The Creation of the Heavens, Earth, and All That Is Between

Ibn Kathir opens al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah with the creation narrative as it is established in the Quran, the authentic Sunnah, and the early tafsir literature, beginning before the existence of the heavens and earth themselves. He presents narrations indicating that Allah created the Pen (al-qalam) before everything else and commanded it to write all that would come to pass until the Day of Judgment, and that the Throne ('arsh) and the Kursi were among the earliest of created things. Ibn Kathir cites the hadith of 'Imran ibn Husayn recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, in which the Prophet informed that Allah existed when there was nothing else, and then created the Throne upon water, then created the heavens and earth. He notes that the Throne is described in numerous Quranic verses as the greatest of created things, encompassing all of creation, and that the Kursi, which is distinct from the Throne, encompasses the heavens and earth as described in Ayat al-Kursi.

The creation of the heavens and earth in six days (ayyam) is addressed with the theological precision characteristic of Ibn Kathir's Athari methodology. He establishes from the Quran that the six days are a genuine description of sequential creative acts, while also noting scholarly discussion on whether these are days as humans understand them or greater periods of time. The creation of the earth is described as occurring in two days, followed by the provision of its sustenance, vegetation, and mountains in four days, and then the creation of the seven heavens in two days. Ibn Kathir connects these Quranic accounts with the principle that Allah was not fatigued by creation, refuting any comparison with the Biblical account of divine rest on the seventh day. He cites the Quranic verse: 'And We did not tire from the first creation, so why would they be in doubt about a new creation?'

The creation of the angels and the jinn receives detailed treatment through the available hadith narrations. The Prophet informed that the angels were created from light (nur), and Ibn Kathir notes that this distinguishes them categorically from human beings and jinn. The jinn were created from fire (nar), specifically from the tip of the flame, before the creation of Adam. Ibn Kathir documents the extensive Quranic and hadith material on the angels: their tremendous number, their different functions, the major angels such as Jibril, Mika'il, Israfil, and Malik the keeper of Hell, the angels of death, and the angels who record human deeds. He acknowledges that much of what is reported about the specific characteristics and numbers of angels derives from Isra'iliyyat and should be treated with caution rather than accepted or rejected without evidence.

Ibn Kathir closes this opening section by articulating his methodological approach for the entire work. He commits to presenting what is established in the Quran and the authenticated hadith as certain knowledge, to evaluating reports graded as hasan or weak according to their appropriate epistemic status, and to identifying material derived from Isra'iliyyat, meaning narrations transmitted from the People of the Book, with the guidance that such material is neither to be believed nor rejected without independent Quranic or prophetic corroboration. This methodological clarity, rooted in the hadith sciences developed by the scholars of the classical tradition, distinguishes the Bidayah from earlier universal histories that incorporated Isra'iliyyat without critical apparatus. The opening chapters thus serve as both a theological foundation and a demonstration of Ibn Kathir's historiographical principles, which he would apply consistently across the fourteen volumes of the completed work.