Is Time a Created Entity?...

[aboosafar]

As salamu 'alaykum,
I would like to know, is time a created entity and if so how do we understand the hadith saying that Allah is ad Dahr?

Please explain the correct belief regarding as sifat al fi'liyah as they relate to time as it appears that the asha'ris explain away sifat fi'liyah by saying that Allah cannot be encompassed by time thus they seem to explain away many attributes of Allah's dealing with his khalq.

Explaining away of sifat fi'liyah on the basis of saying "laysa kamithili shay'" seems to come from the 'aql of humans so could this be said to contradict their claim to tafwidh in reality when tafweedh would include affirming the texts on their apparent meaning, not denying the apparent meaning or making it like the creation, of which they seem to do the former, whereas the athariyal al hanabilah are on the middle course between the two extremes, of the mushabihah and the mu'atillah.

Please explain this issue briefly (it's not easy to read the long links right now because I'm studying several other subjects and it's difficult to read a lot of random material right now, wallah yajzeekal khair).

Ma'as salamah,
Yousef Abus Safar

[Abuz Zubair]

'alaikum as-salaam wrt wbk,

Very briefly, time could refer to two things:

1) The change in the night and the day, due to the earth revolving around the sun. Time in this sense is created, because none created the Sun, the moon an the earth except Allah, and therefore the time.

2) The duration between two instances in time. This is simply a concept of measurement which does not exist beyond our imagination, and therefore, it cannot be described as a real existence that exists beyond our imagination. And since it is only a concept, created/uncreatedness becomes irrelevant, and therefore, Allah is all willing to do whatever He likes, whenever He likes, as He says: when He wills for something, He only says to it Be! And it becomes.

Regarding the Hadeeth, then the explanation is in the very hadeeth itself. The Hadeeth says: I am al-Dahr, for I change the day and night... meaning: I am al-Dahr, i.e. I cause al-Dahr to change, so whenever man curses al-Dahr he is cursing me.

Those of the Ash'aris who can only say to you when cornered: Laysa ka mithlihi Shay, are not actually Ash'aris. They are only laymen who do not know what they believe an why they believe. If you want to know these two questions, I suggest you refer straight to Ash'ari works and not the pretentious ignorants on the internet.

With respect to Sifat fi'liyya of Allah, then that is proven rationally and textually. Rationally we know that the one who does is more perfect than the one who does not. And since Allah has the highest of all examples, it is more appropriate that Allah does actions than to say he does not. Doing is perfection. Not doing is deficiency.

Textually, the proofs are more than numerous. We know that He created the 'Arsh before He created the heavens and the earth, which He created before Adam, whom He created before us all. We are all created at a point in time by none other than Allah. He will cause us to day at an appointed time, and He will cause us to resurrect and then judge us, and none of that has obviously happened, yet. Surely, Allah calls Himself, fa'aalun lima yureed.

[aboosafar]

Allah yajzeekal khair for the help akhuwi.

Allahi baarak feek.

Yousef Abus Safar

[asharee_salafi]

Allah reward you Ameen

[jinnzaman]

Abuzubair,

Do you believe that time is an implicit attribute of Allah ?

[Abuz Zubair]

Time is just a concept for measuring the duration between two instances, how could it be an attribute or anything else, if it has no real existence beyond our imagination.

One of the biggest flaws in the philosophical way of thinking is to assume that some imaginary concepts have a real existence, and hence, God is described by them as an 'absolute existence', deprived of all attributes.

We have to understand what is merely limited to imagination and what is real.

[ibnmyatt]

Time is just a concept for measuring the duration between two instances, how could it be an attribute or anything else, if it has no real existence beyond our imagination.

One of the biggest flaws in the philosophical way of thinking is to assume that some imaginary concepts have a real existence, and hence, God is described by them as an 'absolute existence', deprived of all attributes.


Time is an abstraction which is projected onto Reality, and as such it obscures the true nature of that Reality.

As Brother Abuz Zubair correctly notes, this is one of the manifest errors of Western philosophy, which error began with Aristotle, and was continued by Plato. One consequence of such an error is the kaffir concept of "progress".

One of the fundamental mistakes of the way of Kufr is to posit a "subject" and an "object" which the subject is assumed or believed to be separate from. Western philosophy - and especially epistemology - then attempts to define the relation between these two. Knowledge is then assumed to be the perception and understanding of the object by the subject, with there being debate about what is acceptable evidence for such perception and understanding.

This mistake concerning the true nature of Reality - like many such mistakes made by the kuffar - originated in Ancient Greece, and many Islamic scholars, such as Al-Farabi tried to accommodate Islam to this fundamental mis-apprehension.

Such errors, by the kuffar, thus obscure our true Muslim nature - our fitrah - and thus our relationship to The Unity, to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. This is kufr - which is essentially a covering-up of this relationship, and a manifestation of Ignorance. This occurs also when we use the terms, the Tawagheet, the concepts, of the kuffar in relation to Deen Al-Islam, and thus and for example follow the kuffar into dividing Deen Al-Islam into a "religion" which, they kuffar and their apostate allies say, can be and should be separate from "The State" and which "religion" can and should be "compatible" with the kuffar Taghut of democracy.

There is thus a fundamental and important difference between thinking like a Muslim, and thinking like a kaffir - although the kuffar, in their arrogance, insist that their philosophy, concepts, values, and terms are "universal" and must be applied to Deen Al-Islam and used by Muslims. In many ways, this is the essence of the struggle we are currently engaged in - returning to the purity, the perfection, of Deen Al-Islam, and rescuing Deen Al-Islam from the mis-interpretation imposed upon it by kaffir philosophy and those who have and who do imitate the kuffar in thought, word and deed.