A Defense of Sahih Muslim: Was the Earth Created on Saturday?

Text of the Hadith

Ibn Juraij > Ismail ibn Umayyah > Ayyub ibn Khalid > Abdullah ibn Rafi’ > Abu Hurairah > Prophet (SAW) said, “Allah created the earth on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, the things that require labor on Tuesday, and light on Wednesday, and He spread the animals on Thursday and created Adam (AS) after Asr on Friday at the end of creation on the last hour of Friday between Asr and night.” (Sahih Muslim)

There are some obvious problems in the chain and content of this hadith which indicate that it is not Sahih.

Problems in the Content

There are several issues in what the hadith claims:

1. Allah says ⟪We created the heavens and the earth in six days⟫ in the Quran. This appears to contradict the claim of the hadith that creation was made in seven days.
   • People have tried reconciling this in different ways, including by saying these are a different group of days than the one mentioned in the Quran, perhaps days within the creation of the earth.
2. How is it possible light was created after trees were created?
   • Some people have argued it might refer to a light other than the sun, like the moon, or perhaps it actually refers to fish (because some manuscripts of Sahih Muslim have the word نون meaning fish instead of نور meaning light).
3. How is it possible the days of the week (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) existed before the creation of the earth such that you can say the earth was created on Saturday? How can these things have been created 24 hours after each other when it is well-known there were millions of years between the creation of each of them?
   • Some people have argued that the words are used figuratively, not to refer to the actual days of the week, but general units of time.

Problems in the Chain

When there are obvious problems in the content of a hadith, there are almost always corresponding problems in the chain which tell you the reason for the problems in the content. This hadith is no different.

The hadith comes from Ibn Juraij from Ismail ibn Umayyah from Ayyub ibn Khalid from Abdullah ibn Raafi’ from Abu Hurairah from the Prophet (SAW).

1. No one narrated this hadith but Ibn Juraij with this chain. However, Ayyub ibn Khalid was a questionable narrator criticized by several scholars of hadith. Yahya al-Qattan specifically said, “He did not write down his hadith,” implying that he used to make smaller mistakes in memory.
2. Bukhari in his Tareekh mentions that some people narrated the hadith from Abu Hurairah from Ka’b al-Ahbar (a Muslim scholar familiar with Jewish texts), meaning from the Israiliyyaat. This is supported by the fact that the content of the hadith is similar to the creation narrative in the Bible in Genesis.
3. Ali ibn al-Madini argues that it is possible Ismail ibn Umayyah did not actually learn directly from Ayyub and it is possible he received this hadith from weak students of Ayyub ibn Khalid. That is because there is no report of Ismail narrating any other hadith from Ayyub.

Common Conclusion

Based on this and the precedent of scholars like Bukhari and Ali ibn al-Madini, a lot of people who deal with this hadith conclude by saying: The hadith is weak, and Bukhari and other hadith scholars considered it weak. As for Muslim, he may have made a mistake including this hadith in the Sahih, but all scholars can make mistakes.

They might even add that Bukhari is considered a stronger hadith scholar than Muslim.

Others might defend Muslim and give the aforementioned interpretations to justify the hadith as not contradicting any known fact.

In this article, I intend to defend the integrity of Sahih Muslim, not by arguing the hadith is Sahih, but by arguing that Imam Muslim never intended to classify the hadith as Sahih when he included the hadith in his book. In fact, Muslim knew the hadith was questionable or weak.

How Sahih Muslim Works

To understand why Imam Muslim might include a hadith he considered weak in Sahih Muslim, you need to understand Muslim’s methodology in writing hadith in his book.

There are two types of hadith in Sahih Muslim:

1. Primary Hadith (Usul): These are the hadith Muslim places first in his topical sections, and these are the hadith Muslim considers properly Sahih and authentic to his high standard.
2. Supporting Hadith (Shawahid and Mutāba’āt): These are the hadith Muslim places after the primary hadith to support the primary hadith in some way or show them to be weak compared to the primary hadith. This section can include questionable and weak hadith that do not reach the level of Sahih according to Imam Muslim.

As a result, Sahih Muslim is divided into sections where Muslim starts out with primary hadith that are Sahih and supporting hadith that could be authentic or weak but serve to support or compare or contrast with the primary hadith in some way.

Imam Muslim divided his book into large chapters called “books” (like Book of Iman, Book of Salah, and so on). Most people agree Muslim himself named the books, although there are a few who disagreed. Each book, however, is simply a large list of hadith with no section markers or titles.

So, the problem is: There is no explicit indication from Muslim himself about where sections start and end and what topic a section covers.

Later scholars tried to divide Sahih Muslim into sections and title them, coming to different conclusions. Among those scholars was Nawawi whose division is the most prevalent one today.

Nawawi however was criticized for over-dividing and under-dividing sections. Over-division and under-division can lead to misunderstanding what hadith is primary and what hadith is supporting.

For more details on the organization and ordering of Sahih Muslim, see When Less is More: On the Chapter Headings and Organization of Ḥadīths in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim by Muntasir Zaman.

Why This Hadith is Not Primary

The hadith of earth being created on Saturday is found in the book titled “Description of the Day of Judgement, Paradise, and Hellfire.”

Nawawi claimed it to be in its own section about the creation of the universe. However, let us look at the context to determine whether it is justified to consider this hadith primary.

The hadith of the earth being created on Saturday is preceded by a hadith about how Allah will hold the heavens and earth in his hands on the Day of Judgement. It is followed by a hadith about how people will be brought for judgement on a barren, white plain.

Between these two hadith, we have the hadith of earth being created on Saturday.

If this hadith was intended to be primary, it makes no sense to place it here in this order. It has no direct relation to describing the Day of Judgement.

It is possible for someone to argue: Perhaps Allah mentioned this hadith in this chapter to describe the creation of the universe before talking about its destruction.

However: If this were the case, why did Muslim place this hadith after a hadith that already talks about the Day of Judgement, when Allah will hold the heavens and the earth? Should it not go in the beginning of the book?

It is also possible for someone to argue: Perhaps this hadith is only in this book because it implies how the Day of Judgement is close when it says “Adam (AS) was created on the last hour of Friday before night.”

However: Firstly, this still does not explain the ordering between two hadith about a very direct description of the Day of Judgement. Secondly, there is no other hadith on the topic of the Day of Judgement being close in this chapter. Narrations on that topic are listed in a book that comes later “Tribulations and the Signs of the Hour.” It would have been more appropriate to place the hadith there if that was the case.

Finally, Imam Muslim never quoted Ayyub ibn Khalid for any other hadith. Muslim says in his Introduction that he will only bring hadith from narrators of high reliability in his primary hadith. It does not make sense to posit Muslim simply forgot his standards in one narration considering how careful he was in every other part of his book.

What This Hadith Is Supporting

The natural question that arises when we say this hadith is not primary is: If it is a supporting hadith, what exactly is it supporting? You yourself said the hadith before and after seem unrelated in topic.

The answer to this question becomes clear when we thoroughly analyze the narrations mentioned before this hadith as Muslim actually presented them. When we notice what Muslim was concerned about in this chapter, we will understand the purpose of this hadith.

The hadith before is about Allah holding the heavens and the earth on the Day of Judgement. Before going into Muslim’s presentation of the hadith, let us see the chains of the hadith to Ibn Masud:

Mansur and A’mash both narrated the hadith from Ibrahim al-Nakha’i, although they differed on the exact source of Ibrahim. Mansur said Ibrahim narrated it from Abidah from Ibn Masud. A’mash said Ibrahim narrated it from Alqamah from Ibn Masud. It is not impossible he narrated from both or that one of them made a mistake. This, however, is not the main discussion of this article.

Several people narrated the hadith from Mansur and A’mash respectively.

Muslim arranged the transmissions of the hadith as follows.

• Muslim first narrated from Fudhail ibn Iyadh > Mansur > … > Prophet (SAW): “A Jewish scholar came to the Prophet (SAW) and said, “O Muhammad, Allah will hold the heavens on the Day of Judgement on one finger, the lands on one finger, the mountains and trees on one finger, water and pasture on one finger, and all creatures on one finger, then he will shake them and say, ‘I am the King!'” The Prophet (SAW) laughed approvingly and said ⟪They have not appraised Allah with true appraisal, while the earth entirely will be [within] His grip on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be folded in His right hand. Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him.⟫ (39:67)
• Then, Muslim quoted Jarir’s narration from Mansur but noted that Jarir did not have the phrase “then he will shake them” and added the phrase “I saw the Prophet (SAW) laugh approvingly until his teeth were visible.”
• Then, Muslim quoted A’mash’s narration. First, he quoted Hafs’s transmission from A’mash which missed the mountains and combined the trees and pasture in the phrase “the trees and pasture on one finger.”
• Then, Muslim quoted other students of A’mash, Abu Muawiyah and Isa ibn Yunus, who said “the trees on one finger, and the pasture on one finger,” but also did not mention mountains. Jarir did include mountains from A’mash but failed to mention creatures.
• Then, Muslim quoted supporting narrations from Abu Hurairah and Ibn Umar that only briefly mention that Allah will hold the heavens and earth with no list of items.
• Then, Muslim mentioned the hadith of the earth being created on Saturday. Ibn Juraij > Ismail ibn Umayyah > Ayyub ibn Khalid > Abdullah ibn Rafi’ > Abu Hurairah > Prophet (SAW) said, “Allah created the earth on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, the things that require labor on Tuesday, and light on Wednesday, and He spread the animals on Thursday and created Adam (AS) after Asr on Friday at the end of creation on the last hour of Friday between Asr and night.”

The two hadith (the hadith of Allah holding the heavens and the earth and the hadith of the earth being created on Saturday) that originally seemed unrelated, when put side by side, have a clear connection: they mention a list of creation (earth, mountains, trees, etc.).

There are two possible issues Muslim was attempting to answer with this hadith of Saturday:

1. What exactly were the list of things the Jewish man said Allah held in his hand?
2. What does the word الخلائق mean in this context? It was translated before as “creatures” but could also refer to creation in general.

Issue 1: When you look into the different transmissions of the hadith from each of Mansur and A’mash, you will find that the students from all of them differ, often missing one of the items. It is not surprising: a list like this is easy to confuse.

However, Muslim looked at all the narrations and concluded that the full list includes five things: 1) heavens, 2) the lands, 3) mountains and trees, 4) pasture, and 5) creatures.

Then, he found that Fudhail ibn Iyadh had the most complete narration which included all of the list. So, Muslim placed the narration of Fudhail first, then mentioned other transmissions after that.

However, Fudhail ibn Iyadh was not known to be an extremely strong narrator. The other narrations that missed one item from the list or other came from stronger narrators. So, Muslim needed to justify his choice in placing Fudhail’s complete narration first.

The first justification was that different people mention all of the items from the list even if no one properly combined them. That is why Muslim first mentions the different transmissions and how they mention all the items of Fudhail’s list.

However, even after this, to justify Fudhail’s complete narration, at the end of the chapter, Muslim mentioned the hadith of the earth being created on Saturday because it mentions a similar list of creation. The weakness of the hadith was not just irrelevant; it actually helped Muslim’s case. If, as Bukhari opined, this hadith is not actually from the Prophet but actually comes from Jewish sources, then it proves even more that this list of items is what the Jewish man in the time of the Prophet (SAW) would have mentioned.

The list mentioned in the hadith of the earth being created on Saturday is: 1) earth, 2) mountains, 3) trees, 4) things that require work, 5) light, 6) animals, and 7) Adam (AS).

Notably, the list in this hadith misses the heavens and adds light.

Other than that, the list matches Fudhail’s narration perfectly. The earth corresponds to the lands, mountains to mountains, trees to trees, things that require work to pasture and water (i.e. the things that require farming), and animals and Adam (AS) to living things.

With that, Muslim added support to Fudhail’s complete wording of the hadith.

Issue 2: The general meaning of الخلائق is creation, but it can also specifically refer to creatures like humans. This is how the word is used in several other hadith.

However, the list in the hadith of Saturday helps decide on the side of it meaning living creatures, because the list there ends with animals and humans.

Conclusion

This article has shown that it does not make sense to assume the narration of the earth being created on Saturday was intended by Muslim to be a primary narration. In reality, the hadith was only mentioned as support for the authentic hadith about Allah holding the heavens and the earth on the Day of Judgement.

Technical Notes

Question: Why were the hadith of Abu Hurairah and Ibn Umar only placed as supporting narrations instead of their own primary hadith, thus starting a new section?

Answer: Both of them are problematic in different ways despite Bukhari including them. It is possible they are ultimately authentic but Muslim avoided placing problematic narrations as primary hadith.

For example, the hadith of Abu Hurairah was narrated by Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. However, his students differed about it. Yunus narrated it Zuhri > Saeed > Abu Hurairah. Others narrated it Zuhri > Abu Salamah > Abu Hurairah. Ma’mar narrated from Zuhri, “It reached us that the Prophet (SAW) said” and mentioned the hadith. This makes the narration inconsistent.

Question: Why didn’t Muslim use Jarir’s narration instead of Fudhail ibn Iyadh’s if the two were similar?

Answer: Muslim did not mention Jarir’s wording except to note that he missed the phrase “then he will shake them” and added the phrase “I saw the Prophet (SAW) laugh approvingly until his teeth were visible.” So, it is difficult to know exactly what difference he found between Jarir and Fudhail’s narrations other than that except by looking at other sources.

Bukhari and Nasai transmitted the narration of Jarir through the same teachers as Muslim, Bukhari from Uthman ibn Abi Shaibah and Nasai from Ishaq. Muslim narrated from both of them from Jarir.

Bukhari’s narration omitted mountains and trees, and Nasai’s narration omitted mountains.

This can explain why Muslim did not use the narration of Jarir as primary.

And Allah knows best.