It's All About Perception
"A person in haste asked to hasten the punishment which is bound to befall upon these unbelievers. No one can avert it. It will be from the Lord [--Most High and Noble--] of the ascending stairways. [They measure everything from their own scales and then ask to hasten its arrival. Tell them that] the angels and the Spirit ascend towards Him in a Day the measure of which [according to your calculation] is fifty thousand years. So [O Prophet!] with grace and dignity bear [their hastiness] with patience. They hold it far off and We see it near at hand."
(Surah Ma'arij, verses 1-7, translated by Shehzad Saleem, www.monthly-renaissance.com)
Muhammad Iqbal in his "Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam" says:
"If we look at the movement embodied in creation from the outside, that is to say, if we apprehend it intellectually, it is a process lasting through thousands of years; for one Divine day, in the terminology of the Quran, as of the Old Testament, is equal to one thousand years. From another point of view, the process of creation, lasting through thousands of years, is a single indivisible act, 'swift as the twinkling of an eye'. It is, however, impossible to express this inner experience of pure duration in words, for language is shaped on the serial time of our daily efficient self. Perhaps an illustration will further elucidate the point. According to physical science, the cause of your sensation of red is the rapidity of wave motion the frequency of which is 400 billions per second. If you could observe this tremendous frequency from the outside, and count it at the rate of 2,000 per second, which is supposed to be the limit of the perceptibility of light, it will take you more than six thousand years to finish the enumeration. Yet in the single momentary mental act of perception you hold together a frequency of wave motion which is practically incalculable. That is how the mental act transforms succession into duration."
"A straw, at times, becomes the screen of my eye;
And with one look, at times, I have seen both the worlds.
The Valley of Love is a long way away, and yet, at times,
The journey of a hundred years is covered in a sigh.
Persist in your search, and do not let go of the hem of hope—
There is a treasure that, at times, you will find by the way."
(Zabur-i-Ajam, translated by Mustansir Mir in Iqbal Namah)
"A single leap of love wrapped up the whole story; these heavens and earth I had taken to be boundless."
(Iqbal, trnsl. by Mustansir Mir in Iqbal Namah)
(Surah Ma'arij, verses 1-7, translated by Shehzad Saleem, www.monthly-renaissance.com)
Muhammad Iqbal in his "Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam" says:
"If we look at the movement embodied in creation from the outside, that is to say, if we apprehend it intellectually, it is a process lasting through thousands of years; for one Divine day, in the terminology of the Quran, as of the Old Testament, is equal to one thousand years. From another point of view, the process of creation, lasting through thousands of years, is a single indivisible act, 'swift as the twinkling of an eye'. It is, however, impossible to express this inner experience of pure duration in words, for language is shaped on the serial time of our daily efficient self. Perhaps an illustration will further elucidate the point. According to physical science, the cause of your sensation of red is the rapidity of wave motion the frequency of which is 400 billions per second. If you could observe this tremendous frequency from the outside, and count it at the rate of 2,000 per second, which is supposed to be the limit of the perceptibility of light, it will take you more than six thousand years to finish the enumeration. Yet in the single momentary mental act of perception you hold together a frequency of wave motion which is practically incalculable. That is how the mental act transforms succession into duration."
"A straw, at times, becomes the screen of my eye;
And with one look, at times, I have seen both the worlds.
The Valley of Love is a long way away, and yet, at times,
The journey of a hundred years is covered in a sigh.
Persist in your search, and do not let go of the hem of hope—
There is a treasure that, at times, you will find by the way."
(Zabur-i-Ajam, translated by Mustansir Mir in Iqbal Namah)
"A single leap of love wrapped up the whole story; these heavens and earth I had taken to be boundless."
(Iqbal, trnsl. by Mustansir Mir in Iqbal Namah)
posted by Asim at 7:54 AM
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