117 Preface بَديعُ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضِ ۖ وَإِذا قَضىٰ أَمرًا فَإِنَّما يَقولُ لَهُ كُن فَيَكونُYusuf AliTo Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth1: When He decreeth a matter, He saith to it: “Be,” and it is.The previous verse told us that everything in heaven and earth celebrates the glory of God. Lest anyone should think that the heavens and the earth were themselves primeval and eternal, we are now told that they themselves are creatures of God’s will and design. Cf. 6:102, where the word bada'a is used as here for the creation of the heavens and the earth, and kh alaqa is used for the creation of all things. Bada'a goes back to the very primal beginning, as far as we can conceive it. The materialists might say that primeval matter was eternal: other things, i.e., the forms and shapes as we see them now, were called into being at some time or other, and will perish. When they perish, they dissolve into primeval matter again, which stands at the base of all existence. We go further back. We say that if we postulate such primeval matter, it owes its origin itself to God, Who is the final basis of existence, the Cause of all Causes. If this is conceded, we proceed to argue that the process of Creation is not then completed. “All things in the heavens and on the earth” are created by gradual processes. In “things” we include abstract as well as material things. We see the abstract things and ideas actually growing before us. But that also is God’s creation, to which we can apply the word khalaqa, for in it is involved the idea of measuring, fitting it into a scheme of other things. Cf. 54:49; also 25:59. Here comes in what we know as the process of evolution. On the other hand, the “amr” (=Command, Direction, Design) is a single thing, unrelated to Time, “like the twinkling of an eye” (54:50). Another word to note in this connection is ja'ala “making” which seems to imply new shapes and forms, new dispositions, as the making of the Signs of the Zodiac in the heavens, or the setting out of the sun and moon for light, or the establishment of the succession of day and night (25:61-62). A Further process with regard to the soul is described in the word sawwa, bringing it to perfection (91:7) but this we shall discuss in its place. Fatara (42:11) implies, like bada'a, the creating of a thing out of nothing and after no pre-existing similitude, but perhaps fatara implies the creation of primeval matter to which further processes have to be applied later, as when one prepares dough but leaves the leavening to be done after. Badaa, 30:27, implies beginning the process of creation: this is made further clear in 32:7 where the beginning of the creation of pristine man from clay refers to his physical body, leaving the further processes of reproduction and the breathing in of the soul to be described in subsequent verses. Lastly, bara'a is creation implying liberation from pre-existing matter or circumstance, e.g., man’s body from clay (59:24) or a calamity from previously existing circumstances (57:22). See also 6:94 n. 916; 6:98 n. 923; 59:24 nn. 5405-6. (Ed.)