15 November 2020

I have been back to the farm on another two occasions, one just a month after the above was written, and again more than a year later. Both were unique and revealing in their own ways. Courage, honesty, and balance remained central themes, explored and revealed in ever more refined ways on each occasion.

I did not keep as detailed an account of either visit: it was not what my heart required of me. However, I record here an exchange between SFH and Dr A from the beginning of a live broadcast about Surah An-Najm. I think it is likely the most accurate, insightful, humorous, and living summary of what I have written above. I attempted one inner description of this event in poetry, which can be found here.

SFH: Bismillah. Dr A, I need your permission.

AA: [laughs]

SFH: I really mean it! Sidrat al-muntaha: is it equivalent to the event horizon?

AA: [pauses]

SFH: I am glad! I caught him unaware! He hadn’t thought of that before, so it must be something very special. [laughs]

AA: I think so, yes. As it says: “beyond that, there is no beyond”.

SFH: There you go! Brilliant! Thank you: you have made my day. I don’t need to do anything any more. Goodbye!

LK: [info on the session]

…

SFH: Oh, I have Sidrat al-muntaha answered, I have looked at Dr A, I have people waiting for something (I don’t know what). I’ve got enough!

AA: Shaykhna, maybe before everyone comes out, this Najm is such an amazing surah. Especially the issue about وَٱلنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَىٰ (“By the Star when it goes down”), or even the one about فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدْنَىٰ (“And was at a distance of but two bow-lengths or nearer;”). Maybe I could have your permission? I think that the way in which this makes the most sense is that these “two bow-lengths” really have to do with particular kinds of measurement associated with the human body. You know, Arabs like my mother, when they took a measure, they did this (Dr A indicates the length of his forearm). So, when I take a measure - or these two measures indicated here - I am bringing him nearer and hugging him (Dr A is clearly imagining his mother encircling him as a child with her arms).

SFH: Before COVID, you could do that, because you could embrace another. When you do so, it becomes a circle. But, with COVID, they broke it. You can’t connect anymore: in between them, there is a gap.

AA: Yes, exactly! So فَتَدَلَّىٰ (“nearer”) was that He (Allah) closed the circle around him (the Prophet (pbuh)) such that there is no more him and his Lord.

SFH: Brilliant, correct!

AA: Because the قَوْسَيْنِ (“measure” or “bow-lengths”) making some kind of bow does not make sense otherwise.

SFH: Neither does فَتَدَلَّىٰ (“nearer”)... It was a circle, but in between - because of the feebleness of our mind - we see a gap.

AA: Yes! Because he is saying, ثُمَّ دَنَا فَتَدَلَّىٰ (“Then he approached and came closer”), as in He (Allah) brought him (the Prophet (pbuh)) close, like picking up a child. You have to close the circle around the child when you pick them up.

SFH: It is the feebleness of the mind which gives us the illusion of separation (in the circle). In truth, the whole thing is a complete cosmic circle.

AA: And He is the centre of the circle!

SFH: Everywhere is the centre of the circle! Because the circle moves.

AA: That’s it! Subhanallah.

SFH: Wherever It is, is the centre.

AA: Yes! Because otherwise how can فَأَوْحَىٰٓ إِلَىٰ عَبْدِهِۦ مَآ أَوْحَىٰ (“Allah convey the inspiration to His Servant”), unless there is only One?

SFH: Yes. It means that there is no abd (slave) and there is no mawla (master). There is only the One and only One, but you have to give up everything before you enter into That.

AA: Yes! And that is, as you said, Sidrat al-muntaha: the event horizon. That’s it! It’s finished.

---

SINGULARITY

by Marie Howe
(after Stephen Hawking)

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money —

nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you.     Remember?

There was no     Nature.     No
     them.     No tests

to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf     or if

the coral reef feels pain.     Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;

would that we could wake up     to what we were
— when we were ocean     and before that

to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all — nothing

before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.

Can molecules recall it?
what once was?     before anything happened?

No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb       no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with

is is is is is

All  everything  home