DAHRIYA

A theory or belief that denies the existence of Allah and the âkhirah, and holds the material universe to be self-existent and eternal.

Dahriya is a philosophical word rooted from the word dahr (دهر )which means time.

(Qur’an 45:24) وَقَالُوا مَا هِىَ اِلاَّ حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَٓا اِلاَّ الدَّهْرُۚ

{And they say, “There is nothing beyond our worldly life. We die; others are born. And nothing destroys us but the passage of time.”}

They ascribed eternity to the material and time and contended that all universal events and movements are the results of the passage of time. They accepted the passage of time as an agent. Further, the followers of this idea are called materialists. But there is a difference between Dahriya and Materialism. While Dahriyya ascribes time as eternal and the agent, Materialism ascribes the matter as the fundamental substance in nature and eternal and as the agent.

Although this idea was forgotten in name, it continues in the mind. For example:

Bediuzzaman criticizes the expression of an ‘âlim’s book about geology, for it is affected by the common habitual way and implies the shirk of causes:

“Also, for example, some sentences which touch philosophy: such terms as “it formed a crust in the passage of time, then it turned into soil, then the plants appeared, and then the animals found existence” suggests philosophy in regard to Ilahî creation and the giving of the existence, which is not in keeping with the Risale-i Nur’s explanations of Ilahî arts and bringing into being.” Emirdağ Addendum (171)