9 Preface ۞ قُل أَئِنَّكُم لَتَكفُرونَ بِالَّذي خَلَقَ الأَرضَ في يَومَينِ وَتَجعَلونَ لَهُ أَندادًا ۚ ذٰلِكَ رَبُّ العالَمينَYusuf AliSay: Is it that ye deny Him Who created the earth in two Days?1 And do ye join equals with Him? He is the Lord of (all) the Worlds.This is a difficult passage, describing the primal creation of our physical earth and the physical heavens around us. If we count the two Days mentioned in this verse, the four Days, mentioned in verse 10, and the two Days mentioned in verse 12, we get a total of eight Days, while in many passages the creation is stated to have taken place in six Days: see 7:54, n. 1031; and 32:4, n. 3632. The Commentators understand the “four Days” in verse 10 to include the two Days in verse 9, so that the total for the universe comes to six Days. This is reasonable, because the processess described in verses 9 and 10 form really one series. In the one case it is the creation of the formless matter of the earth; in the other case it is the gradual evolution of the form of the earth, its mountains and seas, and its animal and vegetable life, with the “nourishment in due proportion”, proper to each. Cf. also 15:19-20.