Page 196 - Allah is Known through Reason

when the father came back to earth thirty years later (earth time), the son
would be thirty-three years old while his father would only be thirty. 46

This 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 exis-
tence, 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 act-
ing in a slow-motion picture. In such a setting where time shortens, one's
heartbeats, cell replications, and brain functions, etc, all operate slower
than those of the slower-moving person on earth. Nevertheless, the person
goes on with his daily life and does not notice the shortening of time at
all. Indeed the shortening does not even become apparent until compari-
son is made.

RELATIVITY IN THE QUR'AN
The conclusion to which we are led by the findings of modern science
is 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 20th 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,
the setting, and conditions. For instance, a person's entire life is a very
short time as we are informed in the Qur'an:
On the Day when He will call you, and you will answer (His Call) with
(words of) His Praise and Obedience, and you will think that you have stayed
(in this world) but a little while! (Surat al-Isra: 52)
And on the Day when He shall gather them together, (it will seem to them)
as if they had not tarried (on earth) longer than an hour of a day: they will
recognise each other. (Surah Yunus: 45)
Some verses indicate that people perceive time differently and that
sometimes people can perceive a very short period as a very lengthy one.
The following conversation of people held during their judgement in the

196 Allah is Known Through Reason