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Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti #200| Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth · 2 Feb 2021 › Segment 25 of 27

How can God be timeless and still perceive time?

qiyas qiyaas muftis haraam forbidden

Next meetup, tattoos, and how a timeless God relates to time

QuestionLive chat · questioner not identifiedAnswered 2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth Segment 25 of 27 in the recording2021-02-02b-S25

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This segment2:48:29 to 2:50:29 · 2 minGeneral teaching

The answer in brief

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Linear time is our perspective, Mufti Abu Layth says, not necessarily how God sees events; he also says tattoos are not haram for men.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth says the next meetup may be this week or next, and answers a chat question in one line that tattoos are not haram for men. Asked how God can be timeless yet perceive time, Mufti asks what makes the questioner think God perceives time. Using the analogy of a book whose events are all on the page but which a reader experiences in sequence, he says we perceive events in linear time, which does not mean time is like that or that God perceives it as we do.

Question as read aloud · questioner not identified
How can God be timeless and yet perceive time? Wouldn't that introduce time to the timeless state?

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says that perceiving events in linear time is our perspective and does not mean that time is like that.

In his words

“so what I'm trying to say is it's perspective we perceive events in a linear state of time it does not mean that time is like that”

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Transcript

machine2:48:29 to 2:50:29 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary

a name you get intrigued. I don't know if that's just me because I'm [laughter] losing the plot or is that people in general, but I I I I find names very intriguing and appealing and they have this an appeal factor to them, I think. Right now, MUI, when is the next meetup? Soon.

Soon. Miy are tattoos haram. So, the next meetup I will do either I may even do it this week. If not, then next week I will see. If I don't do the mine trap this week, then I'll do a meetup. Right. So, there's 200 mods, someone said. [laughter] Ah, right. So, what is going on? What is going on?

Uh, Mariam said, "Yeah, I get intrigued, too." Yeah, tattoos are not haram for men. Now, how can God be timeless and yet perceive time? Wouldn't that introduce time to the timeless state? But what makes you think God perceives time? Isn't the perception of time simply our perspective of affairs?

Right? So, a bit like like as a poor analogy, let's say I'm reading a book. Now on this book at this stage let's say I don't know Abdullah is has set out on this journey and blah blah blah blah blah and at this stage on this page you know Abdullah has is in the new city now and he's doing this but really there it is it's all flat but it's the reader that is seeing it in

a linear format not from this perspective just like that this this is not a linear format if I'm just looking at it you see so what I'm trying to say is it's perspective we perceive events in a linear state of time it does not mean that time is like that or that this linear format is being perceived from other dimensions as we are perceiving it to them to God it would just or to even other entities.

It could just be flat. So, yeah. Mhm. Right. Okay. Let's move on to demonic possessions, people. Demonic possessions.

Paragraphs overlapping 2:48:29 to 2:50:29. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2021-02-02b-S25, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ijwbevcc6o8/s/25/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7

Mufti Abu Layth. (2021, February 2). How can God be timeless and still perceive time? [Video, segment 2021-02-02b-S25, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ijwbevcc6o8/s/25/

Chicago author-date

Mufti Abu Layth. 2021. "How can God be timeless and still perceive time?" Video, segment 2021-02-02b-S25, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded February 2, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ijwbevcc6o8/s/25/

BibTeX

@misc{abulayth-2021-02-02b-S25,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{How can God be timeless and still perceive time?}},
  year = {2021},
  month = {2},
  date = {2021-02-02},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ijwbevcc6o8/s/25/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ijwbevcc6o8/s/25/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2021-02-02b-S25, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}

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