Reconciling the Hadith of the Distance with the Saying of Allah the Exalted: “It ascends to Him in a day the measure of which is a thousand years”
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah keep you safe, you mentioned the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that the distance between the earth and the sky is five hundred years. What is the reconciliation between this hadith and the saying of Allah the Exalted:[As-Sajdah 32:5]
Answer:
Complete, complete the question. The question is also:[Al-Ma'arij 70:4] five years. It came in a verse as fifty thousand years, and in a verse it came as one thousand years, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that the distance between the lowest heaven and the earth is five hundred years.
The closest thing that can be said, and Allah knows best, is that this varies according to the speed of the journey. The fast journey is five hundred years. The slow journey is a thousand years. A journey slower than that is five hundred years. This is the view that it varies. The difference in the estimates in the texts is due to the difference in the speed of the journey. Some of it is fast and some of it is slow.
And some of the scholars say that the meaning of fifty thousand years is the distance from the lowest earth to the seventh sky, which is fifty thousand years. And the meaning of a thousand years is from the surface of the earth to the end of the lowest sky, because the lowest sky is five hundred years, and the distance between it and the earth is five hundred years. What is the total? A thousand years. So a thousand years means from the surface of the earth to the end of the lowest sky. So the distance between the earth and the lowest sky is five hundred years, and the span of the lowest sky is how much? Five hundred years. The total is a thousand years. As for the five hundred years as in the Hadith, this is five hundred years. This is also an answer. And some of the scholars suspend judgment. Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him), when he listed these opinions in his poem al-Nuniyyah, suspended judgment at the end and said, “Allah knows best.” Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah keep you safe, you mentioned the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that the distance between the earth and the sky is five hundred years. What is the reconciliation between this hadith and the saying of Allah the Exalted:
then it will ascend to Him in a Day, the extent of which is a thousand years of those which you count.
يَعْرُجُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَAnswer:
Complete, complete the question. The question is also:
The angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him during a Day the extent of which
تَعْرُجُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُThe closest thing that can be said, and Allah knows best, is that this varies according to the speed of the journey. The fast journey is five hundred years. The slow journey is a thousand years. A journey slower than that is five hundred years. This is the view that it varies. The difference in the estimates in the texts is due to the difference in the speed of the journey. Some of it is fast and some of it is slow.
And some of the scholars say that the meaning of fifty thousand years is the distance from the lowest earth to the seventh sky, which is fifty thousand years. And the meaning of a thousand years is from the surface of the earth to the end of the lowest sky, because the lowest sky is five hundred years, and the distance between it and the earth is five hundred years. What is the total? A thousand years. So a thousand years means from the surface of the earth to the end of the lowest sky. So the distance between the earth and the lowest sky is five hundred years, and the span of the lowest sky is how much? Five hundred years. The total is a thousand years. As for the five hundred years as in the Hadith
So this is from the surface of the earth to the lowest sky,
فهذا من وجه الأرض إلى السماء الدنيا،
Source
المسافة بين السماء والأرض — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.