What does Allah's being free and away from time and space mean? Will you explain it through examples?
Allah's personality and attributes are pre-eternal... Our personality and attributes were created later.... No doubt, we can know neither His personality nor His attributes adequately; we cannot comprehend His being pre-eternal and freed from time... How can we comprehend it? We do not even comprehend what time is!
What is time? What kind of a thing is it? Something flows in the same river at the same time, but why does it affect things differently?.. It makes children climb up to youth, the middle-aged climb down to old age and the old climb down to death. Does this river flow downwards or upwards?
The poet asks justifiably:
What is time, what?
A water or a bird?
What is time, what?
Downhill or uphill?
We are limited by time. We have yesterday and tomorrow. They are the phases of the lifetime... However, all of those phases are relative; they are given names relatively Today was called "tomorrow" twenty or thirty hours ago. In the morning, we will call it "yesterday". The past and the future are not different from yesterday and tomorrow. Every day, every hour, even every moment is a world of its own... All of the happenings in the universe at a certain moment bring about different paintings in comparison to one moment earlier or one moment later. Then, a different painting is being exhibited in this world every moment...
Time is read through those paintings arranged in lines, or those paintings are drawn inside time. Many words were uttered about time. No matter what its true nature is, time, which is a concept related to the actions, movements, settling and leaving of the beings, cannot be valid for the Lord and Creator of all of the worlds. He knows everything that was created and that will be created through His pre-eternal knowledge.
The following verse expresses it so nicely:
Should He not know― He that created? And He is the One that understands the finest mysteries (and) is well-acquainted (with them). (al-Mulk, 14)
A person who looks at a book should think that every word, line and letter in this book was written. Then, the one that wrote them should be unlike writings and be freed from resembling letters and words!
The world, all human beings, animals, plants are flowing in the river of time continuously... They are heading towards death and the hereafter. The one making that river flow is definitely freed from time. That is, He is not bound by or limited to time. And none of those flowing in that river can comprehend being freed from time adequately.
Allah Almighty is free and away from space, too. We can give the sun light as an example: it is present in all bright things in the world through its seven colors; it exists and is seen in everything in the form of light, heat and seven colors, which are like its attributes; however, it does not exist bodily in anything that it shines on and illuminates. That is, the sun is present in all bright things in the world through its attributes but it does not exist in anything in terms of its mass and body. The attributes and nature of Allah, who gives sun this property, are too perfect four our minds to understand. Allah has encompassed everything through His attributes, that is, through His power, knowledge and will. However, He is not in anything in person. That is, He is present everywhere through His attributes. That He is not in any place is in person. For, He is the one that creates space; He does not need space.
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