Al-Jathiyah · Makki · ayah 24 of 37

Al-Jathiyah 45:24

وَقَالُوا۟ مَا هِىَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا ٱلدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَآ إِلَّا ٱلدَّهْرُ ۚ وَمَا لَهُم بِذَٰلِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ ۖ إِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ

“And they say, "There is not but our worldly life; we die and live,[1474] and nothing destroys us except time." And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming.”

Saheeh International

Essence

'Nothing but this life; time wears us out': the oldest modern creed, and the Quran's reply is that it was only ever an assumption.

A reflection

Do not curse the year

Dahr comes from a root whose one origin, the lexicons say, is overpowering. Time was called dahr because it comes upon everything and overcomes it. The Arabs before Islam blamed it for every loss. One poet complained that time's daughters had shot him from where he could not see. Two commentators record that when disaster struck, the Arabs would say: what a wretched time. The image is established.

The Prophet ﷺ answered that habit directly. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim record a hadith qudsi. The son of Adam wrongs Me; he curses time, and I am time. In My hand is the command; I turn the night and the day. Several commentators explain the meaning carefully. The Arabs attributed their calamities to time and cursed it. But the One who actually brings events is Allah. So their curses landed on Him. One classical commentator adds that it is a mistake to count 'Time' among Allah's names on the strength of this hadith. The point is that He is the One behind what they blamed on time.

Picture a family group chat at the end of a hard twelve months: a job loss, a burst pipe, a grandparent's death. Someone posts a gif of a dumpster on fire with the caption 'this year'. Everyone laughs, a little grimly. It is harmless banter, mostly. But underneath it sits the old reflex: something called 'the year' or 'bad luck' or 'the universe' did this to us.

The hadith gently removes that faceless culprit. Nothing that happened was done by the calendar. Every day was turned by a Hand that is wise and merciful, even when its wisdom is hidden.

That does not forbid sighing at a hard year. It changes whom you sigh to. Instead of cursing time, you can bring the year to its Turner, and ask Him for the next one.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.