comparison to God.
