Concept of Time and 'Meraj'

We know Time and Space are considered as a twin and interdependent phenomenon. Time may be defined as duration to cover a distance between two points in space. Simply speaking, if a person moves from point A to point B, the duration required for reaching from point A to point B is called Time to reach from A to B. In other words, if space between A and B is expanded, the time to reach from A to B will be expanded; and if the space between A and B is contracted/condensed, time to reach from A to B will be shortened. It means same event (in this case moving from A to B) will require more (expanded) time to happen, if space is expanded; it means Time will get slower. Similarly  event will require lesser time to happen, if space is condensed/ contracted; it means Time will get faster.

 In the article “Time and Space-existence in pairs”, and in “Time Travel”,  and in other articles on philosophy of Time and Space on this blog site, we have seen that space and time start expanding more as we move from 1^st sky to upper skies; OR Space and Time start contracting more as we move from seventh sky to 1^st sky.  In other words, Space and Time are the most contracted on the 1^st sky; and Space and Time are the most expanded on the 7^th sky. That is why the  quickest  events happen on the 1st sky and the slowest events happen on the 7^th sky.  As Space and Time gradually start expanding as we move from the 1^st sky to upper skies, it means Space and Time on the 1^st sky become more contracted as compared to Space and Time on the upper skies, as we move from the 1^st sky to the upper skies. In other words, this gradual contraction of Time and Space on first sky results in gradually quicker happening of events on the earth (which is placed in the 1^st sky) as we move from 1st sky to upper skies.  This gradual contraction of Time and Space on the earth reaches to such an extent that events happening in 211.22 days on earth would be seen happening so only in one second on seventh sky.  Similarly events happening in 211.22 days on earth would start taking gradually more than one second, as we move down from the 7^th sky to the lower skies. It means events on earth happen in the quickest way; and events on the 7^th sky happen in the slowest manner.

This concept of quickness and slowness of Time may be better understood through the following example:

Suppose we are passing through a boring day. We see that we have passed through many events like, for instance, sleeping, taking bath, drinking tea, helping our children in their home work, and shopping etc. But when we look at watch, we find that, after passing through all those events, only three hours have passed. In a boring day, many events happen in lesser time. We say that time is passing very slowly in that boring day. Similarly Time passes so slowly on the seventh sky that events happening in 211.22 days on the earth (which would be obviously so many events) pass only in one second on the 7^th sky. In other words, one unit of Time and Space i.e. equal to one second, is expanded to such an extent on the 7^th sky that events happening in 211.22 days on the earth would happen in that unit of Time and Space i.e. equal to one second on the 7^th sky. For instance, one unit of Time and Space is one inch long and this unit is equal to one second. On earth one event takes place in this one second one inch long unit. Suppose, this 1 second unit which is 1 inch long on earth is expanded to 4 inches in length on an upper sky. It would mean four events happening on earth (each event taking 1 second) would be seen happening in 1 second  on that upper sky. 

1sec-  1inch-  1event

1 sec- 4 inches- 4 events

This concept of Time and Space implies that man can travel into future. If events happening in 211.22 days on earth can be seen happening in one second on the 7^th sky, it means we can see, by spending 1 second on the 7^th sky, future events happening in 211.22 future days on earth.

Our Nabi (saww) has practically gone through such future journey during ‘Journey of Meraj’. During ‘meraj’, our Nabi (Saww) witnessed many events including Paradise and the Hell, which would take thousands of future years to take place according to earthly Time.

The question arises how our Nabi (saww) was able to undertake that travel to future time, whereas we do not have such technology even today. He answer is that our Nabi (saww) undertook that future travel with the help of future technology. The transport which was used during ‘meraj’ and which is called ‘burraq’ was a future technology which was brought by Gabriel (a.s) to our Nabi (saww). We have already seen in the article ‘Time Travel’ that travel from future to present earthly time is possible; though travel from future to past of the present earthly time is not possible.
 ‘Burraq’was carried from future by Gabriel (a.s) to our Nabi (saww) to undertake journey to the future time.