Page 143 - Matter: The Other Name for Illusion

will say, "You only tarried there for a little while if you did but know!"
(Surat al-Muminun: 112-114)

In other verses in the Koran it is said that time moves with a different
speed in different dimensions. For example, it is revealed that one day in God's
sight is equal to a thousand years. (Surat al-Hajj: 47) Other verses speak of this:

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 thousand years by the way
you measure. (Surat as-Sajda: 5)

In the style used in many verses of the Koran, it is clearly shown that time

is a perception. For example, God speaks of a number of believers (The
Companions of the Cave) whom He put into a deep sleep for over 300 years.
Later, when He woke them up, these people thought that they had been asleep
for a very short time; they could not imagine how long they had been asleep:

So We sealed their ears with sleep in the cave for a number of years.
Then We woke them up again so that we might see which of the two
groups would better calculate the time they had stayed there. (Surat al-
Kahf: 11-12)
That was the situation when we woke them up so they could question
one another. One of them asked, "How long have you been here?" They
replied, "We have been here for a day or part of a day." They said, "Your

Lord knows best how long you have been here..." (Surat al-Kahf: 19)
The situation referred to in the verse below is an important proof that time
is a psychological perception:

Or the one who passed by a town which had fallen into ruin? He asked,

"How can God restore this to life when it has died?" God caused him to die
a hundred years then brought him back to life. Then He asked, "How long
have you been here?" He replied, "I have been here a day or part of a day."
He said, "Not so! You have been here a hundred years. Look at your food
and drink—it has not gone bad—and look at your donkey so We can make
you a Sign for all mankind. Look at the bones —how We raise them up and
clothe them in flesh." When it had become clear to him, he said, "Now I
know that God has power over all things." (Surat al-Baqara: 259)

Time is a Perception Too 141