for now offer a further comparison from another point of view. It is as follows:

Human science and philosophy look at the world as fixed and constant. And they discuss the nature of beings and their characteristics in detail; if they do speak of their duties before their Maker, they speak of them briefly. Quite simply, they speak only of the decoration and letters of the book of the universe and attach no importance to its meaning. Whereas the Qur’an looks on the world as transient, passing, deceptive, travelling, unstable, and undergoing revolution. It speaks briefly of the nature of beings and their superficial and material characteristics, but mentions in detail the worshipful duties with which they are charged by the Maker, and how and in what respects they point to His names, and their obedience before the divine creational commands. We therefore shall take a look at the differences between human philosophy and Qur’anic wisdom in regard to detailed or summary consideration, and shall see which is pure truth and reality.

A watch we hold in our hand appears to be unmoving and at rest, but its inside is in perpetual upheaval through the motion of the workings and the constant anguish of the cogwheels and parts. In just the same way, together with its apparent stability, this world, which is a huge clock of divine power, is perpetually revolving within upheaval and change, transience and evanescence. Indeed, since time has entered the world, night and day are like a two-headed hand counting the seconds of that huge clock. The years resemble a hand counting its minutes, while the centuries count its hours. Thus, time casts the world onto the waves of death and decline. It assigns all the past and the future to non-existence, leaving in existence only the present.

Together with this form which time gives the world, with regard to space also it is like an unstable clock undergoing revolution. For since the space of the atmosphere changes swiftly and quickly passes from one state to another due to being filled and emptied with clouds sometimes several times a day, it causes change like a hand counting the seconds. And the space of the earth, the floor of the house of the world, since with life and death and the animals and plants its face changes very rapidly, like a minute-hand it shows that this aspect of the world also is transient. And just as the earth is thus in regard to its face, so through the revolutions and upheavals within it, and the mountains emerging as a result and disappearing, this aspect of the world is slowly passing also, like an hour hand. And such change as the movements of the celestial bodies, the appearance of comets, the occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses, and falling stars, the space of the