CREATION OF THE 7 CONTINENTS & THE 7 HEAVENS ACCORDING TO THE QURAN: Surah 41:9. Say, “Do you reject the One who created the land in two days? And you attribute equals to Him? That is the Lord of the Universe.” 10. He placed anchors (mountains with deep roots) over it; and blessed it; and planned its provisions in four days, equally to the seekers. 11. Then He turned to the sky, and it was smoke, and said to it and to the land, “Come, willingly or unwillingly.” They said, “We come willingly.” 12. So He completed them as seven heavens in two days, and He assigned to each heaven its laws. And We decorated the Dunya heaven with lamps, and for protection. That is the design of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.”
Surah 65:12: “It is Allah who has created seven heavens and of the land, the like of them. [His] command descends among them so you may know that Allah is over all things competent and that Allah has encompassed all things in knowledge.”
These ayat (verses) are about the creation of the 7 lands (continents) in 2 stages, the formation of Pangea and its separation thru continental drift into the land masses we know as the 7 continents; North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and Antarctica. These initial 2 stages are further divided into 4 stages which includes the formation of mountains with deep roots as well as the evolution of the plants, animals and human beings that would inhabit the land. These 4 stages are currently named as 4 Eons: the Hadean Eon, the Archean Eon, the Proterozoic Eon and the Phanerozoic Eon. The atmosphere (sky) was completed during the first 2 stages as the earth generated its own life friendly atmosphere which was originally comprised of only hydrogen and helium. The seven heavens are a reference to the entire creation.
CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING TO THE QURAN: In the Quran, the creation of the universe began with the word BE. What was created from that initial command was some kind of singularity that contained all of the elements of the universe.The Qur’an says that “the heavens and the land were (each) joined together as one unit, before We clove them asunder” (21:30). That cleavage of the elements is known as the BIG BANG in modern science. According to the Quran, there are 7 layered heavens which are divided into the perceptible (shahada) and the imperceptible (ghayb) or 1/7th matter (15%) and 6/7th dark matter or 85%.These percentages concur with modern science. We live in the perceptible section of the universe or the Dunya aka the lowest heaven. The other 6 layers are imperceptible and contain hell, a realm for souls to await judgement and 4 paradises. According to the Quran, the perceptible universe evolved into celestial phenomena (meteors, stars, hole boring stars (black holes) sun, moon and planets). Like the 7 heavens, the 7 lands or continents were once joined and are named by current science as Pangea. Pangea split apart as continental drift pulled this land mass apart. The terrestrial phenomena resulting from this continental drift includes oceans, atmosphere, flora, fauna and lastly, people descended from a common ancestor (Adam). The science of evolution was founded by Muslims as Ibn Khaldoun whose understanding of the process of evolution came from the Quran. There is no mention in the Quran of the evolution of the ghayb or the imperceptible universe.
References: 7 layered heavens Q 67:3, Heavens divided into seen (perceptible) and unseen (imperceptible) 39:46, Dunya (lowest heaven or perceptible universe) Q 37:6, 41:12, 67:5, Layers listed in order of the perceptible and the imperceptible universe (Q 55 or Surah Rahman) + Barzakh 23:100.