Page 100 - Never Plead Ignorance

98 NEVER PLEAD IGNORANCE

would confess that the whole month passed like a moment, realising that
you do not recall many details about that month. Still, all the cause and
effect relations together with all the actions we observe give us clues
about time. If night did not follow day and we did not have a watch in-
dicating the time, we would probably arrive at erroneous conclusions
about how many minutes or hours passed by or when the day begins and
ends. That is why time is, in fact, a perception we can never comprehend
without the existence of points of comparison.
The way time's flow is perceived also shows that time is only a psy-
chological perception. While you are waiting for your friend in the mid-
dle of a street, a ten minutes' delay seems like a long, almost everlasting
period of time. Alternatively, a person who hasn't had enough sleep at
night may perceive a ten minutes' nap in the morning as very long and re-
laxing. Sometimes just the contrary happens. At school, a boring forty
minutes' lesson may seem to be like ages while a ten minutes break pass-
es very quickly. Or, you perceive the weekend you impatiently await as a
very short period of time while working days seem long.
No doubt, these are the feelings, shared by almost everyone, indicat-
ing that time changes according to the one who perceives it and his state.
You must never plead ignorance about this OBVIOUS fact, which you
also experience.

Allah, in the Qur'an, draws our attention to the fact that time is a psy-
chological perception:
He will say: "How many years did you tarry on the earth?" They will say:
"We tarried there for a day or part of a day. Ask those who keep account."
(Surat al-Muminun: 112-113)
On the Day He calls you, you will respond by praising Him and think that
you have only tarried a very short time. (Surat al-Isra: 52)
On the day We gather them together – when it will seem if they had tar-
ried no more than an hour of a single day – they will recognise one an-
other. Those who denied the meeting with Allah will have lost. They were
not guided. (Surah Yunus: 45)