day and night, the Sun, the moon, and the signs
of the zodiac (Q 21:33; 25:61–62). The Quran
also states in several places that God created the
heavens and Earth in six days and then estab-
lished his throne (Q 7:54; 10:3, 11:7). Unlike the
Genesis account, however, the Quran refutes the
idea that God ever took the seventh day as a day
of rest (Q 2:255), which Jews and Christians have
celebrated as the holy Sabbath day. God is also
praised for creating gardens with different kinds
of fruits and vegetables for people to eat, and he
is the source of the water that nourishes them (Q
6:141; 21:19). Moreover, he is even remembered
for having provided people with houses and cloth-
ing (Q 16:80–81). The absolute creative power
attributed to God in the Quran later became the
basis for the theological claim that God did not
just create the world “in the beginning,” but that
he is active as a creator at each moment in time
as long as the world exists. It also was invoked in
support of the prohibition against making statues
and paintings of living beings, for in doing so the
artist was thought to be attempting to assume
God’s creative power.
In addition to craftsmanship, God was also
believed to be able to create through speech. Once
he decides to create something, according to the
Quran, all he has to do is say, “Be!” and it is so
(kun fa yakun) (Q 2:117). This kind of creation
is not as common as the craftsman type, but it is
said to have been involved with the creation of the
heavens and Earth, Adam, and Jesus (Q 3:59).
The Quran describes the creation of human
beings in two ways. One concerns the origin of
the first human being, adam. He was fashioned by
God from dust or wet clay (Q 30:20; 6:2; 7:12);
the commentaries likened the process to making
a hollow clay pot. Some early writings said God
used different colors of dust from different places
on Earth, thus explaining the variety of skin col-
ors and personalities that distinguish people from
one another. Alternately, they mentioned that the
dust was taken from the kaaba, JerUsalem, yemen,
the Hejaz, egypt, the east, and the west. As in the
biblical account, God then breathed his spirit (ruh)
into Adam, thus giving him life (Q 15:29). Also,
as indicated above, the Quran says that Adam was
created when God conceived a design and spoke to
the dust, saying, “Be!” (Q 3:59). It does not detail
the creation of Eve other than in very general
terms (Q 4:1). Nonetheless, the commentaries,
drawing upon biblical lore, reported that she was
created from one of Adam’s ribs while he slept.
The second way in which the Quran describes
God’s involvement in creating humans is in terms
of human reproduction. God created humans from
sperm (Q 16:4; 36:77) in the wombs of mothers
(Q 3:6; 39:6). The very first verses many Muslims
believe were revealed to Muhammad were those at
the beginning of Sura 96, which declare, “Recite
in the name of your lord who created, created the
human being from clotted blood” (vv. 1–2). This
passage links God’s creative power to the forma-
tion of the embryo.
The idea that God’s creation is designed for the
material and spiritual benefit of human beings is
central to the Quran. Indeed, God created them to
be his deputies (khalifa) on Earth (Q 2:30). Materi-
ally, the Earth provides people with what they need
to live and enjoy their appointed time on Earth.
Spiritually, everything in creation is intended to
be a reminder that God was the source of all and
that people should worship him. To be ungrateful
and forgetful of God were equivalent to disbelief
and infidelity (kufr). This idea is connected to the
quranic concept of signs (ayat), which are mani-
fest both in the created world and in the sacred
book, for ayat also means verses of scripture. The
interwoven signs of the world and the holy book,
if they are recognized and heeded, lead to God and
salvation. If they are rejected and ignored, they
lead to suffering and damnation (Q 2:164–165;
50:6–8). Although the world of everyday existence
is essentially true and good, the Quran emphasizes
that humans must be more attentive to the affairs
of the next world in anticipation of JUdgment
day. Recognizing that human beings are mortal
and that the world will end one day, the QuranK 172 creation