Appearance
The Secret of Expressing the Future with the Past Tense
The temporal context (ẓarf) of the statement in “And when God will say, ‘O Jesus son of Mary…’ He will say, ‘Immaculate are You’” is the Day of Resurrection, because the temporal context of questioning and answering and complete judgment among creatures is the Day of Resurrection, although some matters are questioned in the intermediate realm (barzakh). Some have considered the verse under discussion to be connected to the verse “The day God will gather the messengers and say, ‘What was the response to you?’”,(284) in which case certain matters are asked of Jesus Christ. Some have considered the mentioned question to be at the time of Jesus’s ascension (rafʿ) to God.
In preferring that the temporal context of the mentioned conversation is the Day of Resurrection, one can cite the phrase “This day truthfulness shall benefit the truthful”(285) which is mentioned at the end of this same narrative.
In summary, in the future (the Day of Resurrection) God will address Jesus saying “Was it you who said to the people…” Based on this, the use of the past tense (qāla…) - instead of the present tense - regarding the future (the Day of Resurrection) requires explanation:
Because the Day of Resurrection is a matter certain to occur (muḥaqqaq al-wuqūʿ), and a future that is certain to occur has the status of the past, the Arabic expression “said” has come instead of “will say.”
Some have considered the word “idh” to mean “idhā” in which case expression with the past tense is permissible; like “Were you to see when they are stricken with terror, [and left] without an escape”(286) which is as if it said “when they will be stricken with terror,” and like “They are certainly losers who deny the encounter with God”(287) … (288)
Perhaps the above expression is based on another precise and subtle literary point: God has used the past tense regarding the initial creation of the world: “Indeed your Lord is God, who created the heavens and the earth in six days”(289) while time had not yet been created; neither past nor present nor future - neither “created” (khalaqa) nor “creates” (yakhluqu) nor “creator” (khāliq) - because time is the same as day and night and month and year, and day and night come into being through the earth’s rotation around itself, and month and year come into being through the earth’s revolution around the sun. So if a body moves around itself or around another body, time comes into being. Consequently, where there is no movement or moving object, there is no time either. Therefore, at the time of creating the world, there were no heavens and earth and no moving object for time to come into being. Rather, at that time, the verb “created” (khalaqa) was detached from time, because time comes into being after creation, not before or alongside creation. Of course, the simultaneity (maʿiyya) of time and temporality requires investigation.
Stronger than this stage is the use of the verb “was” (kāna) and similar verbs in the essential attributes (awṣāf dhātiyya) of God such as knowledge (ʿilm) and power (qudra): “He was knowing, powerful.”(290) This type of verb that is used in the divine essential attributes does not carry time (zamān-bardār) and existed before the creation of the heavens and heavenly beings and before the creation of the earth and earthly beings.
These attributes have existential precedence (sabq wujūdī), not temporal precedence (sabq zamānī); there is no talk of their being in the past; and this same explanation applies to the future as well; that is, after the solar system is rolled up: “They do not regard God with the regard due to Him, yet the entire earth will be in His fist on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens, scrolled, in His right hand”,(291) no action that takes place in that state is future. Certainly, the expanse of the Resurrection (qiyāma) that will be spread out will have a special style and pattern and a particular precedence and succession. The Resurrection is not an extension of this world - that is, it cannot be said that the Resurrection will occur in such and such a year, for example - just as it is not within its duration either, but rather the Resurrection occurs when history and time pack up and depart and the heavens and earth become something else, consequently acquiring a separate reckoning and having a different precedence and succession.
It is necessary to note that what is customary in literature for the form of the verb’s detachment (insilākh) from time is the use of the past tense verb; not the present or imperative verb; of course, it is possible that in some cases it may also occur that the verb detached from time is specifically present or imperative.