Creation After Creation: Exploring the Sequence of Universes and the Multiverse.

Contents

1. Concept of the sequence of creations

2. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on Universe and Multiverse

3. Ibn al-Qayyim on Divine Attributes and Creation

4. Shaykh Muhammad Bukhayt al-Muti‘i on Past Eternity of Creation

5. Life on Other Planets

It is possible that before our universe there were other universes, and before them were other universes, until past eternity. In other words, Allah, may He be glorified, creates creation after creation. This is the famous issue of the sequence of creations.

2. Fakhr ud din Al Razi on Universe and multiverse.

He said:

وذلك لأنه ثبت بالدليل أنه حصل خارج العالم خلاء لا نهاية له، وثبت بالدليل أنه تعالى قادر على جميع الممكنات، فهو تعالى قادر على أن يخلق ألف ألف عالم خارج العالم، بحيث يكون كل واحد من تلك العوالم أعظم وأجسم من هذا العالم.

And that is because it is proven by evidence that there is endless (created) void outside the world, and it is proven by evidence that Allah The Almighty is capable of all possibilities, for He, the Almighty, is able to create thousands and thousands of worlds outside this world, such that each one of those worlds is greater and more massive than this universe.

Tafsir al Razi under Surah al Fatiha, verse 1 under the tafsir of Al Alameen.

فإنه محسن ويستحيل وجود الإحسان بدون من يحسن إليه، ورزاق فلا بد من وجود من يرزقه، .. ، فلم يكن بد من وجود متعلقاتها، وإلا تعطلت تلك الأوصاف، وبطلت تلك الأسماء، فتوسط تلك الآثار لا بد منه في تحقق معاني تلك الأسماء والصفات

He is Merciful, and mercy must have recipients; He is Provider, so there must be creatures to whom He provides; He is Forgiving, so forgiveness requires forgiven beings.. So there must be creatures who are subjected to the impact of these names and attributes otherwise these attributes will become idle and irrelevant, so there should be creation to reflect the impact of these names and attributes.” (Shifa al-‘Alil. 2/143) See Islamqa

This means Allah’s names and qualities are perfect, creation must be vast enough to reflect them a dimension to why creation might be multiple or extensive.

“There is no proof to suggest that it is not possible that there has been a sequence of creations from past eternity, even when the famous view suggests that this sequence is impossible. Believing that there is a sequence of creations after creations from eternity does not contradict ‘aqidah (Islamic belief), unless we say that a particular creation has no beginning, in the sense that there is no beginning to its existence. This is something that no one has ever said; rather everyone agrees that everything other than Allah, may He be exalted, that existed or exists now, is contingent, meaning that it came into existence after it did not exist, regardless of whether the sequence of creation has a particular time at which it started in the past and a particular time at which it will end in the future, or it, or it does not have a particular time either in the past or in the future, or it does not have one of them.

Do you not see that there is consensus that the delights of paradise are infinite and will not cease to exist at any point in the future, after they had been contingent in the sense that they existed after they did not exist? So it does not matter if you say that there is no end to it, in the sense that the delights of paradise will not cease to exist and will not have an end. But if we say that there is no end to them (the delights of paradise), in the sense that their existence is necessary because of what they are, then that constitutes disbelief.

Similarly, when we refer to the past, we may say that there was a series of creations that had no beginning, in the sense that the sequence of creations does not have a starting point in the past, yet each of them existed after it did not exist.

If we say these creations have no beginning to their existence and no starting point, that suggests that they existed from eternity, and this constitutes disbelief (kufr).

You should read two books: al-Qawl al-Mufid and Hawashi al-Kharidah.”

(Nihayat as-Sul fi Sharh Minhaj al-Usool, 2/103) See Islamqa

Al-Qurtubi said in his Tafseer

. واختلف فيهنّ على قولين: أحدهما ـ وهو قول الجمهور ـ أنها سبع أرضين طباقاً بعضها فوق بعض، بين كل أرض وأرض مسافة كما بين السماء والسماء، وفي كل أرض سكان من خلق الله

‘The view of the majority of scholars is that it refers to seven Earth one above the other, and the distance between one Earth to the other is like the distance between the sky and the Earth. And there are creatures of Allah on each Earth’. [end quote]

The seven Earths are planets like planet Earth, one above the other.

Creatures live on each one of these Earths, but nobody knows the reality of these creatures except Allah. [Islamweb]