RE: What If Time Is Not a Straight Line?
I was expecting this question...
The Qur'an describes Allah as Al-Awwal (The First) wa Al-Aakhir (The Last) (57:3, but it does not explicitly define His relationship with time in the language of modern physics. It is better to present the idea that Allah is the Creator of time as a theological understanding, rather than claim that we can explain His existence outside time in precise terms.
Allah/ God created time, but we experience existence through time.
Whether we can meaningfully imagine what existence without time would be like is another matter altogether.
If Allah is not subject to time (which is the case) as we are, then the past, present, and future are not separate in His relationship with His creation in the way they are for us. We remember the past, inhabit the present, and anticipate the future. We can regret yesterday and worry about tomorrow, but neither is something we can physically return to or enter before it arrives.
Allah, however, does not acquire knowledge of tomorrow by waiting for it to become today. His knowledge is not a process of discovery. The Qur'an repeatedly reminds us that Allah knows what has passed and what is yet to come.
This is seductive, but I dare to deny it.
In my opinion (very humble opinion), it's mankind who created time. And after having created time, one can no longer imagine that time must have been before that.
By the way, I confirm this sentence:
This idea is to be regarded as a hint, not as the truth. In this way it can fulfill its purpose.