Muhammad’s Striking Prophecy: The Flame of Accelerated Time

In a striking prophecy, Prophet Muhammad foretells that the perception of time will accelerate as the end times approach:

"The Hour will not be established until time passes rapidly, such that a year is like a month, a month is like a week, a week is like a day, a day is like an hour, and an hour is like the flicker of a flame." (Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2332)

Although Muhammad (ﷺ) did not explicitly mention technology, the effect he described—time passing increasingly rapidly—aligns closely with what we now recognize in modern times: technology has made time feel progressively faster. While perspicacious ancient thinkers such as Seneca and Saint Augustine drew attention to the subjective nature of time (Seneca, 2004; Augustine, 1991), it is only recently that philosophers have explored how technology accelerates our perception of time. Notably, modern philosophers like Martin Heidegger and Bernard Stiegler distinguish between “originary” time and “artificial” time. The former refers to the lived, existential temporality of human experience. The latter refers to the fragmented and technologically mediated temporality (Heidegger, 1962; Stiegler, 1998). Bertrand Gille, a historian of technology, observed that in industrial civilization, technology evolves at a pace far faster than culture can adapt (Stiegler, 1998, drawing on Gille). Technology perceptually warps the structure of both space and time. It should be noted that this philosophical concept of time, encompassing both originary and artificial time, differs from physical time as measured by clocks and governed by relativity.

Modern technology is quickening everything. It intensifies the rhythm of life and accelerates our perception of the flux of time. That is why our era is also called the “age of speed” (Lebedeva, 2004). This notion of accelerated temporality is captured in the phrase “breaking the time barrier,” employed by Ernst Jünger, Maurice Blanchot, and later Bernard Stiegler (Stiegler, 1998; Gere, 2004). It serves as a metaphor for the acceleration of technics (a term used for technology by thinkers such as Lewis Mumford and Bernard Stiegler) beyond human temporality, resulting in a rupture or shock to our ability to properly orient ourselves in time. It signals a qualitative shift: from humans shaping technology within time to technology setting the very pace of time itself.

Terence McKenna (1998) offered a parallel intuition, suggesting that complexity in nature, culture, and technology has been increasing at an accelerating rate, “faster and faster,” culminating in what he called the “transcendental object at the end of history.” He even tied this to our ordinary sense of time itself speeding up. 

The remarkable prediction by Muhammad naturally raises the question: how could he have known about such a subtle and non-trivial phenomenon? More importantly, the prophecy underscores the profound foresight of Muhammad’s words, pointing to a reality whose relevance has only become more apparent in our technological age.

As I will explore further in my upcoming essay on Dajjal, the “breaking of the time barrier” heralds a shockwave of technological upheaval—one that threatens not only to overwhelm our ability to respond but also to transmogrify our very conception of reality. In futurist circles, this upheaval—of course, without my eschatological interpretation—has been christened the “technological singularity.”

(Note: This article is adapted from the preamble of my upcoming essay on Dajjal, which explores Islamic eschatology in dialogue with modern technology and philosophy.)

References

Augustine, A. (1991). Confessions (H. Chadwick, Trans.). Oxford University Press.

Gere, C. (2004). Breaking the time barrier. Culture and Organization, 10(1), 53–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759550410001675208

Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row. (Original work published 1927) 

Lebedeva, K. (2009). Review of Technics and time, 2: Disorientation by Bernard Stiegler. Parrhesia, 7, 87–90. 

McKenna, T. (1998). Novelty theory [Transcript of interview with John Hazard]. Terence McKenna Archives. https://www.scribd.com/document/95764570/Terence-McKenna-John-Hazard-Transcript

Seneca. (2004). On the shortness of life (C. D. N. Costa, Trans.). Penguin Classics.

Stiegler, B. (1998). Technics and time, 1: The fault of Epimetheus (R. Beardsworth & G. Collins, Trans.). Stanford University Press.

Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2332. Al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ (Sunan al-Tirmidhī).