What is the meaning of the hadeeth “Do not inveigh against time (waqt) for Allaah is time waqt)”?

 

Is the saying "Do not curse time for Allah is time" authentic from
the Rasool's sayings ? If so, how do you interpret this ? I am confused about this issue.

Praise be to Allaah. 

The word used in the hadeeth is not waqt (= time),
but dahr (= time, vicissitudes of time) [this element of confusion may
stem from translation of the question into Arabic]. This hadeeth was
narrated by Muslim (5827) from Abu Hurayrah.

 Other
versions of the hadeeth are:

“Do
not inveigh against time (al-dahr), for Allaah is time”

“Let
not any one of you say, ‘Woe to time,’ for Allaah is time”

“Allaah
says, ‘The sons of Adam offend Me and say, Woe to time, but they should
not say Woe to time. I am time, I alternate the night and the day, and if
I willed, I could seize them both.’”

 With
regard to the meaning of the hadeeth, al-Nawawi said:

 They
said: this is a metaphor, because the Arabs used to inveigh against time
when disasters such as death, old age, loss of money, etc., happened. They
would say, ‘Woe to time’ and other phrases cursing or inveighing
against time. So the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him) said: ‘Do not inveigh against time for Allaah is time’, i.e., do
not inveigh against the One Who brings about those disasters, for that
will be directed towards Allaah, for He is the One Who causes them to
happen. Time (al-dahr) means al-zamaan (time) which cannot do anything in
and of itself, for it is just one of the things that have been created by
Allaah.

 The
meaning of the phrase “for Allaah is time” means that He is the One
Who causes those events and accidents to happen, and He is the Creator of
all that happens. And Allaah knows best.

 (Sharh
Muslim, 15/3)

 It
should be noted that “time” (al-dahr) is not one of the Names of
Allaah; it is attributed to Allaah in the sense that He created it and is
controlling it, i.e., He is the Creator of time. Some phrases in the same
hadeeth also indicate this, as when He says,  “It is in My Hand, I alternate the night and the day.”
The One Who alternates and the thing which is alternated cannot be one and
the same; there is the One Who alternates – i.e., Allaah – and the
thing which is alternated – i.e., time, which Allaah controls as and
when He wills.

 See:
Fataawa al-‘Aqeedah by Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen, 1/163

 Al-Haafiz
Ibn Katheer said, in his Tafseer of the aayah (interpretation of the
meaning):

 “And
they say: “There is nothing but our life of this world, we die and we
live and nothing destroys us except Ad‑Dahr (time)” [al-Jaathiyah
45:24]

 Al-Shaafa'i,
Abu ‘Ubaydah and others said, in their commentary on the hadeeth of the
Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), “Do not
inveigh against time for Allaah is time” – During the Jaahiliyyah, if
some difficulty, trial or disaster befell them, the Arabs would 
say ‘Woe to time’, attributing those events to time and
inveighing against it. But the One Who brought those events to pass is
Allaah, so it was as if they were inveighing against Allaah, may He be
glorified, because in fact He was the One Who caused those things to
happen. So it was forbidden to inveigh against time in this manner,
because Allaah is Time, i.e., He is the One lWho is controlling it, but
the Arabs were attributing those events to Time.

This
is the best of the comments made in the Tafseer of this hadeeth, and this
is what is meant. And Allaah knows best.

 (Tafseer
Ibn Katheer, 4/152)

 Shaykh
Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah preserve him) was asked about the ruling on
inveighing against time. He replied:

 Inveighing
against time may be divided into three categories:

 1.                
Where the intention is to convey information without blaming or
condemning. This is permissible, such as when a person remarks, “We are
suffering from the heat (or the cold) today” and the like, because deeds
are judged according to their intentions, and in this case a person is
merely describing what is happening without expressing discontent.

2.                
Where a person inveighs against time as the cause of events, as if
by inveighing against it he means that time is what causes things to
alternate between good and bad. This is shirk
akbar (major form of shirk)
because when a person attributes events to something other than Allaah,
this means that he believes that there is another creator alongside
Allaah.

3.                
Where a person inveighs against time but believes that the One who
causes things to happen is Allaah, but he inveighs against time because of
the bad things that happened. This is haraam because it is contrary to the
sabr (patience) that is required, but it is not kufr because the person
does not inveigh directly against Allaah. If he were to inveigh directly
against Allaah, he would be a kaafir.

 (Fataawaa
al-‘Aqeedah, 1/197)

 Other
reprehensible expressions which people utter include cursing the hour or
the day on which a certain bad thing happened, and so on. This is a sin
because it is cursing and improper speech, and because this is cursing
something which does not deserve to be cursed. What has the hour or the
day done wrong? Nothing apart from the fact that the events happened then,
but they are only created things which have no control over anything and
cannot be held to blame. If a person inveighs against time, this reflects
on the Creator of time. The Muslim should be above speaking in such a
foolish and improper manner. And Allaah is the One Whose help we seek.