And it is reported that the people of Paradise know the duration of night and day by lights that appear from the direction of the Throne. Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, is able to manifest whatever He wills of His light whenever He wills, thereby marking and delimiting the endpoint of time and its subdivisions, just as He has done in this world through the sun and moon.

Even if all of this were assumed not to exist, along with anything by which we distinguish what is earlier from what is later, precedence and succession would not cease to exist. Rather, they are established in themselves: one thing precedes another whether or not there are movements and lights that mark the intervals and subdivisions of time. It is only through the movement of these lights that we distinguish those subdivisions.

Precedence and succession do not depend upon the existence of this delimited time, nor does it bring them about. Rather, they are established in themselves, whether or not this delimited time exists. Yet this time, with its boundaries and markers, makes clear to us what is earlier and what is later.

This is something that should be understood. Its conception is innate and self-evident: a person’s conception of precedence and succession does not require a conception of periods measured by lights and movements, just as being above