{Quick Reflections 28} Time

Allaah (SWT) created time and place. Moreover a creation can never encompass its creator. Accordingly, as we all know, Allaah (SWT) is not limited by and can not be talked about in the terms of time and place. However He (SWT) uses explicable terms, which corresponds with our familiar sense of time and place in the Qur'aan, to describe His presence, the Day of Judgment and other issues that are unseen to us.



To elaborate further upon this issue and in an attempt to illustrate how limited we are in our perception and how unlimited He (SWT) is, I will provide the following 2 live pictures.



In order for us to see anything (which is a representation of things in place) light, reflected from (non-illuminating objects e.g. everything except stars, sun, fire and light sources) or emerging from (illuminating objects e.g. stars, sun, fire and light sources), has to enter our eyes. Now that light takes time to travel from place to place, from an object to our eyes. For example light takes approximately 8 minutes to travel from the sun to earth. Accordingly the moment we see the sun it is in a position it used to be 8 minutes earlier. On a wider scale, as light takes thousands of years to reach us from the much further stars; we are actually looking at them through time. We are seeing them in a position they used to be in thousands of years ago. Some of them now might have exploded or moved very far from where we see them. Accordingly we are looking at places and things which we think are there now but which are actually their past. So this is how we see things or places through the window of time.



On the other hand, we have all watched movies and know that they are imprinted on a roll of film which has static pictures printed next to each other in a sequence such that when you move it with the appropriate speed we generate a dynamic movie with different events taking place in a certain time frame having a past, present and future within the movie while you are watching it.

However if you take that roll and spread it out in front of you you will be able to see all the events that occur at different times (in the movie) at the same time. i.e . to you as an outside observer of the film roll, that another human like you made, you can see the past, present and future of the events in that movie at the same time very simply. Also you can see different places at the same time. That can be done by humans amongst humans.

Now imagine the Al-Mighty Creator of place and time looking from outside the place and time at us in our place and time. Allaah (SWT) is the creator of this movie roll that has all our lives spreading over it from the day Adam lay foot on earth until the Day of Jugdment. For Him (TWT) He can see all the places and all the times (past, present and future) at the same time while for us, who are limited by these 2 dimensions, time and place, we have different places and different time frames that govern our very limited perception.

And Allaah is Most High Most Knowledgeable.

May Allaah guide us all to live in His ma3iyyah regardless of our time and place.