Page 226 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul

Darwin’s Dilemma: The Soul

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T The Relativity of Time Revealed in the Qur’an
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The relativity of time, discovered by 20th-century science,
was revealed 1,400 years ago in the Qur’an.
For example, Allah emphasizes in several verses that the life
of this world is very brief. Our Lord has informed us that the aver-
age human life span is as brief as “an hour of a single day”:
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 tarried no more than an hour of a single day—
they will recognize one another. . . (Surah Yunus, 45)
In some verses, Allah reveals that time is much shorter than
people imagine:
He will ask, “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 able to count!” He will say, “You tarried there for
only a little while, if you did but know!” (Surat al-
Muminun, 112-114)
In other verses of the Qur’an, it is revealed that time passes at
different speeds in different dimensions. For example, it is stated
that one day in the Sight of Allah is equal to one thousand human
years. (Surat al-Hajj, 47)
Other verses on this subject read as follows:
The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose
length is fifty thousand years. (Surat al-Ma‘arij, 4)
He directs the whole affair from heaven to Earth. Then it
will again ascend to Him on a Day whose length is a thou-
sand years by the way you measure. (Surat as-Sajda, 5)
The Companions of the Cave, a group of believ-
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