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events.
The problem occurs for you because of the limitation of translators to adequately express the meaning of the Arabic words called harf. The word thumma that is often translated as 'then' is one of these words that have many shades of meaning that change with idiomatic usage. The scholars of grammar have written copiously on these matters and I am in no position to follow them but let me quote from an Arabic-English dictionary starting with its root thamma = there/ min thamma = hence, therefore, for that reason
Thumma = then, thereupon; furthermore, moreover; and again, and once more…..
You can look these up in the Hans Wehr dictionary edited by J. Milton Cowan.
The point I am making is that meaning is contextual to the Arabic sentence and not to the approximation of a translation. When I asked whether 2 was actually 2 this is what I was alluding too. Your argument is based on other than the Qur'an.
The exact point of existence of the Heaven cannot be discerned from verse 41:11 but it does show that the earth and the primal or first Heaven exist, in unfinished form, together prior to the primal Heaven being divided into seven. So you see it was not my imagination but the simple text of the Qur'an where Allah (swt) turns to the primal Heaven that He had created previously, and if you refer to the meanings of thumma you can see that it can mean once more. This is confirmed by verse 2:29: "He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things." where the Heaven exists prior to its division into seven heavens ie during the four days of verse 41:10 if it were otherwise Allah (swt) would have turned his attention to the void! I stress again that the Qur'an is articulated in Arabic and the discussion of the grammar of the translation and its detailed meaning is of little value.
Now your point about the mountains, I believe myself to be a created being and yet I am no longer a baby. This is because of my place in the ongoing development of created things. Let us look again to science. We are fairly certain that the gas and dust of primal matter gathered into a ball that compressed by gravity into a glowing molten ball. This was the creation of the Earth. As the molten mass cooled it shrank and unable to resole the stresses any other way the first mountains appeared on the surface of the Earth. This is the growth and development of the created thing. The concept of "finished" meaning all the process of creation is over is something that you have sought to impose on these verses.(a) This is how we time bound creatures might see things but Allah (swt) is independent of time for it is His creation and for all we know we might still be within those six days. If this is the case He (swt) has not only told us what has happened but also something of what is to be. Wal 'asri, inal-insana la fi khusr.
The answer to your simple question as to why Allah (swt) took six days over Creation is equally simple; that is what He (swt) intended for creation. The ideas of instantly or delayed or extended have no bearing upon the reality of Allah (swt) they are merely the manner in which we perceive the emanation of His manifest Will.
Why do you say that you do not doubt 2:26 and then qualify it by saying that a parable or simile is only valid if it is within your perception of reality. It is mans lack of knowledge that may make things appear 'preposterous'. The very nature of a simile is that it may not be a real or possible event but that it describes the attributes of a real event.
You ask again, "And one can reach this extreme points over a night. How come?"
You asked how is it possible to travel the distance from Sunrise to Sunset in a single night and I told you; by sitting still and letting the Earth move you.
You may have heard of the English comedy writer Dennis Norden he used to claim to have a disease called literalism the symptoms of this disease were that he took well-known idioms and translated them literally. He was very funny. The Arabs were in no doubt of the meaning of 188:86 and 90 because the idioms were in their common and poetic tongue. As I listed for you there are many commonly understood phrases that mean something quite different to their literal meaning. You seem to be having a problem with the word translated as 'in'. Again it is a harf or preposition. Fi = in, at on, near, by, within, during, among, in the company of, with, with reference to…. It has a very long entry and my point is to read it as literally meaning 'in' creates many problems. May I offer the example that in English I say, 'I sleep in a bed.' But an Arab would understand this as actually within the bed and a literal translation of my statement would seem nonsensical to him.
So to Surah 36, but lets start from verse 37 which I know will interest the scientist in you, not that I believe there is anyone else within you but one has to be so careful with idioms and other figures of speech. 36:37 talks of withdrawing the day (light) from the night to make darkness and of course we now define darkness as the absence of light but many legends and philosophies at that time had other explanations.
To understand 36:38 we need to look at the science (sic) that described the planetary motions at that time ie astrology. The apparent motion of the Sun across the sky is limited by time each day and its angle of declension through the Solar year. This fulfils one possible translation for tajri limustaqarril laha = running within its limits, and this understanding is linked to the preceding verse's discussion of day and night. The second meaning is the translation that you use of a house or a dwelling place that is fixed. Despite the apparent motion of the Sun, and some would say its actual rotation through the galaxy, it has a fixed relationship to the planets. The planets wander through the houses of the zodiac but the Sun is fixed and stays in the Solar House.
The following verse 36:39 according to Pickthall: "And for the moon We have appointed mansions till she return like an old shrivelled palm-leaf."
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