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What is the wisdom behind mentioning "seven" in the number of heavens and earth in the Qur'an and Sunnah?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Ibn al-Qayyim mentioned in "Zad al-Ma'ad" that the characteristic of seven is found by divine decree and by religious legislation. The heavens and earths are seven, the days are seven, the creation of man is in seven stages, circumambulation (tawaf), striving (sa'i), and throwing pebbles (ramy al-jamarat) are done seven times, and the Eid takbirat (exclamations of 'Allahu Akbar') are seven in the first rak'ah. The Prophet commanded that seven water skins be poured over him during his illness. The wind was unleashed upon the people of 'Ad for seven nights. Allah multiplies the charity of the giver of a seed that sprouts seven ears of grain, and seventy thousand from this Ummah (nation) will enter Paradise without reckoning.

Sheikh Atiyah Muhammad Salem summarized the words of the author of "Al-Adhb al-Fa'id" by stating that numbers after seven are repetitions of what has been repeated, and that the true end of numbers is the number seven. The prime numbers are one, two, and three. Four is the sum of two and three. Six is the sum of three twice. Seven is the sum of three and four. What is above seven is an endless repetition of what has been repeated: eight is two repeated four times, nine is three repeated three times, and ten is two repeated five times. Therefore, Ibn al-Qayyim said that seven combines the meanings and characteristics of numbers, and it is the end of numbers, with anything beyond it being a repetition of what has been repeated.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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