Page 901 - Atlas of Creation Volume 1

Harun Yahya

Qur'an by God, Who encompasses the whole time and space.

The narration in many other verses of the Qur'an reveals that time is a perception. This is particularly evi-
dent in the stories. For instance, God has kept the Companions of the Cave, a believing group mentioned in the
Qur'an, in a deep sleep for more than three centuries. When they were awoken, these people thought that they

had stayed in that state but a little while, and could not figure out how long they slept:
Then We draw [a veil] over their ears, for a number of years, in the Cave, [so that they heard not]. Then We
raised them up that We might know which of the two parties would best calculate the time that they had tar-
ried. (Surat al-Kahf: 11-12)

Such [being their state], we raised them up [from sleep], that they might question each other. Said one of them,
"How long have you stayed [here]?" They said, "We have stayed [perhaps] a day, or part of a day." [At length]
they [all] said, "God [alone] knows best how long you have stayed here... (Surat al-Kahf: 19)
The situation told in the below verse is also evidence that time is in truth a psychological perception.

Or [take] the similitude of one who passed by a hamlet, all in ruins to its roofs. He said: "Oh! how shall God
bring it [ever] to life, after [this] its death?" but God caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him up
[again]. He said: "How long did you tarry [thus]?" He said: [Perhaps] a day or part of a day." He said: "Nay, you
have tarried thus a hundred years; but look at your food and your drink; they show no signs of age; and look
at your donkey: And that We may make of you a sign unto the people, Look further at the bones, how We bring
them together and clothe them with flesh." When this was shown clearly to him, he said: "I know that God has
power over all things." (Surat al-Baqara: 259)
The above verse clearly emphasizes that God Who created time is unbound by it. Man, on the other hand,
is bound by time that God ordains. As in the verse, man is even incapable of knowing how long he stayed in his

sleep. In such a state, to assert that time is absolute [just like the materialists do in their distorted mentality],
would be very unreasonable.

Destiny

Time's variable relativity reveals a very important reality: A period of time of apparently billions of years'
duration to us, may last only a second in another dimension. Moreover, an enormous period of time—from the
world's beginning to its end—may not last even a second, but just an instant in another dimension.

This is the very essence of destiny's reality—one that is not well understood by most people, especially ma-
terialists, who deny it completely. Destiny is God's perfect knowledge of all events, past or future. Many, if not
most, 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 not yet experienced by
us only. God is not bound by time or space, for He Himself has created them. For this reason, the past, the fu-
ture, and the present are all the same to God; for Him, everything has already taken place and is finished.
In The Universe and Dr. Einstein, Lincoln Barnett explains how the Theory of General Relativity leads to this
insight. According to him, the universe can be "encompassed in its entire majesty only by a cosmic intellect." 210

What Barnett calls "the cosmic intellect" is the wisdom and knowledge of God, Who prevails over the entire uni-
verse. Just as we easily see the beginning, middle, and end of a ruler and all the units in between as a whole, so
God knows the time to which we're subjected right from its beginning to the end, like a single moment. People

experience incidents only when their time comes for them to witness the fate God has created for them.
It is also important to consider society's distorted understanding of destiny. This distorted conviction pre-
sents the superstitious belief that God has determined a "destiny" for every man, but sometimes that people can
change these destinies. For instance, speaking of a patient who's returned from death's door, people make su-
perficial statements like, "He defeated his destiny." Yet no one is able to change his destiny. The person who

turns from death's door is destined not to die then. Again, it's the destiny of those people to deceive themselves
by saying, "I defeated my destiny" and maintain such a mindset.
Destiny is the eternal knowledge of God. And for God, Who knows the whole time as a single moment and

Who prevails over the whole time and space, everything is determined and finished in its destiny.
We also understand from what is related in the Qur'an that time is one for God: some incidents that appear
to happen to us in the future are related in the Qur'an in such a way that they already took place long before. For

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