The Conceptof Time in Islam*

GERHARDBOWERING

Professor IslamicStudies of Yale University

people, one fifth of humanity. Islamoccupiesthe center of the globe. It stretches like a broad belt across the map from the Atlantic to the Pacific, encircling both the "haves"of the consumer North and "havenots" of the disadvantagedSouth. It sits at the crossroads of America, WesternEurope, and Russiaon one side and black Africa, India, and East Asia on the other. Islam is not contained in any national culture; it is a universalforce. Stretchingfrom Morocco to Mindanao, it is built of five geographical blocks, the Muslims of black Africa, the Arab world, the Turco-Iranian lands,the Muslimsof South Asia, andthe inhabitantsof the Indonesian archipelago. Islam is also at a crossroadsin history, destined to play an internationalrole in politics andto become the most prominent world religion in the decadesto come. In the seventh century of the Common Era, Islam enteredthe globalscene with Muhammadat a turningpoint in time. With spectacular conquest and organic growth, it expanded through the centuriesand becamestretchedtaut in a bow of tension between striving for God and strugglefor dominion. As we enter the third millennium of the Common Era, Islam looks back nostalgically at its medieval glory, when the Judaeo-ChristianWest studied at its feet, and sees fundamentalism as the fulcrum of its future in the struggle for preeminence with the secularand technologically superiorWest. How does Islamunderstand ideasof past and future,of time and the in which it strives to realize its eternal destiny? Picture temporality, yourself in a downtown McDonald's taking a short lunch break at the office or grabbinga bite to eat between errands.Now picture yourself in an Arab coffee house nursingan espressoafter your siesta. We all know from lived experience that these two settings carry with them quite dif*Read 3 November 1995 PROCEEDINGS THEAMERICAN OF PHILOSOPHICAL VOL. 141, No. 1. 1997. SOCIETY,

Today

the world of Islamis estimated count almostone billion to

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ferent senses of time. In the first scenario, time pushes relentlessly in onward;in the second,it lazilywindsits way forward the afternoon of sort and sun. Move from fastfood to edification a more intellectual of What checkthe entryon the philosophy timein a major encyclopedia. will findthereis learned articles the linearprogression of contrasting you in time predominant Westernculturewith the cyclicalconceptof time we in prevalent India.Both conceptions, aretold, belongto the defining of thesetwo cultural worlds.With regard Islamtheir to characteristics of the however, samesources reference identifyno neighbor, geographical notion of time.1 suchcharacteristic Does the worldof Islam, the occupying centerof the globe,possess its a conceptof time characteristically own, or canthe Islamic notion of time be exhaustivelyexplainedby a cluster of borrowingsfrom its and ancestors? therea unityto the Islamic Is notion of neighbors cultural cultureencompassing and time, or is Islama universal many languages eachwith its own notion of time? Canone only speakof ethnicgroups, a spectrumof ideason time in Islamor arethereconstantsthat would Islamauthentically a religionandculture? as provide parameters defining and in On the one hand,aretheredistinct perduring elements the Islamic the notionof time thatchallenge current clash-of-civilization theoriesto a articulate definitionof Islamiccivilizationupon which to basetheir axioms? On the otherhand,do developments the Islamic in conceptof timereveal monolithic the claims Muslim of fundamentalism restupon to an idealized homogenized and visionof the past? The search defining for of characteristicsIslamic culture religion and with many notions, includingmonotheism,revelation, might begin or law. prophethood, religious I havechosenthe conceptof time for two reasons: timeappears provide moreneutral to a first, pointof comparison than othermorereligiously notions;second,time is not limited charged to one particular of Islam,but canbe tracedin a broadcross-section field of Islamicwritings.2 Time is pervasivein Islamichistory, centralto
1. The abbreviationof journaltitles follows J. D. Pearson,IndexIslamicus,London 1958. El (reprint1987)stands for TheEncyclopaedia Islam (ed. M. T. Houtsma et al., Leiden of 1913-38;repr. Leiden 1987),El(new edition)for TheEncyclopaedia ofIslam (ed. H.A.R. Gibb et al., Leiden 1960-),Elr for Encyclopaedia Iranica (ed. E. Yarshater,New York 1982-),ER for TheEncyclopedia ofReligion (ed. M. Eliade, New York 1987) and ERE for TheEncyclopedia Religion and Ethics(ed. J. Hastings, Edinburgh 1908-26;reprint New of York 1980). 2. There is no scholarly monograph on time in Islam or on time in Islamic mysticism. F. Rosenthal,SweeterThanHope, Leiden 1983, pp. 1-58, S. Pines, Beitrdge islamischen zur (continued...)

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in languageand poetry, indispensable Islamicastronomyand music, constitutivefor Islamicritualandlaw, and crucialin Islamictheology, Fromthe greatrangeof thesefieldsI would cosmology,andphilosophy. in liketo selectfourpointsformy reflections the present the paper: vision of timein the Qur'anandMuslim the of tradition, atomism timepeculiar to Islamictheology, the paradigm time prevalentin the medieval of of and calendar that mystical philosophy Islam, the rhythmof the Muslim the historiography. provides basisfor Islamic Inthe pre-Islamic Arabtimewascharacterized fatalism, era, dahr, by which eraseshumanworks without hope for life beyond death.3 Also called "days" the "nights," is the cause earthly or dahr of the and happiness of misery;it is death'sdoom andthe measure destiny;it changeseverything, and nothing resists it. While dahr held sway like fate, it could be transcended by a moment marked out in tribal memory and often preservedin poetry. Dahr was thus punctuatedby the Days of the Arabs, the ayyam al-cArab,4 days of vengeance in combat and tribal prowess, when memorableevents placed markersin the recollection of the course of events. The Qur'an rejects the pre-Islamicfatalism of dahr. Instead, it explains time from the perspective of a transcendent monotheism promising paradiseand threateningeternaldamnation.Just as the pre-Islamic Arabs had their days of victory and vengeance, so Allah had His days of deliverance and punishment. God's personal command, "'Be!'and it is, obliteratedthe spell of fate. God gave His command when kunfa-yakun" He formedthe first human being and madethe heavensand the earth. He determines the beginning of a person's life and calls each individual to a
2. (...continued) Grafenhainichen Etudes Awhadal-zaman sur Abu -lAtomenlehre, 1936,andNouvelles Barakat Paris include observations "time" Islam. on in al-BaghddI, 1955, ground-breaking E. Behler, Ewigkeit Welt, Die der Miinchen historical of 1965,offersa thorough analysis the controversy the beginnings the world andits eternityin ArabicandJewish on of medievalphilosophy. Somehelpfulspecificarticleson aspectsof "time" Islamare in enumerated G. B6wering,"Ideas Time in PersianSufism," in of Iran 30 (1992), 86; in Persian to reprinted Classical Sufism from its Origins Rumi,editedby L. Lewinsohn, London-NewYork 1993,p. 203. 3. T. Noldeke, "Vorstellungen Arabervom Schicksal," der Zeitschrift Volkerfur und 3 (1885),130-35; Pedersen, "TheIslamicPreacher: psychologie Sprachwissenschaft J. waiz mudhakkir, Mem.1 (1948): H. der qass"Goldziher 226-51; Ritter,DasMeer Seele, Leiden1955,pp. 43-44. 4. E. Mittwoch,"Ayyimal 'Arab," (newedition),1: 793-94; Caskel,"Aijam EI W. alIslamica supplement 3 'Arab," (1930),1-99.

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afterdeath.Thereis no placein the Qur'an for impersonal finalaccount eachperson'sdestinyis in the handsof the God who creates male time; and female,gives life and bringsdeath, and grantswealth and works God is activeeven in a person'ssleep,for "Godtakesthe destruction. soulsunto Himselfatthe timeof theirdeath,andthatwhichhasnot died in its sleep.He keepsthoseon whomHe hasdecreed death,butloosesthe of otherstill a statedterm."5Fromthe "Be!" a person'screationto the the of falls time of death,humanexistence under decree God:Allahis the whatHe hasdetermined Lordof eachinstant; happens. the Muslimtradition,or Hadith,amplified divine determination stresson divine includedin the Qur'an, andtransformed Muhammad's dahrfrom Qur'anic into a rigidpredeterminism. Saving omnipotence Hadith identifieddahr with God through a powerful condemnation, and dahrthrougha famous divineutterance warnedagainst slandering Allah's In to that unalterable decree sayingof the Prophet.6 order establish introduces notionthat the another strand Hadith of is invariably fulfilled, is everythingthat happens writtenin a heavenlybook. Whileeachembryo is still in the womb, an angelwrites down the daily ration,the and works,the momentsof miseryor happiness, the hourof deathof the man or woman it will become.7 notions of allCombiningpre-Islamic pervasivetime with the idea of God's decreein the Qur'an, Muslim traditionsaw time as a seriesof predetermined events bindingdivine to the certainoccurrence eachinstantof a person'slife of omnipotence Unavoidable fateandirreversible time, eachinstanthappened as as span.8 God'svery own action. solelythrough The most commonIslamic termfor time, zaman,doesnot appear in the Qur'an, nor does qidam,its counterpart eternity.The Arab for of termsfortime.In general, had however, a great lexicographers, variety of dahr, they distinguished timefromthe beginning the worldto its end, from zaman,a long time havingboth beginning end;casr,a spanof and time; bin, a periodof time, little or much;dawmn,duration; mudda,a a momentin time; an, present of duration; awan time time; waqt, space
5. Qur'an 39:42. 6. Cf. A. J. Wensinck, Concordance indicesde la tradition musulmane,8 vols., Leiden et 1936-88, 1: 50, 101; 2: 92,155. 7. H. Ringgren, Studiesin Arabian Fatalism, Uppsala 1955, pp. 117-18;idem, "Islamic Fatalism,"in: FatalisticBeliefs,ed. H. Ringgren, Stockholm 1967, pp. 57-59. 8. For the implicationsof these strandsof Hadith on Islamicdoctrines of predestination, see J. van Ess, ZwischenHadiitund Theologie, Berlin 1975, pp. 75-81.

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or season; yawm, a time, whether night or day; and sia, a while or an hour. Abad was duration without end and azal duration without beginning,to which qidam,time without beginning, correspondedto its primary sense as distinct from sarmad, incessant continuance. Kulld , perpetual existence, was implicit in the Qur'anic day of eternity, the entranceto dr al-kulfid, paradise.9It is obvious that these distinctions do not reflecta quasi-technical usageof each term to the exclusion of others, but ratheran approximatelypredominantmeaningthat often blends with the neighboring terms in the actual literary use. When it came to translating Greek philosophical texts into Arabic, the most commonly employed correspondenceswere chronos,translatedby zaman, aion by dahr, kairosby waqt, and dia'stasisby mudda.10 Through the exposureof Greek thought, the philosophers of Islam becamefamiliarwith two powerful and mutually opposed philosophical notions of time. For those who followed the Aristotelian view, time was an accident of motion, while for those who espoused the Plotinian concept, time had no extra-mental reality; rather it was the stream of consciousness of a thinking mind, a duration existing independently of motion. Aristotle had attempted to prove the eternity of the universe from the nature of time. In the Plotinian view, time did not come into existence with the creation of the universe, but existed from eternity as the duration of God's infinite consciousness. While Islamic philosophical notions of time oscillated between Aristotelian motion and Plotinian duration, it was the atomism of Democritus that appealed most strongly to the creators of normative Islamictheology. Atomic theory opened a way to link the immutability of reality with the observablechanges and manifold forms in nature by describing reality as composed of simple and unchangeable minute particles, called atoms. The atoms and their accidents exist for only an instant. In every instant, God is creating the world anew; there are no intermediate causes. God can be thought of as continually creating the
9. For details on these terms, see, e.g., E.W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, London 1863-93. 10. S. Pines, Beitragezur islamischen Atomenlehre,Berlin 1936, pp. 49-51 (Ibn Sina [d. 428/1037] refines the terminology by the distinction of 7.amn, dahr, and sarmad). See also T. J. DeBoer, "Zaman," W. El(reprint1987),8: 1207-9; Hartner, "Zaman," El(reprint 1987), 8: 1209-12; A. J. Wensinck, "Mikat,"EI (reprint 1987), 5: 492-93; D. Pingree, EI "Kamar," (new edition), 3: 517-18;S. van den Bergh, "Abad,"El (new edition), 1: 2; E. Schmitt, Lexikalische Untersuchungenzur arabischen Ubersetzung von Artemidors Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 13-19. Traumbuch,

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universefromnothing."Subverting Greek"materialistic" atomism,the Muslimtheologians madeatomisman instrument divineprovidence of and held that each moment within time is the direct creationof the it eternally active God. Of itself, creationis discontinuous; appears continuous us only because God'scompassionate to of consistency. Islamicatomismmay be illustrated the famousexampleof a by in Allah withinthe humanbeingfirstthe personengaged writing.12 creates will andthenthe capacity write,creating to both will andcapacity anew ThenGodcreates, in everyinstant. anewin everyinstant,the movement of the hand,andfinally, motionof the pen concurrent the with it. Every instantand actionin the processof writingis independent from every all stagesof the processissue from God alone. It is only in other; that appearance there is a coherentactionof writing.Similarly,a selfconsistentworld in spaceandtime, workingharmoniously, only an is The one true actoris God alone.The link of causality that appearance. to to appears rulethe worldandhumanlife becomessubordinate Allah, and naturalcausesgive way to divine will. As a rule, God does not the interrupt continuityof events,thoughHe is ableto interveneat any moment by what is commonlytermeda miraclebut simplymeansan interruptionof His customaryactivity.Atomism was not only most in congenialto a vision of God actinginstantaneously the world as the soletruecause, alsoproved it mostcloselyakinto Arabic which grammar, lacks genuineverbsfor "to be" and "to become."Neither does Arabic employ the tenses of past, present,and future.Instead,it uses verbal aspectsof completeand incomplete,markingthe degreeto which an action has been realizedor is yet to be realizedwithout distinguishing preciselybetweenpresentandfuture. WhileMuslim and time, philosophers theologians soughtto explain the mysticsof Islamset out to experience For the Sufi mysticsthe it. betweentwo days, the Day of Primal paradigmof time is suspended Covenantat the dawnof creationandthe Day of FinalJudgment when the world comes to its catastrophic end. Time resemblesa parabola stretchingfrom infinity to infinity, an arc anchoredin eternityat its
11. S. van den Bergh, "Djawhar," (new edition),2:493-94; Pines, Beitrage EI S. zur islamischen Berlin 1936, pp. 94-102;L. Massignon,"Timein Islamic Atomenlehre, ed. Thought,"in: Man and Time.Papers from the EranosYearbooks, J. Campbell, C. Atomismo antiatomismo e Princeton, 1957,pp. 108-14; Baffioni, islamico, nelpensiero

cf. EI(reprint 6: 1982, 79-114; alsoH.S.Nyberg,"Muctazila," Naples pp. J. 1987), 787-93;

VanEss,"Muctazilah," 10:220-29; M. Frank,"Ashariyah," 1:449-55; Also R cf. ER, ER, S. Sambursky S. Pines,TheConcept Timein LateNeoplatonism, and 1971. of Jerusalem, 12. T.J.De Boer,"Atomic 2: 202-3. ERE, Theory:Muhammadan,"

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its origin and end, which reaches apexin a mystic'secstaticmomentof the The earlySufisdiscovered decisivereligious andcertitude. memory in when all humanbeingsheardand momentfor humanity preexistence, for understoodGod's self-revelation the firsttime at the very birth of
creation.3 By recognizingthe preexistentialorigin of all humanity on the Day of Covenant, the Sufisestablisheda dimension of time that tracesthe present moment back to eternity in the past and balances the eschatological thrust of the Qur'an from the present to eternity in the future, reached at the Day of Judgment. Through a distinct meditational technique, known as dikr, recollection of God, the mystics return to their primeval origin on the Day of Covenant, when all of humanity (sym-bolicallyenshrinedin their propheticalancestorsas light particlesor seeds)swore an oath of allegiance and witness to Allah as the one and only Lord.14 Breaking through to the mystics relivetheir waqt, their primeval moment with God, eternity, here and now, in the instant of ecstasy, even as they anticipate their ultimate destiny. Sufi meditationcapturestime by drawing eternity from its edges in pre- and post-existence into the moment of mystical
experience.

The medieval Sufi, Ibn al-CArabi, analyzed the concept of time on the basis of the Prophet's tradition that Allah is time or dahr.15 Just as God's being is everlasting,so is God's time; it is eternity, beginningless and endless.Human beings, who are called in Sufi languagesons of their moments, may also be understood as being, not having, time or waqt. Human time is momentary. Each moment is the reflection of God's eternity in the person's receptivity to the divine action at each and every instant. Seen in this way, there are two levels of time: that of God, dahr, and that of human beings,waqt.Yet both levels areinconsistent with our ordinaryconception of time, becauseGod's time stretchesout to eternity while the time of humans shrinks to a mere instant, a dot without duration. Caught between these two modes, divine everlastingnessand mortal momentariness, we human beings construct a notion of time,
13. G. Bowering, Mystical The Vision Existence Classical in Islam,Berlin1980,pp. 145of Islamic in: Other of God,ed.P. Berger, Side New York 1981,pp. 13175;"The Case," The "Der in derKoranauslegung Sure7, 172-173)," Islam 53;R. Gramlich, Der Urvertrag (zu 60 (1983), 205-30. 14.L. Gardet, El 2: G. "Dhikr," (newedition), 223-27; B6wering, "Dekr," 7: 229-33; EIr, idem,Mystical Vision,201-7. 15. G. B6wering,"Ibnal-Arabi's und Conceptof Time,"in: Gottistschon Er liebtdie Schonheit fiirAnnemarie ed. Bern1994, (Festschrift Schimmel), A. GieseandJ.C. Biirgel, pp. 71-91.

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zaman or chr6nos, that is imaginary and subjective, though inspired by the real and objective time of dahr and waqt. The imaginary zaman can be understood through two principal models:that of cosmology and that of relativity.The cosmological model is based on an image of the universe that is largely derived from the Ptolemaic system of the spheres and the story of creation known from Scripture. Its central notion is the idea of the complete day, yawm, a sequence of night and day, which complement each other like male and female or like activity and passivity.Night and day come into being with the revolution of the spheres setting the universe in motion, but become discernible only through the creation of the sun and its course. In the model of relativity,however, God andthe world areseen as the two terms of a quasi-temporal relationbetween Creatorand creatures.Time viewed from the side of God is real but has no existence apart from God. Perceivedfrom the vantageof human beings, time is imaginary and lacks any existence of its own. Whether conceived from the human or the divine side, time is a mere relation. Yet this mere relation is infinite, just like empty space. It can be divided into ever smaller or larger timesegments in a duration that has neither beginning nor end. There is, however, an implicit link between our imaginary time and God's real time, which can be aptly describedby one of Ibn al-CArabi's images:Any point along a circle may be seen as the point separatingpast from future. While having no extension whatsoever,this point of the "now"is still part of the actualextent of the circularline. In other words, althougha product of our imagination,time is, in each moment, the virtual and actual object of interaction with eternity. Eternity belongs to God alone, but God's creatureparticipatesin the present moment. The theocentric vision of time in Qur'an and Hadith, the theological atomism of time governedby an eternallyactive God, and the Sufi paradigmof time coupled with imaginaryrelativity give expression to the vertical dimension of Islamic thought: the individual's overpowering dependence on the Creator. The horizontal dimension, one's autonomous self-realization through one's earthlyinteractionswith other human beings,seems to be diminishedin these theoreticaldoctrines of time. The picture changes dramatically,however, when the focus is shifted to the immensely practical aspects of Muslim thought. Islam possessesa strong sense of law and ritualon the one hand and of the order of history and society on the other. One of the most characteristic ordering principles created by Islam to define its ritual and measure its history was the Muslim calendar, its own measure of time in the

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horizontalrealm.16 the Long beforeMuhammad, Arabsobserveda solaryear and at times also followeda lunarreckoning. Their acquaintance with a solar is indicated the Arabmonths,namedfor definiteseasons, suchas by year the deadof winteror the grazing season,as well as by the festivalsand The markets.17 Arabs,however,hadno firmlyestablished calendar a or uniform method of countingthe years,but reckonedon the basisof the events,suchasthe fireof Abraham, buildingof the KaCba, particular the tribalemigration fromthe Tihama,or the deathof a pre-Islamic lord of Mecca.18 inhabitants Meccaknew two most notablestarting The of war points,the sacrilegious of Fijar,towardthe end of the sixthcentury C.E.,foughtovertribalcontrolof the traderoutes,and "theyearof the in led elephant," whichthe expedition by the kingof Yemento curbthe commercial of the Meccan endedin disaster about554 in power sanctuary C.E.The pre-Islamic Arabsalsouseda cycleof twenty-eight time periods, reckonedaccording the settingof a starandthe heliacalrisingof its to whichsuited nomads predicting the in opposite, periodsof rainandgood to the pasturegrounds.19 They alsolearned distinguish mansionsof the moon andadjust themto theirtimeperiods the solarzodiac,thereby and at followinga type of lunisolar yearwith the daybeginning sunset.20 Thelunar to was whenMuhammad year,peculiar Islam, established a solemn addressduringhis last pilgrimage Mecca.In it, he to gave for arranged the year to consistof twelve lunarmonths. He also proclaimed divineinjunction the whichis the procedure intercalation, against of correlating cycleof lunarmonthswiththe solaryearof the seasons the by insertinga thirteenthmonth into a lunaryear at certainintervals.21 Muhammad's motive for the interdiction intercalation, of cited in the

16. The standardreference to Muslim calendarsis B. Spuler and J. Mayr, WiistenfeldMahler'sche Wiesbaden 1961. Vergleichungs-Tabellen, 17. M. Hifner, "Die altsudarabischen Monatsnamen," in K. Schubert (ed.), Vorderasiatische Studien:Festschrift Viktor Christian,Wien 1956, pp. 46-54; A.F.L. fiir SouthArabian Calendars Dating, London 1956, pp. 10-25. and Beeston, Epigraphic 18. A. Fischer,"Tagund Nacht' im Arabischen und die semitische Tagesberechnung," der 27 Abhandlungender sichsischenGesellschaft Wissenschaften (1909), 741-58. 19. R.B. Serjeant,"Star-Calendars an Almanachfrom South-WestArabia,"Anthropos and 49 (1954), 433-59. 20. A. Sprenger,"Uberden Kalenderder Arabervor Muhammad," ZDMG 13 (1859), 13959. 21. A. Moberg, An-nasi' in der islamischenTradition,Lund 1931.

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of may Qur'an as an expression unbelief,22 have beentwofold. On the Allah'sruleoverthe maintained one hand,the interdiction unflinchingly and in orderof time,manifested observed naturethroughthe appearance On an of the moon'screscent. the otherhand,it deprived Arabclanof its traditionalrights to proclaimpublicly the intercalary years and to and withinthe seasonsof the solar the paganfestivals markets preserve killedtwo birdswith one stone.First,it interdiction year.The Prophet's frompagancultsandturnedthemto Allah,the drewthe believers away
true creator, cause, and preserver of all things. Second, it allowed Muhammadto wrest economic power away from tribalinterestgroupsby detachingthe festivalsfrom their paganmoorings in the seasons. Not simply a matter of adjustingthe lunar year to the seasons, intercalationalso had an impact on tribalwarfare.The Qur'an upheld the Arab tribal custom of four inviolable months that were not to be disturbedby internecinebattles.One month fell in the middle of the year, but the other three followed one anotheras a block of time at the turn of the year. Sincethe intercalarymonth was most likely inserted at the end of the year, it either interruptedthe time block of the inviolable months, In or changed the status of a sacredmonth to profane.23 either case, the month disturbedthe sacredorder of time. This manipulation intercalary intervention in the divine to appeared Muhammad'seyes as a sacrilegious order becauseit facilitatedwarfareand bloodshed within a period of time ordainedto be an inviolable season. While Muhammad introduced the Muslim lunar year, he did not establish the uniform Muslim calendar. Its innovation is traditionally attributedto cUmar, the second caliph. According to tradition,cUmar calleda council to resolvethe confusion of reckoning time in the light of difficulties with raising taxes and collecting tribute. After lengthy discussionsthe decisionwas madeto adopt the standardMuslim calendar that remains in use today. A coin struck at Damascus during CUmar's reign and, shortly thereafter, a papyrus of Egypt and a tombstone of existence.24 CTmar'srole Cyprus provide solid evidencefor the calendar's in its uniform establishment,however, may be overstatedin the sources since early Muslim biographers and historians continued to quote different sets of dates in random fashion. With the increasing conquests of Islam, the standard Muslim calendar, based on the observation of a pure lunar year, no longer
22. Cf. Qur'in 9:37; cf. J. Fick, "Zu an-nasi' (Koran9,37)," OLZ 36 (1933), 280-83. 23. R. Paret, Der Koran, Kommentarund Konkordanz,Stuttgart 1971, pp. 202-3. 24. A. Grohmann, ArabischeChronologie,Leiden 1966, pp. 9-36.

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A was of to calendar responded allcircumstances a vastempire. consistent for of required the administration stateandthe collectionof taxes and use Thisneedledto the concurrent of different tribute. types of calendar. of The popularlunaryear,based on the actualobservation the moon's of was crescent, supported the scholars law andreligion.The Muslim by a established mathematically standard astronomers, however, computed of lunarcalendar 354 daysthat addedone day to the last month in an The of also uniform irregular sequence leapyears. astronomers substituted hoursof the day,twelve hoursof equallengthfor the formerlyvariable duringthe periodof daylightandtwelveduringnighttime.By contrast, Muslim rulersresorted a kind of adapted to Sassanian solarcalendar.25 was to Thismakeshift of adjustment required overcomethe incongruity with the agricultural which created the lunarcalendar cycle, periodsof when the tax cameduebeforethe cropscouldbe harvested. manyyears was One wayto resynchronize the lunarcalendar to dropa tax year with Over the centuriesa numberof attemptswere every thirty-twoyears. made by Muslim rulersto administer empireefficientlyby introthe that of ducingsolarcalendars fixedthe beginning the calendar yearat the vernalequinox.26 As I cometo my shortconclusion, realize I stressed role that the you in of atomism my reflections Islamic on theoriesof time andhighlighted in Islamic the practical that implications historyof the calendar measures time. Seeingthe theoreticalside as the verticaldimensionof Islamic side Islamappeared dimension, thoughtandthe practical asits horizontal as categorically theocentric tying the individual in to irrevocably God, while beingimmenselydown to earthin determining courseof its the communal atomistic of history.The powerful conception time expressed the vertical dimension the individual marked a seriesof flashesof of as by existencewith momentarybreakthroughs eternityin ecstasy.These to flashesforeshadowed finalmomentthat freezestime in irreversible the when the individual standsalonebeforeGod in the trialof ultimateness, the last judgment. the sametime it recalled momentwhen all of At the for humanityheardGod's self-revelation the firsttime at the dawn of creation. In the horizontaldimension,however, the community of a of conscious shaping of believers, galaxy individual atoms,wasforcefully its own temporalframework as throughthe calendar it begana new and ultimateeraof humanhistory.
25. R. Abdollahy, "Calendars, Islamic Period,"EIr, 4: 668-74. II. 26. For the conversion of Islamic dates to those of the Common Era, cf. J. Mayr, "IslamischeZeitrechnungen,"MSOS30 (1927), 203-5.

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I wonderwhether feltallthe whileasif you wererelaxing an in you Arab coffee house or being pushed through the fast food line at McDonald's. consoleyourselves, To note thatI havenot however, please intricate in Islam,the complex talkedaboutthe timingof ritualprayer the literatureon time in Islamicastronomy, work of al-Birini'sChroworkon the duodecennial animalcycle,the reflec-tions al-Tisi's nology, on theiruseof timein annals biographies, the and or of Islamic historians role time plays in poeticalmeter and musicalmode. I also neglected to and in of aspects timebrought lightby anthropologists sociologists the ethnictraditions Islam.One thing, however,I hope to have of myriad to of timethatgiveits culture conveyed you:thereareparameters Islamic in and religioncohesion and structure theory and practice.The four an points of analysisI selectedin elaborating Islamicconcept of time cross-cultural with original The integrate borrowing inspiration. visionof Islam reflect not a monolithic is they phalanx movingthrough historybut rathera dynamicreligionimparting distinctform and content to its a
civilization.