There are two components of Muhammad's universe: God and the world. Of these, God is the more remarkable. He is eternal - He has always existed, and always will. He is omniscient: not a leaf falls without His knowledge. He is omnipotent: when He decides something, He has only to say "Be!"and it is. Above alla, He is unique: He is one, and there is no other god but Him; He has no partners in His divinity. Furthemore, He is merciful and beneficent - but reasons we shal come to, He is frequently angry. The rest of the universe - the seven heavens, the earths, and their contents - was created by Him and belogs to Him. This feat of creation was achieved in six days (though the days in question would seem to have been divine days, each equivalent to a thousand human years). The basic structure of the world is fairly simple, although the scanty Koranic data have to be completed from tradition. The lower part, which was created first, consisted originally of a single earth which God then split into seven. The seven earths are arranged one above another like a stack of plates; we inhabit the top one, and the devil the bottom one, which is hell. Above the earths God placed an analogous stack of heavens; the lowest heaven is our own sky, the topomost is Paradise. The scale is generous by terrestrial standards: the standard distance, that between any two neighbouring plates, takes five hundred years to traverse, and larger dimension are encountered at the top and bottom. The whole structure is said to have posed serious underpinning problems, to which colourful solutions were found; but these and other details need not detain us. God in so far as He may be said to be in any particular place, is at the top of the world. Having created it, He did not leave it to run itself, or delegate the responsability to others. Rather He continues to attend to it in every detail. He hold back the sky to prevent it falling on the earth; and He it is who makes rain to fall and trees to grow. The world contains more than one form of intelligent life; but it is mankind which receives the lion's share of divine attention. The human race is monogenetic: we all descend from Adam, who was made from dust, and his consort, who fashioned from him. Despite this admission, the record of human conduct has to a large extent been one of disobedience to God. Sooner rather than later, history will end in a cataclysmic destruction of the world as we know. The entire human race will be brought back to life. God will then proceed to judge men acording to their deeds with the aid of blances; the saved will spend the rest of eternity amid the colourful delights of Paradise, while those found wanting are consigned to the pains of hell.
Casalino Pierluigi, on June 24th 2014
Casalino Pierluigi, on June 24th 2014