Malfuzat e Ala Hazrat - some questions 1

[naqshbandijamaati]

:s1:

I am now re-reading the Malfuzat from cover to cover insha Allah...

I came across this today and have some questions: (Q2 means second question in the Malfuzat, A2 means the answer to the second q etc.)

Malfuzat Q2: Sir, I meant the first thing from the worldly things.
A2 Allah created the sky in four days and the land in two; from Sunday till Wed the sky and Thursday till Friday the land. Also on this Friday between asr and maghrib he created Adam :as:

Q4 is it necessary for a preacher (va'iz) to be a scholar ['alim] ?
A4 it is haram for a non-scholar to preach [va'iz karna]

Q5 what is the definition of a scholar?
A5 that he be fully aware of matters of creed (aqaid) and firm (mustaqil) and that he be able to find what he needs from a book without someone else's help.

I really like Q5 and its answer by Sayyidi Ala Hazrat :ra: but his A2 leaves me asking some questions. How is that any different from the Orthodox Jewish/Christian view who say God created the world in six days? When we argue with them we ridicule them for believing in a literal six days and we interpret the Koranic verses to say that "day" doesn't mean "Earth day" (when arguing with a scientist about the scientific validity of the Koran) but a period of unspecified time. Here we see Ala Hazrat apparently taking the literal meaning of days to be days. Can anyone explain this?

 

[.:Amatullah:.]

The verses of al-Qur’an al-Karim speak of creation in six days. These six days are interpreted as periods of time which do not necessarily equal 24hours.[FONT=&quot][1][/FONT] Also, this creation (as mentioned in the Glorious Qura’n) refers to the creation of the heavens and earth.
As for Sayyidi Imam Ahmad Rida’s explanation; it refers to the creation of things pertaining to this world, i.e. the world, heaven, sun etc had already been created and this statement of Ala Hazrat refers to the creation of worldly things such as the sky, trees etc. If the Sun is therefore already in existence, there is no difficulty in having 24 hour days since the 24 hour day is dependent upon the Sun.


This is supported by a hadith in the Mustadrak of al-Hakim. A similar hadith is found in the Sahih of Imam Muslim, however, there is some discussion regarding the latter hadith but this is not the place for it.
And Allah knows Best

[FONT=&quot][1][/FONT] Even if it is taken as 24 hour periods, this would not be a problem for us since our Deen is not dependant upon scientific rational; such rational is not ‘set’ and is always changing.