Arabic texts offer several ways of speaking about temporal order, an occasion, a present condition and enduring existence. A careful reading begins with a particular passage and its argument. A short English glossary should help locate that passage, not replace it.
Start with the occurrence
Record the Arabic form actually present, including its grammatical setting. A root, a noun derived from it and an adverbial use are not interchangeable entries. Note who speaks, what is being contrasted and whether the author is quoting another position. These details can change what a sentence is doing.
The terms below are starting questions for reading, not fixed equations between Arabic and English. They do not provide a universal hierarchy of temporal substances. An author can use a familiar word conventionally in one place and give it a more specific role elsewhere.
| Form | Reading question | A starting source |
|---|---|---|
| زمان · zamān | Does this passage discuss temporal order, duration or time in a broader sense? | Yousef’s vocabulary discussion |
| وقت · waqt | Is an occasion meant, or a technically defined present condition? | The book’s section on moments |
| دهر · dahr | How is an extended temporal setting used in this particular argument? | Qur’an 45:24 and 76:1 |
| أبد · abad | What is asserted to continue, and what supplies its context? | The adverbial form in Qur’an 18:3 |
Two settings for dahr
Qur’an 45:24 reports a claim about worldly life and destruction attributed to time, then criticizes the claim’s epistemic basis. Removing the reporting frame would make someone else’s speech look like the passage’s own endorsed conclusion. This is a direct example of why identifying voices matters.
In 76:1, dahr occurs within a question about a period in which the human being was not something mentioned. The two occurrences are not interchangeable philosophical definitions. Read the surrounding sentences and compare the parallel translations before deciding what English wording serves the particular context.
This comparison does not settle later theological debates about the term. It establishes a smaller reading discipline: an occurrence provides evidence about a use within an argument. Further claims require additional passages and a stated interpretation.
Waqt in a technical reading
In the section on moments, Mohamed Haj Yousef discusses Ibn al-Arabi’s technical use of waqt for an entity’s or person’s present condition. The section supplies references including Futuhat II.538–539. Its philosophical setting is richer than an ordinary timestamp.
Keep this attributed interpretation separate from the assertion that every Arabic occurrence of waqt has that technical meaning. A translation may retain the Arabic term at first occurrence, give a short contextual gloss and then explain why a more ordinary English equivalent would conceal an important distinction.
For textual research, follow the cited edition reference back to its passage. Preserve the edition and page in your note; a modern webpage’s location and a printed volume’s pagination are different identifiers. The existing guide to time as relation offers routes into the wider argument.
Continuation and eternity
The adverbial form abadan in Qur’an 18:3 belongs to a statement about continuing to remain. Before turning an English rendering such as forever into a technical doctrine, identify the subject and the preceding context. Endless continuation and absence of temporal succession are different concepts.
A simple comparison makes the distinction visible. A sequence numbered 0,1,2 and onward has no last numbered member. That mathematical property does not make every member simultaneous, and it does not remove the succession relation. An atemporal claim would require another formulation.
Similarly, beginninglessness and endlessness are distinct conditions. A sequence can have a first member without a last one. These examples clarify possible questions for a reader; they are not offered as a mathematical interpretation imposed on the religious text.
A documentable reading route
Begin with the words we use for time, then compare the book’s other temporal expressions. Keep the Arabic wording, your provisional translation and your explanatory note in separate fields. That separation makes later correction straightforward.
When bringing a passage into SMM/DTT, state the extra move: a historical term may motivate a modern question, while a completion map or clock law is a newly specified construction. A lexical resemblance does not establish an equivalence between those levels.
The resulting glossary grows by documented examples rather than by multiplying confident one-word substitutions. Continue with translation as documented interpretation. Readers can then examine both the source and the reasoning behind the translation, including places where an ambiguity should remain visible.
Sources and further reading
- Mohamed Haj Yousef, Moments and Other Expressions of Time, online Single Monad Model.
- Qur’anic passages with parallel translations: 45:24, 76:1 and 18:3. The comparisons above are reading exercises, not an exhaustive lexical study.