Time is the Witness - Surah al - 'Asr

 

                                   Masjid Terapung - The Floating Mosque -Kuala Ibai, Terengganu 

Time is the Witness

"By Time. Indeed, mankind is in loss..." (Surah al-'Asr)

After listening to Sayed Bolson's reflection on this remarkable surah, I found myself sitting quietly, watching the afternoon drift by. Time itself seemed to become more than a succession of hours. It felt like a silent witness to every life ever lived.

Every smile, every sorrow, every act of kindness, every injustice—time has carried them all.

The Qur'an begins this short surah with an oath: "By Time." Allah calls our attention to the one thing every human being possesses equally, yet spends so freely. Each passing moment is a reminder that our lives are moving toward their appointed return to their Creator.

As I reflected upon this, I was reminded of another great spiritual tradition. The Buddha taught anicca—impermanence—the understanding that all conditioned things arise, change, and pass away. Mountains erode, flowers bloom and wither, youth gives way to old age, and every breath is born only to disappear into the next.

Although the Qur'an and the Buddha speak from different spiritual foundations, both invite us to awaken from the illusion that anything in this world can be possessed forever. One points us toward Allah, the Eternal, while the other points us toward freedom from attachment to the transient. Both encourage humility before the reality of change.

Perhaps this is why old age has become less a burden than a teacher.

The mirror changes each year, but awareness quietly remains.

Friends depart.

Children become parents.

Cities change.

Even our most cherished memories slowly soften around the edges.

Time continues its patient journey.

If time is indeed the witness, perhaps the question is not how much time we have, but what our time is witnessing.

May every passing hour bear witness to compassion rather than resentment.

To gratitude rather than complaint.

To remembrance rather than forgetfulness.

And when our own time comes to an end, may the moments entrusted to us testify that we tried, however imperfectly, to live with open hearts and peaceful hands.

Wallahu a'lam.

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