His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "And He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His Throne was upon the water, to test you which of you is best in deed. And if you say, 'Indeed, you will be resurrected after death,' those who disbelieve will surely say, 'This is not but evident magic.'" "And if We delay for them the punishment to a counted time, they will surely say, 'What is holding it back?' On the Day it comes to them, it will not be repelled from them, and there will envelop them what they used to ridicule." Most of the people of tafsir said: The days are from the days of this world. A group said: They are from the days of the Hereafter, a day from a thousand years. This was said by Ka'b al-Ahbar, and the first opinion is stronger. The mention of "the heavens" suffices for all that is in them, as all of that was created in the six days. The hadiths differ regarding the day of the beginning of creation. Abu Huraira narrated - as reported by al-Tabari - that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, took his hand and said: "Allah created the soil on Saturday, the mountains on Sunday, the trees on Monday, the harmful things on Tuesday, the light on Wednesday, and He spread the animals on Thursday, and He created Adam after the afternoon of Friday." And similar to this is that the beginning was on Saturday in the book of Muslim, and in the proofs of Thabit: "And the creation of Adam was on Friday, and it is not counted as he is a human like the rest of his children. If it were counted, the days would be seven contrary to what is in the Book of Allah." It was narrated from Ka'b al-Ahbar that he said: "Allah began the creation of the heavens and the earth on Sunday, and completed it on Friday, and created Adam in the last hour of it." And similar to this is in most of the records that the beginning was on Sunday. A group said: Allah, the Exalted, created these creations in six days with His ability to create them in an instant. This is a method towards the path of deliberation and time in actions so that humans may perfect their deeds. It was narrated from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, that he said: "The Throne was upon the water, and the water was upon the wind." His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "to test you" is related to (created), meaning that His creation of it was for this purpose. Some people said: It is related to an action whose meaning is: He knew that to test you, and the intent of this speaker is that these creations were not for the sake of humans. And 'Isa al-Thaqafi read: "And if I say" with a dammah on the ta, while the majority read: "you say" with a fatha on the ta. The meaning of the verse is: Indeed, Allah, exalted and glorified is He, has these attributes, and these people with their disbelief are in a position that if you say to them: "Indeed, they will be resurrected," they deny and say: "This is magic." That is: This is a contradiction from you, as every creature acknowledges that Allah is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, so they are among those who acknowledge this, and yet they deny what is much easier than it, which is the resurrection from the graves, as the beginning is harder than the return, and the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of humans. The lam in "And if" indicates that the lam in "they will surely say" is a lam of oath, not a conditional response.

And Al-A'raj, Al-Hasan, Abu Ja'far, Shaiba, and a group from the seven read: "sihir" (magic), and a group read: "sahir" (sorcerer), and this has been mentioned before.

And His saying, the Exalted: "And if We delay for them the punishment" (the verse). The meaning is: And if the punishment that you have been promised by Allah is delayed, they will say: What is this that is preventing this punishment? In a manner of denial. And "al-ummah" in this verse means: the duration, as He said: "And he remembered after a duration" [Yusuf: 45]. Al-Tabari said: It was named that because during it a group of people pass and another group occurs, so it is - in this sense - the long duration. Then He began by informing that the punishment on the day it comes will not be repelled by anything nor diverted, and "haq" means: it settled and surrounded, and it is used in the disliked. And "day" is dependent on His saying: "diverted."