TIME appears simple because human beings experience it in one direction: the past disappears, the future has not yet arrived and our lives move steadily towards old age and death. Yet both modern physics and the Qur’an challenge the assumption that ordinary human experience provides the only meaningful way of understanding time. The Qur’an does not present a scientific theory of relativity, but it repeatedly reminds us that human measurement of time should not be treated as the measure of all reality. One of the clearest examples occurs when Allah says:
“Indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of what you count.” (Qur’an 22:47) The phrase “of what you count” contrasts divine perspective with human reckoning. Similarly, Allah says that affairs ascend to Him “in a Day, the measure of which is a thousand years of what you count” (Qur’an 32:5). Another verse describes the angels and the Spirit ascending to Allah “in a Day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years” (Qur’an 70:4). These verses should not be understood as a mathematical formula in which one “divine day” always equals a fixed number of earthly years. Classical commentators offered different interpretations because the passages concern different contexts. Their broader lesson is that human temporal measurement does not necessarily govern every dimension of existence. The Qur’an also contrasts experienced and measured time. The People of the Cave believed they had remained for only “a day or part of a day” (Qur’an 18:19), though they remained for “three hundred years and exceeded by nine” (Qur’an 18:25).
A similar contrast appears in the account of the man whom Allah caused to die for one hundred years and then resurrected. When asked how long he had remained, he replied, “A day or part of a day.” Allah answered, “Rather, you have remained one hundred years” (Qur’an 2:259). A century had passed externally, while his subjective awareness registered almost nothing. These passages should not be described as Einsteinian time dilation. Einstein’s relativity concerns measurable differences in elapsed time caused by motion and gravity. The Qur’anic accounts, by contrast, concern divine action, miracles and realities beyond ordinary human perception. It would therefore be unjustified to claim that Qur’an 22:47 or 70:4 contains Einstein’s equations or describes the physical velocity of angels. The connection is metaphysical and philosophical rather than mathematical: both challenge the naïve assumption that everyday human experience completely defines the nature of time.
This also raises a deeper theological question: does Allah experience time as His creation does? A twenty-four-hour day results from astronomical processes within the created universe. Allah is not a physical object existing within creation and subject to its measurements. The Qur’an declares, “There is nothing like unto Him” (Qur’an 42:11). Therefore, expressions such as “a day with your Lord” should not automatically be interpreted as describing Allah as experiencing a different version of an earthly clock. The same caution applies to the Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj. The Qur’an states: “Glory be to the One Who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque…” (Qur’an 17:1). It describes this extraordinary journey as one of Allah’s signs but does not specify a physical mechanism. Calling it a wormhole, faster-than-light travel or relativistic time dilation goes beyond what the Qur’an establishes.
Ultimately, the Qur’an directs our attention away from scientific speculation and towards the spiritual significance of time. At the Resurrection, people will perceive their earthly existence as astonishingly brief. The Qur’an says that on the Day Allah gathers them, it will seem as though they had remained in the world for only “an hour of a day” (Qur’an 10:45). Elsewhere, people will estimate their earthly stay as merely a day or part of one (Qur’an 23:112–114). This gives particular force to Sūrah al-ʿAṣr: “By Time! Indeed, humanity is in loss, except those who believe, do good, encourage one another to the truth and encourage one another to patience.” (Qur’an 103:1–3)
Time is therefore not merely something we measure; it is something we are continually losing. Every year lived is simultaneously a year removed from what remains. The Qur’an does not need Einstein to validate its message, nor should modern scientific theories be forced into verses whose primary purposes are theological and spiritual. Physics asks how clocks and spacetime behave; philosophy asks what time is; theology asks what temporal existence means before an eternal Creator. The Qur’an repeatedly reminds us that human perception is limited and that reality extends beyond what we can measure. Perhaps, then, the most important Qur’anic question is not whether time can be manipulated or whether the Qur’an predicted relativity. It is what we do with the brief amount of time entrusted to us before we return to Allah.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Manchester, UK.
