He plans every affair down to the finest detail

Allah reminds them of a fundamental truth: How can you deny this messenger to whom revelation has come?

By denying him, you forget that he has a Lord and that this Lord is your Lord too.

Your Lord is Allah, the One who created the heavens and the earth فِى سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ‎ (that is, in six days).

Let us pause here for a moment on the word أَيَّامٍ‎ (ayyam), the plural of يَوۡمٍ‎ (yawm), which means “day”. Our counting of days is based on the rotation of the Earth, that is, on the rising and setting of the Sun. This is how we calculate a 24-hour day.

But when Allah was creating the universe, there was not yet the Sun or the Moon; these celestial bodies did not even exist. So the span of time that makes up a “day” in this context cannot be a day in the sense we understand it.

This is something entirely different, something far more tremendous.

Sometimes Allah wants to give us a sense of perspective, and for this purpose He offers certain measures in the Qur’an. He states that some days with Him correspond to such-and-such an amount of your time, and others to such-and-such an amount.

This is much like the relativity of time, because the ratios are not always fixed. A day with Allah is not the same as our day; what is more, these ratios themselves vary.

This is an awe-inspiring, twofold dimension.

We do not know exactly what this means, and we have no intention of making any guess about it.

What we do know for certain is what comes right after it.

The word ‎تَدۡبِير‎ (tadbir) refers to long-term, meticulous planning; it is planning that has been thoroughly thought through and calculated. Allah makes decisions; and not just one decision, but many.

Yet He describes all of these decisions as though they were one single, all-encompassing decision, so flawless and comprehensive is His plan.

Then comes a crucial statement:

Do not think that you can mock this Book or discredit this Messenger on the assumption that an intercessor will come along later and protect you.

There can be no intercession without Allah’s permission; and that permission is itself part of His supreme plan.

The Quraysh believed that on the Day of Resurrection they would have intercessors —idols, ancestors or someone else— who would speak on their behalf.

The role of an intercessor is to present new information: “You are about to fire him, but let me tell you, he is actually very good, and since you were not there, you do not know what really happened.” This is how intercession (or advocacy) works in worldly courts; the defense lawyer brings forward mitigating circumstances and new evidence that would change the verdict.

So, can you do this before Allah? Can you present Him with information He does not already know? Can you say, “New evidence has come to light that You need to take into account”?

Of course not. He already knows everything that could possibly be taken into account.

Therefore, the entire mechanism of intercession operates only within His permission and His knowledge.