The Chest of Time

In the Sufi terminology, the “moment” means the state “you are always described by, so you are always under the rule of the moment” [II.538.32]. Ibn al-Arabi notes that the “moment” exists (now) between two non-existent things (the past and the future; not as time but as things that have passed or are yet to come [II.538.35], so it the state in the time being, without any relation to the past or to the future.

In fact, the current moment of time is our portion of the single Day; so the single Day with regard to the whole world is the global reality encompassing all of manifest existence, including all on earth, at any instant. But with regard to each entity in the World, it is a moment, since the time of each entity in the World is its own moment.

However, the issue of whether the moment has a duration or not is extremely delicate. If we choose to say it has not, then how can the extent of the entire perceived day be composed of zero-length moments? We must keep in mind that the number of entities in the World (N), though very big, is finite. Therefore the single Day equals N multiplied by the duration of the moment. But if we choose to assert the actual duration of the “moment” , it would lead to questions already encountered in earlier philosophers” paradoxes about time, such as “What exactly happens during the moment?” and “Does the event that takes a moment pop up at once or gradually?” For if at once, then “Why does it take a duration?” and if gradually, then “What are the sub-events, and how many are they?”

The future and the past do not exist; the real time is only the present, or the current state. On the hand, the Age is an endless circle that does not have a beginning nor an end for itself; it is all an “eternally ongoing present” which is called the continuous now or the continuous existence [II.69.13, IV.362.32].