there is no past or future and that, for Him, time is a single moment.
Events that lie are in the future for us are related in the Qur'an as
if they were long past. This is because Allah has already created the
past and the future as one single moment. For this reason, he speaks
of a future event of as having already come to an end. But because we
cannot perceive it, we think of it as lyig in the future. For example,
in the verses that describe the account human beings will give to
Allah in the Hereafter, this is related as an event that is long over:
And the trumpet is blown, and all who are in the heavens and all who
are in the Earth swoon away, save him whom Allah willeth. Then it is
blown a second time, and behold them standing waiting! And the Earth
shineth with the light of her Lord, and the Book is set up, and the
prophets and the witnesses are brought, and it is judged between them
with truth, and they are not wronged . . . And those who do not
believe are driven unto Hell in troops . . . And those who keep their
duty to their Lord are driven unto the Garden in troops . . . .(Surat
az-Zumar, 68-73)
Some other verses on this subject are:
And every soul came, along with it a driver and a witness.(Surat al-Qaf, 21)
And the heaven is cloven asunder, so that on that day it is
frail.(Surat al-Haqqa, 16)
And because they were patient and constant, He rewarded them with a
Garden and [garments of] silk. Reclining in the [Garden] on raised
thrones, they saw there neither the sun's [excessive heat] nor
excessive cold.(Surat al-Insan, 12-13)
And Hell is placed in full view for [all] to see.(Surat an-Naziat, 36)
But on this Day the believers laugh at the unbelievers.(Surat al-Mutaffifin, 34)
And the Sinful saw the fire and apprehended that they have to fall
therein: no means did they find to turn away therefrom.(Surat al-Kahf,
53)
As you can see, occurrences that are going to take place after our
deaths (from our point of view) are related as already experienced and
past events in the Qur'an. Allah is not bound by the relative time
frame that we are confined in. Allah has willed these things in
timelessness: people have already performed them and all these events
have been lived through and ended. It is imparted in the verse below
that every event, be it big or small, is within the knowledge of Allah
and recorded in a book:
In whatever business thou may be, and whatever portion you may be
reciting from the Qur'an, and whatever deed you [mankind] may be
doing, We are witnesses thereof when you are deeply engrossed therein.
Nor is hidden from your Lord [so much as] the weight of an atom on the
Earth or in heaven. And not the least and not the greatest of these
things but are recorded in a clear record.(Surah Yunus, 61)
When a person who submits to Allah realizes that he is ill, he puts
all his trust in Allah knowing that this ailment is his fate. His
knowledge that Allah has created the illness as his destiny enables
him to realize that it will turn out for the good. And knowing that he
will get better if it is in his future to recover, he will be swift to
see a doctor, watch his diet and take some medicine. But he never
forgets that despite his going to a doctor, effecting the treatment
and taking his prescription, whether of not he will recover are all in
Allah's hands. He knows that all these events are in Allah's memory
and were prepared for him even before he was born.
In the Qur'an, Allah tells us that everything that happens to a person
is written in a book before it happens:
Nothing occurs, either in the Earth or in yourselves, without its
being in a Book before We make it happen. That is something easy for
Allah. That is so that you will not be grieved about the things that
pass you by or exult about the things that come to you. Allah does not
love any vain or boastful man.(Surat al-Hadid: 22-23)
The Important of Submitting to Fate
This fact—that the past and the future are already created and exist
and have happened in Allah's sight—reveals to us a very important
truth: Everyone is absolutely ruled by fate. And just as we cannot
alter our past, we cannot change our future. Like your past, your
future has already happened. Everything that will happen to you in the
future—what you will eat, when and where you will eat it, who you will
speak to, how much money you will make, the illnesses you will suffer
from, how, when and where you will die—all that is determined and
unalterable. These things already exist in Allah's sight and in His
memories. But this information is not present in your memory.
For this reason, anyone who is saddened and upset by things that have
happened to him and gets angry worrying about the future is worrying
in vain. Because the future that he fears and frets about has already
happened. No matter what anyone does, he cannot change this fact.
At this point, we must also state that we must avoid a wrong
understanding of fate. Some people believe that whatever lies in their
fate is preordained, that it will happen regardless, and there's
nothing they can do about it. But such an attitude leads to a
distorted idea of fate. It is true, everything that happens to us is
determined in our fate. Before anything happens to us, it has already
happened in Allah's sight and all the details are kept in Allah's
sight in a book entitled Lawh-i Mahfuz. But Allah gives to all of us
the impression that we can change things that happen and that we do
act according to our own choices.
For example, when a person feels thirsty, he does not wait to see if
it is in his fate to drink water. Rather, he simply gets up, takes a
glass of water and drinks it. Doing this, he feels that he is acting
according to his own will and desire. In reality, both the glass and
how much water he will drink are determined in his fate. But
throughout his life, he has the sense that everything he does is by
his own free will.
There is a difference between the person who submits to Allah and the
fate He has created for him and the person who does not. The one who
submits knows that everything he does is according to Allah's will; he
knows this, despite his sense that he is doing these things himself.
The ignorant individual mistakenly believes that he does everything
through his own power and his own intelligence.
A person who believes in fate never sinks into desperation in the face
of adversity. On the contrary, his trust in Allah only increases, and
he feels contentment in his submission to Him. Allah has determined
beforehand everything that happens to us; therefore, He has commanded
(Surat al-Hadid: 23) that we not be saddened by adversity and that we
not be unmindful of the blessings He gives us. . . . Allah's command
is a pre-ordained decree. (Surat al-Ahzab: 38)
A Journey in Time
Scientific research into the nature of time agrees with statements in
the Qur'an. One of these points of agreement is that time is a concept
formed by our perceptions. Given the fact that Allah gives us all our
perceptions, it is certainly possible—with His permission—for a person
to perceive forward and backward in time.
To understand this idea more easily, imagine time as a film strip. If
we imagine the film running backwards, the actors would appear travel
from their future into their past. Or we cut a frame or two from the
end to near the beginning of the picture, a character in the film
would experience a moment in the future. So, in our world, our
perception of time is no different. If He wills, Allah may reorder our
perceptions, and we could travel into the past or the future.
This very possibility is mentioned in many verses of the Qur'an: We
are told that a person chosen by Allah could live in a different
dimension. For example, the Qur'an tells us that Allah kept a
community of believers called the Companions of the Cave in a deep
sleep for more than three centuries. When He woke them up, they had no
idea how long they had slept and believed that only a very short
period of time had elapsed:
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 tarried.(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, "Allah [alone] knows best how long
you have stayed here....."(Surat al-Kahf, 19)
As we see from these verses, the time before the Companions of the
Cave fell asleep and the moment when they woke up were vastly
different.
Allah tells us of a similar situation. In verse 259 of Surat
al-Baqara, we hear of a man visiting a deserted city. Allah left this
man dead for a hundred years and later resurrected him. But the man
thought he has been there for a day or less. And within the space of
that century, the man's food did not spoil and his donkey still
remained in the same place. There are the relevant verses:
Or [take] the similitude of one who passed by a hamlet, all in ruins
to its roofs. He said: "Oh! how shall Allah bring it [ever] to life,
after [this] its death?" but Allah 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 Allah has power over all
things."(Surat al-Baqara, 259)
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