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Is it permissible to say: "Days betrayed him" or "Time betrayed him" or "Ages betrayed him," knowing the Hadith "Do not curse time"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The Sharia has prohibited reviling time, ages, and days. In the Hadith Qudsi, it is stated: "The son of Adam wrongs Me by reviling time, for I am time; I alternate night and day." And "Do not revile time, for verily Allah is time."

Whoever reviles time or the age is either a polytheist if he believes that time is an active agent alongside Allah, or he reviles Allah if he believes that Allah is the active agent and he reviles His action, or he reviles a creature that does not deserve reviling if he reviles time merely because it is a ظرف (circumstance/container).

Al-Shafi'i clarified that the Arabs used to disparage time during calamities, making night and day seem to be the doers of things. So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Do not revile time," because the doer of these things is Allah.

Accordingly, it is not permissible to say "the days have betrayed me" or "time has betrayed me" and similar phrases, for the prohibition of attributing anything to time is absolute, whether one believes in its agency or not.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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