Al-Ḥajj 22:47

The issue

The verse informs that a day to Allah equals a thousand human years (“…a day with thy Lord is as a thousand years of what ye number”). Muslim exegetes offer varying opinions regarding this matter. Some state that the Lord’s day is the day that Allah created the heavens and the earth. Others state it is one of the end days. However, they agree that the phrase “of what ye number” means the human year.

The source of the day’s length in this verse cannot be ascertained, but it could have been taken from the Bible: “…With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Pet. 3.8). Through the use of simile, this Bible verse means that God is not subject to time and its measures. However, the problem in this Qur’ānic verse is that it denotes a specific unit based on measurements calculated by humans. To stipulate that the actual measure of God’s day is one thousand human years sets up a discrete, finite specification. This absolute measurement is inappropriate when applied to God, who has no limits.

Two other verses further obfuscate this issue. Verse Q 32.5 indicates a day in Allah’s calculation equals the time it takes to travel from the heavens to the earth: “He governs the affair from the heaven unto the earth; then shall it ascend to him in a day, the measure of which is as a thousand years of what ye number.” Yet, in another verse, Q 70.4, it is stated “whereby ascend the angels and the Spirit unto Him in a day whose length is fifty thousand years”.

Question: Is Allah’s day a thousand or fifty thousand years?

Muslim exegetes address this dilemma by stating that distance, not time, is the intention in Q 70.4. They explain that fifty thousand years equals “from the very bottom of the two earths to the highest [point] above the heavens”.

However, another exegetical opinion states that the day of fifty thousand years is the Day of Judgment. As one Islamic commentator explains, “This is Judgment Day, which Allah made it for the misbelievers to be as many as fifty thousand years”.

Perhaps the Qur’ān is referring to different days: the Day of Judgment and the day between heaven and earth. If there is this differentiation, does the fifty thousand years in Q 70.4 then refer to the Day of Judgment or the distance between heaven and earth?