In line with creation and the word day:
In Sura 22:47 and 32:5 Allah's day is equal to 1,000 human years.
In Sura 70:4, Allah's day is equal to 50,000 human years.
Phew - you had me worried there 🙂
70.4 reads
"The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years"
22.47
And they demand of thee to hasten on the punishment, but Allah will never break His promise. And verily, a day with thy Lord is as a thousand years of your reckoning.
32.5
He will plan (His) Ordinance from the heaven unto the earth, then will it go up to Him in a day the duration of which is a thousand years according as you reckon.
For me 70.4 is a specific span of time for a specific event. 22.47 and 32.5 talk in more general terms of what a day for God is compared to man. The commentaries say even this 1000 years is a general term.
As 70.4 does not say 'one day for God is like a 50,000 years' but talks about a period for the ascension of angels and Spirits, I do not think the verses are contradictory.
What was created first?:
Sura 2:29 says the earth was created first and then heaven.
Sura 49:27-30 says the heaven was created first and then the earth was created.
2.29
He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth; then He turned towards the heavens, and He perfected them as seven heavens; and He has perfect knowledge of all things.
49.27? Ch 49 only has 19 verses - so this must be a typo. Anyway, I presume that there is another set of verses which say heavens were created first.
For me 2.29 does not say that Heaven was created second - but that God turned his attention to it and perfected it after creating the earth.
41.10 talks about the creation of the earth, then
41.11 reads:
Then He turned to the heaven and while it was (something like) smoke, and said to it and to the earth; 'Come ye both of you (in obediance), willingly or unwillingly.' They said, 'We come willingly'.
Now, the earth and universe can't speak, so the commentary for this verse is
"..signifies that everything in the universe is subject to certain laws which it obeys and according to which it works. It has no discretion. It is man alone who has been endowed with volition or discretion.."
I think the descriptions are metaphorical and also a bit vague - so I can't see a clear contradiction here. Heaven is not said to have been created first or second - but perfected second. This could mean that the creation of the earth was God's primary motive - and this is backed up by Hadith which say that the whole universe was created by God for the sake of humans in general.
Perhaps when we get the proper reference to the verses saying Heaven was created first, I can comment further.
When in history did the jews believe Ezra is the son of God?
Surah 9:30 says the Jews believe that Ezra is the Son of God
9.30
And the Jews say, Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say 'the Messiah is the son of Allah', that is what they say with their mouths. They only imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before them. Allah's curse be on them! How they are turned away.
Commentary:
Uzair or Ezra lived in the fifth century BC. He was a descendant of Seraiah, the high priest, and, being himself a member of the priestly order, was known as Ezra, the Priest. He was one of the most important personages of his day and exercised a far-reaching influence on the development of Judaism. He was especially honoured among the Prophets of Israel. The Jews of Medina and a Jewish sect in Hadramaut believed him to be the son of God. The Rabbis associate his name with several important institutions. Renan has remarked in the preface of his 'History of the People of Israel' that the definite constitution of Judaism may be dated only from the time of Ezra. In Rabbinical literature he was considered worthy of being the vehicle of the Law, had it not been already given through Moses. He worked with Nehemiah and died at the age of 120 in Babylonia (Jew. Encl and Enc. Bib)
Also, a number of articles on the subject are on the web, this one has quotes from Orientalists and Ency. Judaica:
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/ezra.html
So, in answer to your questions the Jews in Arabia in the period around the revelation of the Quran had this belief.
Also, this makes sense. The history (and Quran) records that among the 'hypocrites' were many Jews. A group of them joined Islam in the morning, then left in the evening hoping to cause doubt and take people away from Islam (the Quran talks about this specific sequence of events).
So at the time the Jews were there and were critiquing the religion and the Quran. Therefore, if this verse was not true (that Jews called Ezra son of God) - they would have pointed this out at the time and made a big fuss of this (as a proof that God couldn't be revealing something that is so verifiably wrong).
However, this is not one of the objections raised by the Jews of the time.
I suspect that this verse has only been questioned by Christian opponents of Islam - and they raise it as an example of a contradiction/error.
I therefore do not think this is a contradiction (but I have to admit I only looked into this tonight - so if there is more info out there, I'm happy to review).
I'm sorry ebonics, I haven't got time to go to your you-tube link tonight - but if you can type out the verses in question (just the references will do - and why they are contradictions), we can examine those here.
Flying Dutchman - what is your view of the claims of contradictions that I think I've shown aren't contradictions after all. Do you think (like I do) that they were put together by those wishing to discredit the Quran (as opposed to scholars)?
Cheers,
Shafique