One of the medieval saints, Peter Damien, said:
"If God wills it, He can even change the past."
Should we say “that’s a true word” according to Islamic belief?
Or does this statement contradict Islam (and other monotheistic religions)?
This proposition actually also offers a solution to the paradox of time travel. Even if it cannot be resolved scientifically, it appears to be theologically and philosophically possible.
Scientifically, time travel to the future is theoretically possible — in fact, since time moves forward, we are all naturally traveling into the future. But faster travel is also possible (Einstein, relativity, etc.).
Travel to the past, however, is not possible, because there is no past to go back to. The moment has been lived and is over, and no matter how much we misinterpret Hawking’s explanations about spacetime curvature, it is simply not possible.
On the other hand, from a religious standpoint, this is also not possible.
Because, for God, there is no concept of time “moving forward.” He exists with full knowledge in every moment of time and is equally sovereign over all of time and space.
Therefore, for Him to “change the past” (and by the same logic, the present or the future) would imply a circular contradiction.
Now, could He, by His omnipotence, send a being currently living in this moment into the past? And if He did, what would happen? These are thoughts necessary to explore the continuation of the paradox.
While we’re on the topic, one of the classic paradoxes used to challenge belief in God is this:
Can God create a stone so heavy that even He cannot lift it?
In other words, is His power sufficient for that?
If not, how can He be all-powerful?
And if He can create it but then cannot lift it, then isn’t His power still limited?
I don't know what theologians would say, but since this is a logical proposition, we can try to solve it through logic:
If we define God's power as infinite (∞), then we’re trying to imagine something that requires a power greater than that. We might rephrase the question as:
Is ∞ + x > ∞ true?
No, it isn’t: ∞ + x = ∞.
So yes, God can create such a stone, and it does not contradict His infinite power.