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What are the limits for a Muslim's use of the words "time" (الزمن), "long epoch" (الدهر), or "time" (الوقت) in their speech and writings, and what is the শরী‘আহ ruling on statements such as "the era of child rights" or "what a shame, children are being killed in the era of child rights," whether said mockingly, regretfully, or as a question?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The basic ruling is that it is permissible to use phrases such as "O time, O night, O fate" as long as the action is not attributed to Allah or to time. It is not permissible to curse time or fate because the Shari'ah has prohibited that, as stated in the Hadith Qudsi: "The son of Adam harms Me; he curses time, and I am time; in My hand are all things; I alternate the night and the day." And in another narration: "Do not curse time, for Allah is time."

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

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