Creation in Genesis

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

This will deal with The Book of Genesis, chapters 1 and 2 إن شاء الله.

Summary of Creation

In the beginning: The heavens and the earth were created.

Day 1: Light was created. Day and night become two distinct periods of time.

Day 2: The firmament which separated the waters above from the waters below was created.

Day 3: The waters under the firmament were gathered together so that dry land could appear. Plant life is created.

Day 4: The sun, moon, and stars are created.

Day 5: Sea life and birds are created.

Day 6: Land animals were created. Man was created "in the image of God".

Day 7: Siesta.

The Number 7

וַיְכַל אֱלֹהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה; וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, מִכָּל-מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה. וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ: כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכָּל-מְלַאכְתּוֹ, אֲשֶׁר-בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת

"And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation." [Genesis 2:2-3]

الله الذي خلق السماوات والأرض وما بينهما في ستة أيام ثم استوى على العرش ما لكم من دونه من وليّ ولا شفيع أفلا تتذكرون

"God is He Who created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six periods, and He mounted the throne (of authority); you have not besides Him any guardian or any intercessor, will you not then mind?" [Surat As-Sajdah 32:4]

إن ربكم الله الذي خلق السماوات والأرض في ستة أيام ثم استوى على العرش يدبر الأمر ما من شفيع إلا من بعد إذنه ذلكم الله ربكم فاعبدوه أفلا تذكرون

"Surely your Lord is God, Who created the heavens and the earth in six periods, and He is firm in power, regulating the affair, there is no intercessor except with His permission; this is Allah, your Lord, therefore serve Him; will you not then mind?" [Surat Yunus 10:3]

The first noteworthy issue is the usage of the number 7 in the creation account as told in the Bible. According to the Bible, the heavens and the earth, and all that in them is, were created, by God, in 6 days and that he rested on the 7th day. Why is the number 7 significant? It is the basis of one form of how we keep track of time.

Day: One terrestrial cycle.

Month: One lunar cycle.

Year: One solar cycle.

Week: No astronomical significance.

Why, then, is a week defined as 7 days? Why do we even need weeks at all? There is no sufficient explanation apart from divine intervention. It might be a bit of a stretch to say that the 7 day week proves the existence of a deity, but if we can establish by other means that a deity exists, the 7 day week could serve as evidence for the correctness of an Abrahamic religion (Judaism, Christianity, or Islam). It is only in Abrahamic religions (and their derivatives) that the number 7 has any particular significance. For example in Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) the numbers 6, 9, 11, 108, etc could all be viewed as sacred numbers depending on which deity you worship. It is much the same with other faiths. There are sacred numbers in most religions, but it is only in the Abrahamic traditions that the number 7 is particularly significant.

The Order of Creation

The second noteworthy aspect of this creation account is the order in which everything was created. Does this account contradict modern scientific findings? At first glance, it would appear so. After all, it is a known fact that all of the stars, including our own Sun, were in existence long before the earth was even created, yet according to Genesis 1:1; 14-18 the sun, moon, and stars were all created 3 days after the earth. However, if we view this from a different, slightly less literal angle, it can be noted that the creation account as presented in Genesis is perfectly inline with scientific discoveries. Imagine for a moment that you are able to stand on the earth and observe all of this occurring. You would have no idea what is going on in space. Your only frame of reference is looking up and around as the time passes. According to the creation account in Genesis, the earth was originally covered in water. This agrees with scientific findings that the earth was originally covered in a liquid primordial soup. The atmosphere had not yet developed and there was a lot of dust particles surrounding the earth so you could not see out into space. The first act of creation is the creation of a light and the separation of the light from the darkness (day and night). If you were standing on the earth and looked up, as the dust began to clear, you would be able to make out a light. This light would come and go every single day. You could not, however, determine a source for the light. With the dust slowly starting to settle and the light becoming visible, the earth inevitably begins to heat up on the surface. This heat causes a phenomenon known as evaporation. Liquid water turns into a gaseous water vapor which ascends into the sky to form clouds. When sufficient water vapor has accumulated in the clouds, it rains. This is consistent with the Genesis account that a firmament was made in the sky where water was above it (in the atmosphere) and also below it (on the earth). After the firmament was created, dry land appeared. According to Genesis, God did not create the dry land. God gathered the ocean water together and the dry land appeared. This is also consistent with a modern understanding of plate tectonics. As the molten core of the earth swirled around, the plates also moved around and eventually overlapped each other with the land pushing out of the oceans. Thus the water was gathered together and the dry land appeared. It is at this point that life begins to appear on earth. It is a scientifically accepted fact that basic, single celled organisms, existed before the dry land pushed up out of the oceans, but the first form of significant life, that which you can see with your own eyes, was the plants. To survive, plants perform photosynthesis, a process in which they absorb light and carbon dioxide to produce glucose, their food. Oxygen is a waste product from this process. Since plants require light to survive, it is only logical that plant life should appear around the same time as more and more dust clears from the sky and the sun appears in all of its glory. It is on "day 4" that the sun, moon, and stars are "created" (or appear for the first time from the perspective of someone on earth). After the celestial bodies appear, next to appear is the sea life and the birds. This is also consistent with the fossil records that scientists use to determine earth's history. After the sea life and birds appear, it is time for the land animals. This is a huge step forward and science has confirmed that land animals evolved from sea life that gradually moved onto dry land. The fine life form to be created, according to the Genesis narrative, is humankind. It is a known scientific fact that humans are among the newest species to live on earth, so it is only natural that the Bible should make note of this.

Location of the Garden of Eden

וְנָהָר יֹצֵא מֵעֵדֶן, לְהַשְׁקוֹת אֶת-הַגָּן; וּמִשָּׁם, יִפָּרֵד, וְהָיָה, לְאַרְבָּעָה רָאשִׁים. שֵׁם הָאֶחָד, פִּישׁוֹן--הוּא הַסֹּבֵב, אֵת כָּל-אֶרֶץ הַחֲוִילָה, אֲשֶׁר-שָׁם, הַזָּהָב. וּזְהַב הָאָרֶץ הַהִוא, טוֹב; שָׁם הַבְּדֹלַח, וְאֶבֶן הַשֹּׁהַם. וְשֵׁם-הַנָּהָר הַשֵּׁנִי, גִּיחוֹן--הוּא הַסּוֹבֵב, אֵת כָּל-אֶרֶץ כּוּשׁ. וְשֵׁם הַנָּהָר הַשְּׁלִישִׁי חִדֶּקֶל, הוּא הַהֹלֵךְ קִדְמַת אַשּׁוּר; וְהַנָּהָר הָרְבִיעִי, הוּא פְרָת.

"A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Hav′ilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris (or Hiddekel), which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates." [Genesis 2:10-14]

Two of the four rivers are well known. The Tigris and the Euphrates both flow through the modern day countries of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They meet and combine into one river in Southern Iraq where it empties into the Persian Gulf. However, the Pishon and Gihon rivers are lost. Ancient scholars believed that the Pishon and Gihon rivers were different names for the Nile and the Ganges. However, this would be a direct contradiction of the Bible because the Nile, Ganges, the the Euphrates-Tigris do not intersect with each other. There is another possibility, however. Modern scholarship has identified the Pishon and Gihon as possibly being ancient names for the Wadi Batin and Karun river (respectively). Please note the following two maps.

As can be seen above, all four rivers intersect and then empty into the Persian Gulf. Is the Garden of Eden located in the Persian Gulf? Potentially.

וַיְגָרֶשׁ, אֶת-הָאָדָם; וַיַּשְׁכֵּן מִקֶּדֶם לְגַן-עֵדֶן אֶת-הַכְּרֻבִים, וְאֵת לַהַט הַחֶרֶב הַמִּתְהַפֶּכֶת, לִשְׁמֹר, אֶת-דֶּרֶךְ עֵץ הַחַיִּים.

"He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." [Genesis 3:24]

Have you ever seen a cherubim with a flaming sword? I know that I haven't. Have archaeologists ever found a garden with a cherubim and a flaming sword guarding it? Not that I know of. Considering the fact that nearly every possible location on earth (above the water) has been thoroughly explored, it is not completely unreasonable to suggest that the Garden of Eden is somewhere underwater. And where else on earth do the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates all meet and form a single river? Nowhere. It is for this reason that I conclude that the Garden of Eden is located underneath the water of the Persian Gulf. Naturally it will have gone to waste from being underwater for thousands of years, so even if the entire floor of the Persian Gulf is explored at some point, it would not be a surprise to discover that a mystical garden is not located there. But according to the Bible and archaeology, it might have been there at one point.

Conclusion

If one were to read the first two chapters of Genesis from the perspective, not of being in outer space and observing what is truly created in chronological order but, of someone that is observing all of this from earth, the creation narrative is not far fetched. Everything, from this perspective, is in its proper chronological order and fits with science quite nicely. The "days" are not literal. If they were, then somebody with an even rudimentary understanding of science would be able to reject the Biblical creation story. One thing that is interesting to note is that the Book of Genesis was written around 3,500 years ago at the time of Moses. This was thousands of years before scientists had discovered how the earth was formed and how life had evolved. The people of 3,500 years ago were very simple and probably did not have any words to describe billions of years. For this reason, it is written as days. A day is much more comprehensible to a person living in such a time. Another reason for the usage of the term day could be in relation to what God did on the seventh "day". He rested. Not only did he rest but he hallowed the 7th day of the week in honor of his rest. One of the big laws of Judaism is the command to keep the Sabbath (seventh day) holy and to abstain from all secular work on that day. Did God really need to rest? No, he did not. God is omnipotent and does not get tired. But he did want his followers to rest every 7 days so he gave them this summarized version of how the earth came to be. When God created human beings, he created a paradise on earth to house them. This paradise was known as the Garden of Eden. It is, thanks to modern archaeology and the records left in the Bible, possible to determine the rough location of this paradise on earth. It was located somewhere in the Persian Gulf.

في أمان الله