ISLAM

PLACE : Mecca

DATE : 617

NAME : The Holy Quran, Surah Al-Sajdah, verse 5

NEWS : He controls everything from heaven to earth. Then, in a day equivalent to a thousand years of yours, it ascends to Him.

SCIENCE

PLACE : Germany

DATE : 1905

NAME : Albert Einstein

NEWS : The relativity of time

I would like to give a few examples, thinking that Albert Einstein’s view that time is relative throughout the universe is not well understood. For our world, a year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. We began making this calculation after Copernicus discovered that the Earth revolves around the Sun. In other words, we consider this period to be a full year because it is the time it takes for the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun. If this calculation were made for Mercury, for example, the time defining a year there would be different. This is because the planet Mercury completes its orbit around the Sun in 88 days.

This calculation, based on the planets’ revolutions around the Sun, demonstrates how time varies according to place. Let’s illustrate this situation with an example of worship: Consider two people. The first is a Muslim who prays five times a day, and the second is a person who only goes to prayer once a week. Let’s say they both go to the same mosque, stand in the same row, and pray with the same imam for Friday prayers. They’ll wait for the same recitation of the same suras and perform the same rakats. For the first person, the two-rakat prayer will be over in the normal time, but for the second person, even though it’s a five-minute prayer, it might feel like half an hour. In other words, even though the place, the action, and the recited suras are the same, the perception of time will be relative for the two people. Time will change according to the person’s situation. Just as time changes according to the positions of Mercury and Earth relative to the Sun… This is how time is relative.

Such verses are not limited to this. For example, in the verse, “They ask you to hasten the punishment. Allah will not fail in His promise. But a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning.” ^[205], it is stated that a day with the Lord is like a thousand years of our time, pointing to the relativity of time. Or again, in the verse “The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose measure is fifty thousand years.” ^[206], the news is given that time is relative. The Holy Quran gave this news about 1283 years ago.

[205] Surah Hajj, verse 47.

[206] Surah Al-Me’arij, verse 4.