You don’t translate it into time periods, either two weeks or two months or two years. That is stretching it too far. They also mean differently according to the people to whom those steps are attributed. There are giant steps sometimes, there are steps of tiny people and there are steps of nations as well, not individual steps. For instance, the same idiomatic usage of time is witnessed in the Holy Quran. سَنَفْرِغْ لَكُمْ أَيُّهَا السَّخَلَانَ Very soon, quickly, we are going to tackle you and be free to tackle you. Now that prophecy of the Holy Quran applies to this ultimate destruction of the world which has not yet happened. And 1400 years ago Allah said, سَنَفْرِغْ لَكُمْ أَيُّهَا السَّخَلَانَ Then about Qiyamah, Allah tells us that اِقْتَرَبَ السَّاعَةُ وَانْشَقَّ الْقَمَرِ Moon has been observed split into two.
And that shows that the day of judgment or the day of the doomsday has become nigh, very close. And what is very close? 1400 years ago and still we don’t know. So if the doomsday is to be interpreted according to the non-Hindus I mean, then it is very close, it is a very long period. Now when you say very close, very soon, a step or two beyond, in reality these things do not indicate time but certainty. Always in every language, the true import of this expression is always certainty. Whether now or a bit later. But this is positive, this has to happen and nobody can change it. This is the real meaning of this. Not exactly the shorter measure of time which you know.
