وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ فِى سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍۢ وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُۥ عَلَى ٱلْمَآءِ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًۭا ۗ وَلَئِن قُلْتَ إِنَّكُم مَّبْعُوثُونَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ ٱلْمَوْتِ لَيَقُولَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ إِنْ هَـٰذَآ إِلَّا سِحْرٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ
And it is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days – and His Throne had been upon water – that He might test you as to which of you is best in deed. But if you say, “Indeed, you are resurrected after death,” those who disbelieve will surely say, “This is not but obvious magic.”
Quran 11 7
1-As a general rule we do not look for a scientific alignment with the mutashabihat verses of the Quran.There are criteria that has to be met before an alignment is made between a Quranic verse and science and these criteria are not met.(See comments for criteria that has been developed)
2-Scholars differ in their interpretation of the verse above and suffice it to say that the various interpretations are beyond the scope of the study of Quran and science.
3- Scholars however concur that the arsh of Allah SWT was on water before the creation of the universe and still is.
4-The water of paradise is unlike the water of this universe.Similarly the exact nature of the water referred to in the verse above is unknown to us.
Quran (47:15) Is the description of Paradise, which the righteous are promised, wherein are rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk the taste of which never changes, rivers of wine delicious to those who drink, and rivers of purified honey,
5 – WE DO NOT ASSUME that the water in the verse above is the same entity Allah SWT used to create living organisms on this planet
(21-30)And We created from water every living thing. Would they still not believe?
6- THE APPROACH TO THE VERSE ABOVE IS THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE SUBJECTED TO ANY ANALYSIS FROM A SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE AND NO ALIGNMENT SHOULD BE SOUGHT BETWEEN IT AND SCIENTISITS CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE.
7- We respectfully but vehemently disagree with following statements made by researchers /writers ( A B C D )
A- Before the creation of the skies and the earth al-Arsh was on a fluid (This may refer to the plasmic state of matter before the ‘Big Bang’).
B-Water here perhaps refers to the primordial substance from which all things emerge.It is the perennial, foundational substance out of which the physical universe is created.
C-God created the oval-shaped giant iceball. Thereafter, He exploded the ball with his glorious power which was probably placed in the
center of the proposed universe. The melted water from the ball sheltered the entire universe and the consequent explosion generated dust particles from that the planets and thus other creations of the universe were processed as well.
D- Al-Ma’a (water) is quark-gluon plasma, from which this universe was created
ALLAH KNOWS BEST