“Why do bad times always come upon me?”
“Times are bad now; we have lived in better times!”
“What bad luck today! I curse the time when I got up on the wrong side of the bed today!”
How often do we hear these sentences from Muslims around us? This was also witnessed when the recent corona virus pandemic occurred globally.
Abu Hurairah (rtam) narrated that the Prophet (sa) said: “Do not inveigh against time (Ad-Dahr), for Allah is time. Let not any one of you say: ‘Woe to time’, for Allah is time. Allah says: ‘The sons of Adam offend Me and say, ‘woe to time’, but they should not say ‘woe to time’. I am time! I alternate the night and the day, and if I willed, I could seize them both.’” (Muslim)
Have you ever wondered what this actually means?
Arabs used to inveigh against time, when disasters, such as death, old age, loss of money, and so on, happened. They would say ‘woe to time’ and other phrases, cursing or inveighing against time. So the Prophet (sa) said: ‘Do not inveigh against time for Allah is time’, that is, do not inveigh against the One Who brings about those disasters, for that will be directed towards Allah, for He is the One Who causes them to happen. Time (Ad-Dahr) means Az-Zaman (time), which cannot do anything in and of itself, for it is just a creation of Allah (swt).
The meaning of the phrase “for Allah is time” means that He is the One Who causes those events and accidents to happen, and He is the Creator of all that happens as per His Divine will. And Allah knows best.
It should be noted that time (Ad-Dahr) is not one of the names of Allah; it is attributed to Allah in the sense that He created it and is controlling it, that is, He is the Creator of time.
“And they say: ‘There is not but our worldly life; we die and live, and nothing destroys us except time (Ad-Dahr).’ And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming.” (Al-Jathiyah 45:24)
Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen was asked about the ruling on inveighing against time. He replied:
Inveighing against time may be divided into three categories:
- Where the intention is to convey information without blaming or condemning. This is permissible, such as when a person remarks: “We are suffering from the heat (or the cold) today” and so on, because deeds are judged according to their intentions, and in this case a person is merely describing what is happening without expressing discontent.
- Where a person inveighs against time as the cause of events, as if by inveighing against it he means that time is what causes things to alternate between good and bad. This is Shirk Akbar (major form of Shirk), because when a person attributes events to something other than Allah (swt), this means that he believes that there is another creator alongside Allah (swt).
- Where a person inveighs against time but believes that the One Who causes things to happen is Allah (swt), but he inveighs against time, because of the bad things that happened. This is Haram, because it is contrary to the Sabr (patience) that is required, but it is not Kufr, because the person does not inveigh directly against Allah (swt). If he were to inveigh directly against Allah (swt), he would be a Kafir. (Fatawa Al-Aqeedah, 1/197)
People often curse the hour or the day, on which a certain bad thing happened. This is a sin, because it is cursing and improper speech, and because this is cursing something, which does not deserve to be cursed. What has the hour (or the day) done wrong? Nothing apart from the fact that the events happened then, but they are only created things, which have no control over anything and cannot be held to blame. If a person inveighs against time, this reflects on the Creator of time. Muslims should be above speaking in such a foolish and improper manner.
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