Reflection 43 – Planet Earth – – – This Spectacular GEM!

There are trillions of planets out there in the universe! Until scientists (maybe one day) find life on other extraterrestrial planets, we only know of Planet Earth. Since its creation, billions of people and all other different creatures lived on it. With no exception, each creature needs nourishment to sustain its life. We, human beings, might struggle to find ends mean to sustain a family of four! So, how is it that these trillions of creations are able to live on this earth each receiving their own share? One is really mesmerized if one thinks deeply of this clear, yet, amazing fact. In addition, we can view Earth as a closed system; in other words, it doesn’t get additional supplies from any other neighboring planet . Therefore, it is very interesting to see how this amazing planet keeps providing for its inhabitants. So, let‘s dig a bit deeper.
In 1826, Thomas Malthus–famous British economist– published his famous essay explaining how population growth and food production increase, with the former being exponential and the latter arithmetic. In short, population growth would eventually outstrip food production, and the world would experience famines. Of course, time proved him wrong for several reasons one of them being that he didn‘t take into account technological advancements. But it‘s quite interesting to contemplate on the idea of how Earth sustains its citizens! In this regard, a closer look at what Allah revealed in the Quran is quite impressive and also serves as an eye-opener. Broadly speaking, the Quran addresses the various creations of Allah and how he is the ONLY provider for every living being be it humans, birds, reptiles or whatever! However, there are two peculiar instances in the Quran that are worth emphasizing.
With so many creations, one might wonder which of them are the GREATEST! Is it the earth? Skies? Human beings? Since we are not aware of the real size of the universe and nor did we witness its creation, the best we can do is to speculate based on available scientific knowledge some of these facts. But, Allah – – The Creator – – can let us know some of this information. So, FACT number ONE. The creation of the skies and earth is GREATER than creation of human beings as mentioned in Surat Ghafer ( INSERT aya 57).
Maybe the more intriguing fact is indicated through a series of ayat in Surat Fusselat ( INSERT 9-12). FACT number TWO is that the entire creation of the skies and earth lasted for six days. Probably the most interesting part is as follows. When we think of Planet Earth compared to the entire universe, we know that it is a tiny dot within this massive universe, so it would be very logical to assume that creation of skies would be greater. However, the flow of the ayat hints us to an opposing fact (however, I won‘t claim it as a fact as there is no consensus amongst Muslim scholars to the best of my knowledge!). Anyhow, it can be clearly inferred from the ayat that creation of Earth lasted for FOUR days while that of the seven skies only TWO days. Therefore, it would be fair to infer that creation of Earth is far GREATER in the eyes of Allah. What is even more interesting is that these four days are divided into the following. It seems that there are TWO distinct stages. The first TWO days witnessed the beginning of the creation of Earth. Then, these TWO days along with another TWO (so a total of FOUR days) witnessed the creation of mountains, the blessing of the Earth, and the decree of all sustenance (for all its inhabitants). Afterwards, Allah created seven skies in TWO days and inspired in each sky its command.
Personally, I believe that looking to Earth from this perspective provides us with a unique way of looking at things. First, Allah created EVERYTHING in this Earth for our own service. Second, its creation tends to be a marvelous one ; one that ENSURES sustenance for every living being and Allah has done so in an ABUNDANT way. I strongly believe that this Western notion of scarcity of resources on which the discipline of economics is based upon is a very contradicting ideology to the Islamic one. Of course, this is NOT to say that we should squander our resources but rather to use them in an efficient manner knowing in advance that Allah has determined and ensured for every one of his creation their fair share that would sustain them. Unfortunately, it‘s human GREED that led us to our current stage of stark inequalities!