Islam is now a major global religion. It has its roots, however, in the Arabian Peninsula of the early seventh century. Its core elements were implanted in the early years and all later developments relate, one way or another, to that core.
In pre‐Islamic Arabia some elements seem to have related to time (dahr) as fate, an underlying force directing human and natural destiny. It was conceived as a power existing eternally and responsible for the happiness or agony of humanity. Thus the Qur˒ān refers to those who “say… ‘nothing but time can destroy us’.” [45:24/23]
While time was generally seen as an impersonal force, some people sought to identify God with time or, worse still by Islamic standards, to use this concept to deny God's existence. The Apostolic Tradition (ḥadīth) records Muḥammad's saying that Allah commanded men not to blame dahr “for I [God] am dahr.” Later there were various groups of radical thinkers, often only vaguely defined and known primarily from polemic...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Böwering, Gerhard. The Concept of Time in Islam. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 141 (1997): 55–66.
von Grunebaum, Gustave E. Muhammedan Festivals. New York: Schuman, 1951.
Lazarus‐Yafeh, Hava. Some Religious Aspects of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1981.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Muslim and Time. The Veil and the Male Elite. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison‐Wesley, 1991. 15–24.
The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 1st ed. Leiden: Brill, 1913–1936. See entries “Miqāt”, “Ta˓rīkh”, and “Zamān”.
The Holy Qur˒ān. Text, Translation, and Commentary by Abdullāh Yūsuf Alī. 2 vols. New York: Hafner, 1938.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Stern, M.S. (2008). Time in Islam. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8899
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8899
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4559-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4425-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law