How is one to respond to the apparent contradictions in Quranic verses concerning "Who was the first Muslim?", "The creation of the universe," and "From what was mankind created?"

The Quran does not contradict itself, and Allah Almighty says: ﴿Do they not then ponder about the Qur’an? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy.﴾

The precedence of "the first of the Muslims" may be relative in time or spiritual. The very first Muslim was Adam, peace be upon him.

The order of creation of beings began with the creation of the earth, then the sky, then the spreading of the earth thereafter. So, the creation of the earth preceded the creation of the sky, and its spreading came after the creation of the sky.

The order of human creation: Adam, peace be upon him, was created from earth (clay and ringing clay), then his offspring multiplied from water (sperm). The Holy Quran mentions the creation of Adam in different stages without contradiction.

His saying, Allah Almighty: ﴿And man says: "When I am dead, shall I then be brought forth alive?" Does not man remember that We created him before, when he was nothing?﴾ This indicates Allah's ability to recreate after creating from nothingness. The verse does not mean that man was not created from anything, but rather that he did not exist before his creation. It is an argument for the Creator's ability to change custom and resurrect the dead.