What was Allah doing before the creation?

 

Have you ever wondered what Allah was doing before he created anything? In this article, we will explore this thought, in the light of Qur’an.

First, let’s understand some concepts of time. Before & after are states of time, & it exists for the people bound by time. So, you & I have an after (future) & a before (past).

But, Allah is not bound by time or anything else. Allah is the one who created time, hence, the states of time is not applicable on Allah because Allah is the supreme & there is no one more supreme then Allah.

So before creation Allah existed as the only absolute, hence, it cannot be measured because no metric exist at this point; it cannot be computed because computational concepts doesn’t exist at this point; & it cannot be bound by time because time doesn’t exist at this point.

The universe began 14 billion years ago & with it the concepts like time, metric & others were created by Allah with the creation of the universe.

Then how Allah looks at time or sees time. For us, time is relative, as theorized by Albert Einstein. What does time being relative means?

For example, if we go watch a movie & we do our homework or office work. How will you experience the flow of time? Simple answer would be, you will feel time passing quickly while watching the movie & on the other hand, you will feel time passing slowly when doing your homework or office work.

So if for us time is relative, then what about Allah?

Imagine a book, it contains the biography of a famous person. You can pick any page in the book and you will land on a specific date of his life & you will know the events of that days with all the details. But at that day, that person had a present (the current page of the book), a past (previous pages of the book), & a future (the succeeding pages of the book). But you the reader, is aware of his past, present & his future, simultaneously.

Similarly, for Allah, time is like a book & in this case Allah is the reader. So, Allah sees the past (the big bang), present (current time) & the future (the apocalypse) at the same time. He Sees All & Knows All.

As Allah says in the Quran in Surah Al-Noor, Verse 64:

“Certainly, to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens & the earth. Surely, He knows your condition & the day when they will be brought back to Him, then He will inform them of what they did. And Allah is All-Knower of everything.”