What is the speed of time?

[mohammad]

By Mohamed Qasem

The world experienced a great leap in science when Einstein proposed
his theories of Special and General Relativity. For about 200 years
physics depended on Newtonian laws. It was thought then that time was
constant; an hour is the same all over, under any conditions.
Understanding of time soon changed, and time was different ever since.

Let's view the way Newton thought of time. It was said that time can
be related to the running of water in a river. Should the speed of the
water be measured at any point, it would yield equal results. The same
was thought of time; if time was measured at any point in the universe
it would be the same.

Suppose George and Bill synchronized their watches. George left on a
super fast spaceship, and came back an hour later (according to his own
watch). Newton would say that Bill would have waited an hour for George
to come back, and their watches would read the same time.
Einstein disagrees! According to his theories, time is relative, and it
depends on the speed at which one travels. Suppose that George left
earth on the same spaceship at 1:00 p.m. traveling at a speed close to
that of light, and suppose that Bill was in some way was looking at
George's watch. Bill would realize that George's watch is advancing
very slowly compared with his. So if Bill's watch said 2:00 p.m. then
George's watch would have said 1:05 p.m. for example. On the other
hand, George would see that Bill was acting a bit strange; he would see
him doing everything pretty fast, as if he was in a movie that was
being fast forwarded.

Strange indeed! This time difference applies to everything surrounding
both George and Bill. If George returns one year later (according to
his own time), he would find out that Bill aged 12 years. Not only
this, but both George and Bill, separately, feel normal; George does
not feel that his life was moving any faster than normal, nor does Bill
feel that his life was moving any slower than normal.

Scientists used a Muon (a particle smaller in size than an atom) to
prove the idea of time relativity. A Muon lives for about 2.2
microseconds, after which it changes into an electron. This short life
is measured for a Muon at rest. When a Muon is traveling, on the other
hand, at speeds very close to the speed of light, it was noticed that
it lived 30 times longer than it did when it was at rest. It was the
same with George and Bill. Bill noticed that George's life was
prolonged. There were other tests that scientists conducted that proved
this theory correct, and they can be found in physics books all over.

Einstein discovered this idea in 1921, but before this discovery by
about 1330 years, God, in His Holy book (The Holy Qur'an), mentioned
the idea of relativity in clear terms. It was not understood until God
revealed the same idea to one of his creatures in a mathematical form.
God says in the Holy Qur'an:

"He will plan His ordinance from the heaven unto the earth, then will
it go up to Him in a day the duration of which is a thousand years
according as you reckon." (32:5)

Also, "The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day, the measure
of which is fifty thousand years." (70:4)

Notice that the first mentioned verse offers four phrases and words
that constitute the heart of the special theory of relativity, and they
are: "go up," "a day," "a thousand years," and "according
as you reckon." The verse indicates that God's ordinance is moving
upwards, and that it's not static. Then it tells us that one day
equals our understanding of 1000 years. When these orders leave earth
upwards they experience one day of travel themselves, but 1000 years
would have passed by us before the orders reach their destination. That
is to say, if you were traveling in a spaceship alongside these orders
and looked at your watch when you reached the target you would have
experienced one day of travel, but look out the spaceship's window,
and you'd see generations and generations had passed on earth. If you
had left your kids on earth, then you would have become a grand grand
grand grand? Father.

The second verse shows that the angels and the spirit ascend into the
heavens in a day equal to fifty thousand years. How could there be a
day that is equal to 1000 years, and another that is equal to 50,000
years? Is this reasonable? Absolutely! Time is relative, and it depends
on the speed of moving objects relative to each other. The faster the
object the larger the time difference. Which means that the angels and
the spirit are faster than the orders in their ascensions?

If we try to calculate the speed of the angels using the equation
Einstein developed we would find out that we need a calculator that
operates with a large number of decimal points. I have tried to
calculate their speed once, but I couldn't. The computer I am
currently using is not precise enough, and I couldn't get enough
decimal points. The reason for this is because the speed of angels is
very close to the speed of light. (You can find these equations in
books of physics. They are not hard to find!)
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"Our Lord! Give us in this world that which is good and in the
Hereafter that which is good, and save us from the torment of the
Fire!"
(The Holy Qur'an 2:201)

Ameen

[mohammad]