A few days ago, I watched the movie Interstellar and suddenly, for some reason, I was reminded of my late mother. I found myself wondering how she was doing, what she might be doing there, whether she was happy and if she no longer felt any pain. I also wanted to ask her those questions that Sal Priadi sings in his song Gala Bunga Matahari. I pondered the time difference between Earth and the place where my mother is now. Then I began thinking about the concept of this bending of time, known in physics as time dilation.
In Interstellar, Cooper and his team land on Miller’s planet, a world near a supermassive black hole named Gargantua. Due to its proximity to such immense gravity, time on the planet moves far more slowly. One hour on Miller’s surface equals seven years on Earth. When Cooper returns to the ship, decades have passed for his daughter Murph, who is now a grown woman grappling with the legacy of her father's absence. I also remembered similar moment when I used to watch an old Indonesian TV series called Jin dan Jun. There was a moment when Jun was taken sightseeing by Uncle Jin to 'Uncle Jin’s world' for just a few minutes, while in the real world Jun lived in, he had already been declared missing for several days.
The scene doesn’t just depict time dilation, it feels like it. It’s a haunting reminder that in the cosmos, time is not what it seems. Yet, what may surprise, this bending of time is not new to human storytelling. Centuries before Einstein, and far from the reaches of interstellar space, a similar tale unfolded in a desert cave; Ashabul Kahfi.
The Qur’an (Surah Al-Kahf, 18:9-26) tells the story of young believers who fled persecution and took refuge in a cave. There, by Allah Azza wa Jalla will, they fell into a deep sleep. When they awoke, they assumed they had slept only a day, or part of one. But in truth, three centuries had passed. The world outside had changed, kingdoms had fallen, and faith had found a new dawn. Like Cooper’s journey through Gargantua’s warped time, the story of Ashabul Kahfi illustrates a subjective experience of time drastically different from that of the outside world. In both tales, sleep or time dilation, is a form of preservation. For Cooper, it’s the price of exploration; for the Sleepers of the Cave, it’s divine protection.
Time dilation, when viewed through both Interstellar and the tale of Ashabul Kahfi, is not just about clocks ticking differently. It’s about what we do with the time we’re given, and what happens when we find ourselves out of sync with the world we love. Whether through the lens of a telescope or the eye of the heart, these stories remind us that time is not always linear, nor fair, nor fully understood. It can separate fathers from daughters, believers from their age, explorers from their homes, but it also connects them through love, faith, and purpose.
Perhaps that’s the final lesson of time dilation, not just that time can stretch, but that meaning can stretch with it. And in those stretched moments, whether seconds or centuries, something eternal might just be waiting. So, Mama, is it true? Adakah sungai-sungai itu benar-benar dilintasi dengan air susu? Juga badanmu tak sakit-sakit lagi? Kau dan orang-orang di sana muda lagi? Semua pertanyaan temukan jawaban? Hati yang gembira, sering kau tertawa? Benarkah orang bilang Ia memang suka bercanda?
Al Fatihah
