An Inquiry into the Interpretation of Arba‘ati Ayyām (Four Days) of Sūrat Fuṣṣilat

Seven verses of the Holy Qur’an have stated the creation of the world in six stages. In verses 9 to 12 of Sūrat Fuṣṣilat, apparently eight stages have been specified. This has prompted the Muslim interpreters and thinkers to try to resolve the apparent contradition between the above-mentioned verses and the other seven verses and provide different viewpoints in line with this necessity. In this respect, what has caused disagreement amonng the interpretation opinions, is the interpretation of the phrase arba‘ati ayyām.The findings suggest that the thinkers’ viewpoints can be divided into six categories. In this library research, various views have been examined and critiqued and finally, the writers have presented a new viewpoint that is a different interpretation of arba‘ati ayyām in verse ten of Sūrat Fuṣṣilat.
Although they have resolved all the views of apparent contradiction and have properly answered the misconceptions about it, they have failed to pay attention to its other aspects. The importance of dealing with all the exegetical aspects of the above-mentioned verses has prompted the writers to look at it from the scholarly point of view.