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Relativity
of Time and the Reality of Fate
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By
Harun Yahya *
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06/06/2002
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The
Perception of Time
What
we perceive as time is, in fact, a method by which one moment is
compared to another. For instance, when a person taps an object, he
hears a particular sound. When he taps the same object five minutes
later, he hears another sound. The person perceives that there is an
interval between the first sound and the second and he calls this
interval “time”. Yet at the time he hears the second sound, the
first sound he heard is no more than an imagination in his mind. It
is merely a bit of information in his memory. The person formulates
the concept of “time” by comparing the moment in which he lives
with what he has in his memory. If this comparison is not made,
there can be no concept of time.
The
assumption upon which materialistic philosophy rests is the
supposition that time is absolute and eternal. This is superstitious
at the first.
Similarly,
a person makes a comparison when he sees someone entering a room
through a door and sitting in an armchair, in the middle of the
room. By the time this person sits in the armchair, the images
related to the moments he opens the door, walks into the room and
makes his way to the armchair, are compiled as bits of information
in the brain. The perception of time occurs when one compares the
man sitting in the armchair with those bits of information.
In
brief, time comes to exist as a result of comparison made between
some illusions stored in the brain. If man did not have memory, then
his brain would not make such interpretations and therefore would
never have formed the concept of time. The only reason why someone
determines himself to be thirty years old is because he has
accumulated information pertaining to those thirty years in his
mind. If his memory did not exist, then he would not think of the
existence of such a preceding period and he would only experience
the single “moment” in which he lives.
The
Scientific Explanation of Timelessness
Let
us try to clarify the subject by quoting various scientists’ and
scholars’ explanations of the subject. Regarding the subject of
time flowing backwards, the famous intellectual and Nobel laureate
professor of genetics, François Jacob, states the following in his
book Le Jeu des Possibles:
Films
played backwards make it possible for us to imagine a world in which
time flows backwards. A world in which milk separates itself from
the coffee and jumps out of the cup to reach the milk-pan; a world
in which light rays are emitted from the walls to be collected in a
trap (gravity center), instead of gushing out from a light source; a
world in which a stone slopes to the palm of a man by the
astonishing cooperation of innumerable drops of water making the
stone possible to jump out of water. Yet, in such a world in which
time has such opposite features, the processes of our brain and the
way our memory compiles information, would similarly be functioning
backwards. The same is true for the past and future, the world will
appear to us exactly as it currently appears.
Since
our brain is accustomed to a certain sequence of events, the world
operates not as is related above and we assume that time always
flows forward. However, this is a decision reached in the brain and
is in itself relative. In reality, we can never know how time flows
or even whether it flows or not. This is an indication of the fact
that time is not an absolute fact, but just a sort of perception.
The
relativity of time is in fact also verified by one of the most
important physicists of the 20th century, Albert Einstein. Lincoln
Barnett, writes in his book The Universe and Dr. Einstein:
Along
with absolute space, Einstein discarded the concept of absolute time
– of a steady, unvarying inexorable universal time flow, streaming
from the infinite past to the infinite future. Much of the obscurity
that has surrounded the Theory of Relativity stems from man’s
reluctance to recognize that the sense of time, like the sense of
color, is a form of perception. Just as space is simply a possible
order of material objects, so time is simply a possible order of
events. The subjectivity of time is best explained in Einstein’s
own words. “The experiences of an individual” he says, “appear
to us arranged in a series of events; in this series the single
events which we remember appear to be ordered according to the
criterion of ‘earlier’ and ‘later’. There exists, therefore,
for the individual, an I-time, or subjective time. This in itself is
not measurable. I can, indeed, associate numbers with the events, in
such a way that a greater number is associated with the later event
than with an earlier one.”
Einstein
himself pointed out, as quoted in Barnett’s book: “space and
time are forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from
consciousness than can our concepts of color, shape, or size.”
According to the Theory of General Relativity: “time has no
independent existence apart from the order of events by which we
measure it.”
Since
time consists of perception, it depends entirely on the perceiver
and is therefore relative. The speed at which time flows differs
according to the references we use to measure it because there is no
natural clock in the human body to indicate precisely how fast time
passes. As Lincoln Barnett wrote: “Just as there is no such thing
as color without an eye to discern it, so an instant or an hour or a
day is nothing without an event to mark it.” The relativity of
time is plainly experienced in dreams. Although what we see in our
dreams seems to last for hours, in fact, it only lasts for a few
minutes, and even a few seconds.
Let
us think about an example to clarify the subject further. Let us
assume that we were put in a room with a single window, specifically
designed and were kept there for a certain period. Let there be a
clock in the room from which we can see the amount of time that has
passed. At the same time, let it be that we see from the window of
the room the sun rising setting at certain intervals. A few days
later, the answer we would give to the question about the amount of
time we spent in the room would be based both on the information we
had collected by looking at the clock from time to time and on the
computation we had made by referring to how many times the sun rose
and set. For example, we estimate that we spent three days in the
room. However, if the person who put us in that room said that we
spent only two days in the room and that the sun we had seen from
the window was produced artificially by a simulation machine, while
the clock was regulated specially to work faster, then the
calculation we had done would have no meaning.
This
example confirms that the information we have about the rate of time
passage is based on relative references. The relativity of time is a
scientific methodology. Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity
maintains the speed of time changes depending on the speed of the
object and its position in the gravitational field. As speed
increases, time is shortened and compressed: it slows down as if
coming to the point of “stopping”.
Let
us explain this with an example given by Einstein. Imagine two
twins, one of whom stays on earth while the other goes traveling in
space at a speed close to that of light. When he comes back, the
traveler will see that his brother has grown much older than he has.
The reason is that time flows much slower for the person who travels
at speeds near the speed of light. Let us consider a space-traveling
father and his earth-bound son. If the father was twenty-seven years
old when he set out and his son three; 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. 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 existence, 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 acting in a slow-motion picture. In such a
setting where time shortens, one’s heartbeats, ell 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 comparison
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 recognize each other. (Surat 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 judgment
in the Hereafter is a good example of this:
He
will say: “What number of years did you stay on earth?” They
will say: “We stayed a day or part of a day, but ask those who
keep account.” He will say: “You stayed not but a little, if you
had only known!” (Surat al-Muminun: 112-114)
In
some other verses Allah states that time may flow at different paces
in different settings:
Yet,
they ask you to hasten on the Punishment! But Allah will not fail in
His Promise. Verily a Day in the sight of your Lord is like a
thousand years of your reckoning. (Surat al-Hajj: 47)
The
angels and the spirit ascend unto Him in a day the measure whereof
is (as) fifty thousand years. (Surat al-Ma’arij: 4)
He
rules (all) affairs from the heavens to the earth: in the end will
(all affairs) ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is a
thousand years of what you count. (Surat al-Sajda: 5)
These
verses are clear expressions of the relativity of time. That this
result, which was only recently understood by scientists in the 20th
century, was communicated to man 1,400 years ago in the Qur’an is
an indication of the revelation of the Qur’an by Allah, Who
encompasses the whole of time and space.
Many
other verses of the Qur’an reveal that time is a perception. This
is particularly evident in the stories. For instance, Allah has kept
the Companions of the Cave, a group of believing people mentioned in
the Qur’an, in a deep sleep for more than three centuries. When
they awoke, these people thought that they had stayed in that state
but a little while, and could not reckon how long they had slept:
Then
We drew (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)
The
situation told in the verse below 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, “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 your
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-Baqarah:
259)
The
above verse clearly emphasizes that Allah Who created time is
unbound by it. Man, on the other hand, is bound by time, which is
ordained by Allah. As in the verse, man is even incapable of knowing
how long he slept. In such a state, to assert that time is absolute
(just as materialists, in their distorted thinking, do) is very
unreasonable.
Destiny
This
relativity of time clears up a very important matter. Relativity is
so variable that a period, appearing to us as billions of years in
duration, may last only a second in another perspective. Moreover,
an enormous period of time, extending from the beginning of the
world to its end, may not even last a second, but just an instant in
another dimension.
This
is the very essence of the concept of destiny – a concept that is
not well understood by most people, especially materialists who deny
it completely. Destiny is Allah’s perfect knowledge of all events
past or future. A number of people question how Allah can already
know events that have not yet been experienced and this leads them
to fail in understanding the authenticity of destiny. However,
“events not yet experienced” are only so for us. Allah is not
bound by time or space for He Himself has created them. For this
reason, past, future and present are all the same to Allah; for Him
everything has already taken place and has already ended.
In
The Universe and Dr. Einstein, Lincoln Barnett explains how the
Theory of General Relativity leads to this conclusion. According to
Barnett, the universe can be “encompassed in its entire majesty
only by a cosmic intellect.” The will, which Barnett calls “the
cosmic intellect”, is the wisdom and knowledge of Allah, Who
prevails over the entire universe. Just as we can easily see a
ruler’s beginning, middle and end, along with all the units in
between as a whole, Allah knows the time we are subject to, as if it
were a single moment right from its beginning to its end. People,
however, experience incidents only when their time comes and they
witness the destiny Allah has created for them.
It
is also important to draw attention to the shallowness of the
distorted understanding of destiny prevalent in our society. This
distorted belief of fate that Allah has determined a “destiny”
for every man but that people can sometimes change these destinies,
is a superstition. For instance, people make superficial statements
about a patient who returns from death’s door such as “he
defeated his destiny.” No one is able to change his destiny. The
person, who returned from death’s door, didn’t die precisely
because he was destined not to die at that time. It is, ironically,
the destiny of those people who deceive themselves by saying “I
defeated my destiny” that they should say so and maintain such a
mindset.
Destiny
is the eternal knowledge of Allah and for Allah, Who knows time like
a single moment and Who prevails over the whole of time and space;
everything is determined and finished in destiny. We also understand
from what He relates in the Qur’an that time is one for Allah:
some incidents that appear to us to happen in the future are related
in the Qur’an in such a way as if they had already taken place
long before. For instance, the verses that describe the accounts
that people must give to Allah in the hereafter are related as
events, which occurred long ago:
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 wills. Then it is blown
a second time, and behold them standing waiting! And the earth shone
with the light of its 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 disbelieve are
driven unto hell in troops… And those who feared their Lord are
driven unto Paradise 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
Qaf: 21)
"And
the heaven is cloven asunder, so that on that day it is frail."
(Surat al-Haqqah: 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-Nazi’at:
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
may be seen, occurrences that are going to take place after our
death (from our point of view) are related in the Qur’an as past
events already experienced. Allah is not bound by the relative time
frame in which we are confined. Allah has willed these things in
timelessness: people have already performed them and all these
events have been lived through and are ended. He imparts in the
verse below that every event, big or small, is within the knowledge
of Allah and recorded in a book:
"In
whatever business you 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." (Surat
Yunus: 61)
The
Worry of the Materialists
The
focus of this article, namely the truth underlying matter,
timelessness, and spacelessness, are indeed extremely clear. This is
definitely not any sort of philosophy or way of thought, but
scientific outcomes that are impossible to deny. In addition to its
being a technical reality, the evidence also admits of no other
rational and logical alternatives on this issue: the universe is an
illusory entity with all the matter composing it and all the
creatures living in it. It is a collection of perceptions.
Materialists
have a hard time understanding this issue. For instance, if we look
at Politzer’s bus example: although Politzer technically knew that
he could not step out of his perceptions he could only admit it in
certain cases. That is, for Politzer, events take place in the brain
until the bus crash, but as soon as the bus crash takes place,
things go out of the brain and gain a physical reality. The logical
defect of this point is very clear. Politzer has made the same
mistake as the materialist Johnson who said, “I hit the stone, my
foot hurts, therefore it exists.” Politzer could not understand
that the shock felt after the impact of the bus was merely a
perception as well.
The
subliminal reason why materialists cannot comprehend this subject is
their fear of what they will face when they comprehend it. Lincoln
Barnett tells us that some scientists “discerned” this subject:
Along
with philosopher’s reduction of all objective reality to a
shadow-world of perceptions, scientists have become aware of the
alarming limitations of man’s senses.
Any
reference made to the fact that matter and time are perceptions
arouses great fear for the materialist, because these are the only
notions he relies on as absolute beings. He, in a sense, takes them
as idols to worship, because he thinks that matter and time (through
evolution) created him.
When
he feels that the universe in which he thinks he is living, the
world, his own body, other people, other materialist philosophers by
whose ideas he is influenced, and, in short, everything is a
perception, he feels overwhelmed by horror at it all. Everything he
depends on, believes in and has recourse to, suddenly vanishes. He
feels a taste of the desperation, which he will really experience on
the Day of Judgment, as described in the verse:
“That
Day shall they (openly) show (their) submission to Allah; and all
their inventions left them in the lurch.” (Surat an-Nahl: 87)
From
then on, this materialist tries to convince himself of the reality
of matter, and makes up “evidence” for this end. He hits his
fist on the wall. He even kicks stones, shouts, yells, but can never
escape from reality.
Just
as they want to dismiss this reality from their minds, they also
want other people to discard it. They are also aware that if people
in general know the true nature of matter, the primitive nature of
their own philosophy and the ignorance of their worldview will be
bared for all to see, and there will be no ground left on which they
can base their views. These fears are the reasons why they are so
disturbed at the facts related here.
Allah
states that the fears of the unbelievers will be intensified in the
hereafter. On the Day of Judgment, they will be addressed thus:
One
day shall We gather them all together. We shall say to those who
ascribed partners (to Us): “Where are the partners whom you
(invented and) talked about?” (Surat al-An`am: 22)
After
that, unbelievers will witness their possessions, children and their
intimates, whom they had assumed to be real and had ascribed as
partners to Allah, leaving them and vanishing. Allah informs us of
this in the verse:
“Behold!
How they lie against their own selves! But the (lie) which they
invented left them in the lurch.” (Surat al-An’am: 24).
The
Gain of Believers
While
the fact that matter and time are perceptions alarms materialists,
the opposite holds true for believers. People of faith become very
glad when they perceive the secret behind matter, because this
reality is the key to all questions. With this key, all secrets are
unlocked. One comes easily to understand many issues that one
previously had difficulty in understanding.
The
questions of death, paradise, hell, the hereafter, changing
dimensions and questions such as “Where is Allah?” “What was
before Allah?” “Who created Allah?” “How long will life in
the grave last?” “Where are heaven and hell?” and “Where do
heaven and hell currently exist?” are easily answered. It will be
understood with what kind of order Allah created the entire universe
from nothing, so much so that, with this secret, the questions of
“when?” and “where?” become meaningless because there are no
time and space left. When spacelessness is grasped, it will be
understood that hell, heaven and earth are all actually the same
place. If timelessness is grasped, it will be understood that
everything takes place at a single moment: nothing is waited for and
time does not go by, because everything has already happened and
finished.
With
this reality delved, the world becomes like heaven for a believer.
All distressful material, worries, anxieties and fears vanish. The
person grasps that the entire universe has a single Sovereign, that
He changes the entire physical world as he pleases and that all one
has to do is to turn to Him. He then submits himself entirely to
Allah “to be devoted to His service” (Surat Ali `Imran: 35). To
comprehend this, as the purpose of existence, is the greatest gain
in the world.
Another
very important reality mentioned in the Qur’an is unveiled: that
“Allah is nearer to man than his jugular vein” (Surat Qaf: 16).
As everybody knows, the jugular vein is inside the body. What could
be nearer to a person than his inside? This situation can easily be
explained by the reality of spacelessness.
This
is the plain truth. It should be well established that there is no
helper and provider for man other than Allah. There is nothing but
Allah; He is the only absolute being with Whom one can seek refuge,
to Whom one can appeal for help and count on for reward. Wherever we
turn, there is the presence of Allah.
*
Harun Yahya is a pen name used by Mr. Adnan Oktar.
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For More Details:
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For
a detailed account of his ideas on the relativity of time see his
book:
“The
Truth of the Life of This World” (Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd.)
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