The Relativity of Time in the Qur’an by HArun Yahya

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.

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, 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, 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. (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 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: “Brief indeed was your sojourn, if you had only known!” (Surat al-Mu'minun: 112-114)

In some other verses. Allah states that time may flow at different paces in different settings:

. . .

Truly, 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 to Him in a day the measure of which is like fifty thousand years. (Surat al-Ma'arij: 4)

He rules all affairs from the heavens to the Earth: in the end all will ascend to Him in a single day, the measure of which is a thousand years by your reckoning. (Surat as-Sajda: 5)

These verses are clear expressions of the relativity of time. That this finding, 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.