Did God create everything beforehand, or is He still creating?

Dear Brother / Sister,

- There is no doubt that Allah created the universe before the time that we live in now. It cannot be doubted that the skies and the earth were created beforehand.

- The expression, “and the trumpet was blown” in the 20^th verse of the chapter Qaf and in similar verses does not indicate the past tense but the present or future tense and it is translated as  “and the trumpet is blown” in the translations of the Quran. In the literature of Arabic, the tradition of using various tenses interchangeably is present. As a matter of fact in the 31^st verse of the same chapter, the expression, “and the Garden was brought nigh to the righteous.” is usually translated as “is brought near” in the translations of the Quran. The wisdom behind such usage is to emphasize that the things are stated that will take place need to be seen as if they definitely took place.

The meaning of the 29^th verse of the chapter ar-Rahman is as follows:

“Of Him seeks (its needs) every creature in the heavens and on earth: every day in (new) Splendour doth He (shine)!”

The interpreters generally focus on the following issues in their interpretations of the verse mentioned above: Allah creates and eliminates, revives and kills, makes rich and poor, increases and reduces, makes high and low, makes people ill and heal them, makes people laugh and cry, punishes and forgives, etc at any moment...

The verse,

"With the power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of Space.” (adh-Dhariyat, 51/47)

indicates the skies are expanding at any moment. It shows that the creation has not ended but it continues. Similarly, the science tells us that some of celestial bodies are continuously destroyed and new ones are created instead of them. For instance, it is known that the creation time of the Milky Way Galaxy is quite recent in comparison to other systems.

It is necessary to examine the relevant verse of the chapter ar-Rhaman from this point of view.

In the verse, attention is drawn to the fact that all of the creatures in the universe are in need of Allah and that He continuously expands His magnitude, grace and generosity; that is, no being or event can take place without His knowledge, will and power. It is mentioned in the Quran on various occasions that there can be no incident or event that the attribute and will of creation of God Almighty is not involved in. However, the 29^th verse, which is translated as, " every day in (new) Splendour doth He (shine)!" has a special emphasis and is of special importance in that it enlightens the following two points:

a) Although the concept of time is used for Allah in the holy texts to make the creatures understand it better, it cannot be interpreted in a way that will limit His absolute will and power. Therefore, that the prohibition of Saturday, which was introduced in order to test the Sons of Israel, is interpreted as He needed resting for one day (see Genesis 2/2-3) is not compatible with the principle of His perfection. There exists a narration that this verse was sent down in order to reject that wrong understanding of Jews. (Ibn Atiyya, V, 229) In this sense, the verse rejects the deist thought, which says, "God were not interested in things like sending revelations, meeting the needs, etc after the creation."

b) The verse refutes the positivist and materialistic ideologies that exclude the will of the Creator; it states that the bright results that science has reached will discover the laws of Allah and will not be able to go beyond it and that all of the findings are nothing but ever-present manifestations of his attribute of creation. (Kur’an Yolu:V/148.)

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