According to one philosophical thought, the present state of the universe is the effect of its previous state and the cause of the state that follows it. If a mind, at any given moment, could know all the laws and all the forces operating in nature and the respective positions and momenta of all its components, it could thereby know with certainty the future and the past of every entity. Obviously it is beyond the human capacity to possess such knowledge, Allah alone has Absolute Timeless Knowledge. Apart from the theology, the concept of ‘Absolute Timeless Knowledge can also be explained by science, enhancing rational understanding writes Harun Yahya: ‘Time’ is defined as: ‘A nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future’. What perceived as ‘Time’ is, in fact, a method by which one moment is compared to another. A person formulates the concept of “time” by comparing the moment in which he lives with what he has in his memory (illusions). If this comparison is not made, there can be no concept of time. If the memory did not exist, then he would not think of the existence of such a preceding period, and he would only experience the single “moment” in which he lives—which is a very essential point. Since human brain is accustomed to a certain sequence of events, time has always flowed forward; time is not an absolute fact, but just a sort of perception. The ‘relativity of time’ is a fact, also verified by one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein, who pointed out, as quoted in Barnett’s book: ‘Space and time are forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from consciousness than can our concepts of color, shape, or size.’ According to the Theory of General Relativity: “Time has no independent existence apart from the order of events by which we measure it.” Since time is based on perception, it depends entirely on the perceiver and is therefore relative. The speed at which time flows differs according to the references used to measure it, because there is no natural clock in the human body to indicate precisely how fast time passes. One may get up without alarm for the morning prayer in routine, not knowing precisely how long he slept unless he get the help of clock or other aids. As Lincoln Barnett wrote: “Just as there is no such thing as colour without an eye to discern it, so an instant or an hour or a day is nothing without an event to mark it.” The relativity of time is plainly experienced in dreams. Although what is seen in the dreams seems to last for hours, in fact, it only lasts for a few minutes, and even a few seconds. The information about the rate of the passage of time is based on relative references. The relativity of time is a scientific fact also proven by scientific methodology. Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity maintains that the speed of time changes depending on the speed of the object and its position in the gravitational field. As speed increases, time is shortened and compressed: it slows down as if coming to the point of “stopping.” Hence some one traveling near the speed of light will be in highly compressed (many times shortened) time as compared to some one on ground. Some writers have used this as basis for fiction literature. The relativity of time is not caused by the deceleration or acceleration of clocks, or the deceleration of a mechanical spring. It is rather the result of the differentiated operation periods of the entire system of material existence, which goes as deep as sub-atomic particles. In other words, for the person experiencing it, the shortening of time is not experienced as if acting in a slow-motion picture. In such a setting where time shortens, one’s heartbeats, cell replications, and brain functions, etc, all operate more slowly. Nevertheless, the person goes on with his daily life and does not notice the shortening of time at all. These facts revealed by the Theory of Relativity have been verified quite a few times by various scientists.
The findings of modern science lead to the conclusion that: Time is not an absolute fact as supposed by materialists, but only a relative perception. What is most interesting is that this fact, undiscovered until the twentieth century by science, was revealed to mankind in the Qur’an fourteen centuries ago. There are various references in the Qur’an to the relativity of time. It is possible to see in many verses of the Qur’an the scientifically proven fact that time is a psychological perception dependent on events, setting, and conditions. For instance, a person’s entire life is a very short time, as man is informed in the Qur’an: “It will be on the Day when He will call you and you will rise up in response to it, with His praise, and you will think that you remained in the state of death but a little while.”(Qur’an;17:52); “On that Day when He will gather them all together, it will appear to them as if they had not stayed in this world but an hour of a day to get to know each other. At that time they will realize that: in fact the losers are those who denied the meeting with Allah and were not rightly guided.”(Qur’an;10:45). Some verses indicate that people perceive time differently and that sometimes people can perceive a very short period as a very lengthy one: “He will say: “What number of years did you stay on earth?” They will say: “We stayed a day or part of a day, but ask those who keep account.” He will say: “Brief indeed was your sojourn, if you had only known!”(Qur’an;23:112-114). In some other verses God states that time may flow at different paces in different settings: “…Truly, a day in the sight of your Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning. (Qur’an;22:47); “The angels and the spirit ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is like fifty thousand years”.(Qur’an;70:4); “He rules all affairs from the heavens to the earth: in the end all will ascend to Him in a single day, the measure of which is a thousand years by your reckoning”(Qur’an;32:5). These verses are clear expressions of the relativity of time. This finding, which was only recently understood by scientists in the twentieth century, was communicated to man fourteen centuries years ago in the Qur’an is an indication that Qur’an is the word of God. Who encompasses the whole of time and space: “Sons of Adam inveigh against (the vicissitudes of) Time, and I am Time, in My hand is the night and the day”(Hadith Qudsi No.4). Many other verses of the Qur’an reveal that time is a perception. The situation described in the verse here is also evidence that time is in truth a psychological perception, Allah says: “..but God caused him to die for a hundred years, then brought him back to life. He said: “How long did you tarry thus?” He said: Perhaps a day or part of a day.” He said: “No, you have tarried thus a hundred years…”(Qur’an;2:259). Hence it is clearly emphasized that God, Who created time, is unbound by it. Man, on the other hand, is bound by time, which is ordained by God. As in the verse;2:259, man is even incapable of knowing how long he has slept. This being so, to assert that time is absolute (just as materialists do in their distorted thinking) is very unreasonable.
The relativity of time clears up the important concept of Predestination (Destiny). Relativity is so variable that a period appearing to man to be billions of years’ in duration may last only a second in another perspective. Moreover, an enormous period of time, extending from the world’s beginning to its end, may not even last a second but just an instant in another dimension. This is the very essence of the concept of ‘Predestination’, a concept that is not well understood by most people, especially rationalists who deny it completely. Predestination is God’s perfect knowledge of all events past or future. A majority of people question how God can already know events that have not yet been experienced and this leads them to fail to understand the authenticity of destiny. However, “events not yet experienced” are only so for the people. God is not bound by time or space, for He Himself has created them. For this reason, past, future, and present are all the same to God. In ‘The Universe and Dr. Einstein’, Lincoln Barnett explains how the Theory of General Relativity leads to this conclusion. According to Barnett, the universe can be “encompassed in its entire majesty only by a cosmic intellect.” The will that Barnett calls “the cosmic intellect” is the wisdom and knowledge of God, Who prevails over the entire universe. Just as a man can easily see a yardstick’s beginning, middle, and end, and all the units in between as a whole, God knows the time, men are subject to as if it were a single moment right from its beginning to its end. People, however, experience incidents only when the occur. Destiny is the eternal knowledge of God and for God, Who knows time like a single moment and Who prevails over the whole of time and space. This knowledge, either recorder in the ‘book’ or ‘preserved tablet’ or in the DNA cell in the womb does not effect the human freedom to choose and act, however the external factors remain beyond human control.
Timeless Absolute Knowledge: http://wp.me/PCgrB-8j
Predestination: http://wp.me/PCgrB-8g
Timeless Absolute Knowledge: http://wp.me/PCgrB-8j
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