Chapter: Whoever reviles Time has offended Allah

The Almighty says: “They say, ‘There is nothing but our worldly life: we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except Time.’”

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The remainder of the verse states: “Yet they have no knowledge of that; they are only conjecturing.” (45:24)

Relevance of this chapter to the Book of Monotheism: Cursing Time involves shirk, for if the one who reviles Time believes that it acts alongside Allah, he becomes a polytheist.

Offending Allah: because he has attributed to Him qualities of deficiency.

“They say”: that is, the deniers of the resurrection.

“ma hiya”: meaning life.

“nothing but our worldly life”: i.e., the life of this world; they deny any life after death.

“we die and we live”: some of us perish while others come into being by birth.

“and nothing destroys us except Time”: the mere passage of days and nights.

“and they have no knowledge of that”: of this assertion.

“any knowledge”: they possess no proof whatsoever; they say it only out of blind imitation and their rejection of what they cannot perceive or comprehend.

Overall meaning of the verse: Allah, exalted is He, informs us about the dahriyyah among the disbelievers—and those Arab polytheists who followed them in denying the resurrection—that they say: there is no life