Does Allahs day equal to 1,000 human years (Sura 22:47, 32:5) or 50,000 human years (Sura 70:4)? They wrote: Numerical discrepancies in the Quran: Does Allahs day equal to 1,000 (Sura 22:47, 32:5) or 50,000 years (Sura 70:4)? Response: Answering-islam refers here to Surah 22:47 “Yet they ask thee to hasten on the Punishment! But God will not fail in His Promise. Verily a Day in the sight of thy Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning.” and Surah 70:4 “ The angels and the spirit ascend unto him in a Day the measure whereof is (as) fifty thousand years.” Surah 70:4 refers to the day of judgement, which is confirmed in the next hadith: Muslim in his Saheeh nr. 987 Abu Hurayrah said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “There is no owner of treasure who does not pay his zakaah, but it will be heated in the Fire of Hell and made into plates with which his sides and forehead will be branded until Allaah passes judgement between His slaves on a Day the length of which will be “like fifty thousand years”, then he see shown his path and whether it leads to Paradise or to Hell. And there is no owner of camels who does not pay zakaah on them, but a soft sandy plain will be prepared for him and they will be made to step on him. Every time the last of them has gone the first of them will return, until Allaah passes judgement between His slaves on a Day the length of which will be “like fifty thousand years”, then he will see his path and whether it leads to Paradise or to Hell. Now let us take a look at the next hadith: k Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 25, Number 3658 The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) then said: Rejoice, you group of poor emigrants, in the announcement that you will have perfect light on the Day of Resurrection You will enter Paradise “half a day” before the rich, and that is “five hundred years. “ k Some scholars interpretated this last hadith to mean “that the day of Resurrection will be 1000 years, since half a day is five hundred years”. If we accept this interpretation there would seem to be a contradiction bewteen the lenght of the day of Resurrection, is it 1000 years or 50.000 years ? However i shall demonstrate that this interpretation of the last hadith is not correct. One day with our Lord (means: in the afterlife, after the resurrection) is as 1000 years of our Reckoning (see Surah 22:47). In soerah 70:4 we are told that the Day of Resurrection has a measure of 50.000 years in totality (nowhere does Surah 70:4 us tell that one day with our lord is as 50.000 years of our reckoning). This clearly means that that whole period of the day of Resurrection consists of 50 days/periods, since one day with our Lord is as 1000 years. Therefor the Day of Resurrection has: 50.000 / 1000 = 50 days/periods/stages in it , from which each day/period/stage measures a 1000 years ( see Surah 22:47). Al-Qurtubi Tafsir 70:4 Imam Al-Qurtubi in his tafsir after citing different views on this topic writes:“Yaman related that 50,000 years refers to judgment day, for in it are 50 stations each of which will last for a 1,000 years…” Now with the correct knowledge regarding this issue we can interpretate the hadith of Sunan Abu Dawud correctly, which tells us that the poor will enter paradise half a day before the rich, which refers to half a day of one (seperate) day/period/stage (which is 500 years) in the “Day of Resurrection”. And “not” the half of the whole Day of Resurrection ! Nowhere does the hadith in Sunan Abu dawud or any other version mention this ! Notice also carefully how the Prophet in the hadith of Sunan Abu Dawud makes a difference/seperation between the Day of Resurrection and “half a day” . When one reads carefully this hadith, one sees that “half a day” not at all refers to half the Day of Resurrection (as some scholars wrongly stated). If the prophet wanted to refer to half the Day of Resurrection he would have said: “You will enter Paradise half “that” day before the rich” . However the Prophet clearly didn’t referred to the whole Day of Resurrection, since he specificly in the hadith uses the expression “half a day” , which clearly refers to another day then the whole Day of Resurrection. In other words theres no contradiction between the quranic verses and hadith regarding this issue if we use the correct interpretation (which is supported by the Quran and authentic hadith). And Allah Almighty knows best. What about Surah 32:5 ? Let’s take a look at Surah 32:5 which says:“He regulates the affair from the heaven to the earth; then shall it ascend to Him in a day/period the measure of which is a thousand years of what you count.” Ansar Al-Adl writes: “This verse mentions that the affairs/commands of God descend to earth and return to Him, this period being one thousand years of our reckoning. Alternatively, it may refer to the laws of science, which govern the universe and the period it takes for them to return.” Moreover Ibn Kathir was of the view that this ayah pertains to distance [see: The English translation of “Tafsir Ibn Kathir” , published by Darussalam, Riyadh, Volume 7, Pg., 608].
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 10:39:51 +0000
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