Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) took hold of my hand and said, "Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, created the earth on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, the things entailing labour on Tuesday, light on Wednesday, He spread out animals of all kinds on Thursday, and created Adam in the afternoon on Friday, and it was the last hour of Friday between the afternoon and the night."[Muslim].
Commentary:
What does "Day" mean, and how long can it be? Its reality only Allah knows. We observe a day of 24 hours. However, the days of the formation of the universe are evidently different from our earthly days. According to the Arabic language, a day may mean just a moment, but also aeons of time. In the Qur'an also, Allah has mentioned that a `day' may be of one thousand or fifty thousand years. Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir mentions in his Tafsir (1/69) that this is one of the Ahadith classified as Gharib (strange) in Sahih Muslim. Ibn Al-Madini, Al-Bukhari and many others have spoken about it, and have attributed to Ka`b Al-Ahbar; and it may be that Abu Hurairah heard it from Ka`b Al-Ahbar, but some narrators attributed it to the Prophet (PBUH). See Al-Bukhari's commentary in At-Tarikh Al-Kabir (1/413).
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