ما هو الرد الصحيح على من ينكر حديث "خلق الله عز وجل التربة يوم السبت..." بحجة أن خلق الشجر لا يمكن أن يسبق خلق النور؟

Scholars have differed on the authenticity of the Hadith of Turba (soil/earth). Some have deemed it weak due to defects in its chain of narration (isnad) and text (matn), while others have authenticated it.

Those who weakened it cited the following: 1. The Hadith is mawquf (attributed to a Companion or a Successor) to Ka’b al-Ahbar and not marfu’ (attributed to the Prophet, peace be upon him). 2. There is a defect in the isnad, as it is said that Isma’il ibn Umayya narrated it from Ibrahim ibn Abi Yahya, who was accused of lying. 3. It contradicts the apparent meaning of the Holy Quran, which states that the creation of the heavens and the earth and what is between them occurred in six days, whereas the Hadith mentions the creation of the earth in seven days.

Those who authenticated it refuted these defects as follows: 1. The claim that the Hadith is a saying of Ka’b al-Ahbar is weak because all narrations attribute it to the Prophet, peace be upon him. Moreover, the beginning of creation among the People of the Book was on Sunday, not Saturday, as in the Hadith. 2. Isma’il ibn Umayya is trustworthy and not a mudallis (one who conceals defects in narration), and the assertion that he took the Hadith from Ibrahim ibn Abi Yahya is a claim without proof. 3. The Hadith speaks about the details of the earth's creation and the estimation of its provisions during the four days allocated to the earth. These long days were divided into seven temporal stages (days), which does not contradict the Quran. The text narrated by An-Nasa'i combines the six days in the Quran and the seven days in the Hadith. Furthermore, the Hadith is consistent with modern earth sciences regarding the order of creation, and "light" (النور) in the Hadith refers to goodness, not the illumination of the sun, or it refers to the great fish "Nun" (النون) as mentioned in some narrations.

Conclusion: The Hadith is a subject of disagreement among scholars, and the inclination is towards authenticating it due to its consistency with what scholars mention regarding the order of creation, and because "light" (النور) in the Hadith refers to goodness, or "Nun" (النون - the fish), and the illumination of the sun was created before the earth.