Kitab Al-Nun
The Book of Nun (‘n’ sounding letter)
Ibn Arabi
Discussion Join
Contents:
Kitab Al-Nun
Behavior of Nun
Nexus
Nasalization
Asymmetry
Interference, Self-Entanglement: Ishq
(Unary Love)
Nun: An Alphabetic Habitat
See Also:
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/harf.html
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/harf_lam.html
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/harf_ba.html
Creole
In Sufism, letters are not these seemingly simple and trivial objects
that you are reading on this page; they are one of the most sacred and
most terrific spiritual entities fully integrated within the Wujud (Being) of humans and all
creation.. These letters have a number of attributes:
1. Geometry and shape
2. Sound and phonetics
3. Syntax and semantics
4. Primordiality; they are infinitely ancient
5. They are intertwined with time and space
6. They are intertwined with human spirit,
mind/cognizance and body
7. They are Animated Organisms
8. They belong to a Nexus, an aggregate or society
Letters are the most pure embodiments of:
Alfred North Whitehead
Process & Reality: Process,
Section V
“The community of actual things is an organism; but it is not a static
organism. It is an incompletion in process of production. … an organism
is a nexus.
Secondly, each actual entity is itself only describable as an organic
process. It repeats in microcosm what the universe is in
macrocosm. It is a process proceeding from phase to phase…”
As I am writing the word ‘letters’ all the while the reader is
subconsciously aware of the letters ‘l’ or ‘e’ or ‘t’ as members
of an aggregate—Nexus. Ibn Arabi mentions that the notion of the
letters as having the nature of geometrical animated organisms is
attributed to the Imam Ja’far Sadiq. (though he doubts that Imam had
said anything about the animal nature of the letters)
It repeats in microcosm what the
universe is in macrocosm:
Letters can describe the very beginning of universe and the universe
can explain their properties, as though they were an organic organism
roaming through the universe from time-place to time-place, from
intellect to intellect, from the begining to the very end; an animated
organism in whose core resides the blueprint architecture of the
multiverse, the growth of
this organism is the expansion of the universe!
It is an incompletion in process of
production:
A letter in and of itself, is incomplete; though by relatedness to its
aggregate nexus it is perpetually reaching towards its perfection and
completion, and all human beings who carry these letters within, are
incompletions on the same voyage towards completion—Perfection.
Since childhood we are taught the letters and and exposed to these
magnificent half-spiritual half-corporeal spiritual organisms; yet due
to daily over-exposure we have lost our bewilderment about them and
they seem
quite ordinary to us.
The best example of the above arguments is the DNA sequences in any
living being, they are a discreet alphabetical system fabricated from
nucleotides, and yet they carry the very blueprint of the organisms and
the universe that surrounds the organism (e.g. reaction/interface to
light or
heat or other organisms).
There is no living organism without these nucleotide alphabets, and
they by themselves are useless chains of atoms, incomplete and
non-sensical. Only
when the nucleotide alphabets are
entangled with the organism and its
processes, a living organism emerges, as a complete quantal
unit. If you disturb the 'alphabet' the organism alters/ceases
and vice-a-versa.
Remember Azizam (My dearest) that the nucleotide sequences are ancient
and do extract from this molecular evolutionary sequence this
knowledge: alphabets are indeed infinitely ancient entities—Primordial,
Qadim.
Kitab Al-Nun
by Ibn Arabi
“And with regards to the Nun (‘n’
sounding
letter) it has Waw (‘w’/'u'
sounding letter) as a veil between her two ‘n’ sounds. (Dara: Remember that Nun, though in Arabic it is but a
single letter, as a phone it can be spelt as follows: Nun+Waw+Nun; therefore Ibn Arabi considers
the middle partitioning Waw as
a
separating veil.)
Meaning, as in writing, a half circle appears from this Nun just like the half sphere of
the sky and the other half which is unseen i.e. the other Nun. The cosmos is comprised
of an observable half and an unobservable half. And the reason for our
inability to observe the other half is our existence upon this earth,
since this earth also serves as a veil obstructing the view of other
half of the cosmos.
Similarly our entire physiological realm serves as darkling veil that
prevents us from grasping and viewing the realm of spirits, the unseen
world which is like the other unobservable half-sphere which we cannot
view except by its effects.
واما النون فإن الواو الذي له حجاب
بينهما اعني فانه ما ظهر منه في الرقم سوى نصف الدئرة مثل ما ظهر في الفلك
ومثل ما ظهر في النشأة فإن نشأة العالم كروي نصف الكرة منه حس ونصفها غيب
وكذلك الفلك نصف الكرة منه ظاهر أبدا ونصفه غائب أبدا عن الحس وغلبنا ما
عدم إدراكه لكونه في الأرض والأرض هي الحجاب عليه فلم ندركه وكذلك لبثنا
في عالم الطبع وظلمته حجبنا عن إدراك عالم الأرواح الذي هو النصف الآخر من
كرة النشأة فلا تشاهد إلا آثاره
Therefore from the emerging observable Nun of the Divine Word Kun (Become) emerge all the
observables and the other half (Nun)
is
concealed and that is the realm of spirits/spiritualities. (Two half
circles with a center dot appears in the Arabic text, top half-circle
the latter, the bottom half-circle the former )
The single bottom-half circle, corresponding to the corporeal realm,
appeared
from Al-Fahawānia (The Divine
Face-to-Face Persona) and the spiritual top-half appeared from the
meanings and
knowledge(s) of Al-Fahawania (The
Divine
Face-to-Face Persona).
The middle spiritual Waw (‘w’ sounding alphabet) serves as a
Dhat (Inmost Core, Essence)
which takes offerings from one half (the spiritual) and dispatches them
to the other half (the corporeal).
The spiritual half, the spiritual Nun
connects to the corporeal Nun,
and
from the spiritual Nun both ‘Ittisāl (Continuous
communication, connectedness) and ‘Ishq
(Unrestrained Love) are taken and dispatched to the corporeal
Nun; and the latter is our
reason for staying so little here in this corporeal form. (Dara:
Because of the unrestrained love and need for staying in communication
with Allah,
the gravitation of a feral love pulls us out of here
towards the other universe after short period of time living
biologically on this planet.)
فالنون الظاهرة في
((كن)) عنها ظهرت المحسوسات والنصف الآخر المغيب المقدر عليه هكذا ((هنا
يعني النون المقلوبة في الرسم)) عنه ظهرت الروحانيات فالواحد الجسماني ظهر
عن الفهوانية والروحاني ظهر عن معنى الفهوانية والواو روحانية الذات فتأخذ
المواهب من النصف العلوي وتلقيه الى النصف الثاني الجسماني ولروحانيتها
اتصلت بالنون الروحانية دون الجسمانية فأخذها منها اتصال وتعشق والقاؤها
على النون الجسمانية القاء تبليغ ولهذا هي قليلة اللبث عندها وصورة
الإتصال هكذا ((نون)).
The Surat (Shape,
Form,
Constraint) for this Ittisal (Connectedness)
is
this ‘n’ sounding alphabet Nun.
And
this is the Gabrielan Maqam (Rank):
(Wherein) Is given the Quantal Divine
Offerings which are free of Tafsil (Explicit distinct subparts) to Waw
so it can make the offerings Mufassal
(Endued with explicit distinct
subparts e.g. the letters) and that is the Qalam (Divine
Pen) within the Alam-Tastir
(Realm of
Serializations); and the second
corporeal Nun, a Lauh
(Tablet)
so all affairs efficiently
can be written/stored upon it Mufassal (Endued with explicit distinct subparts),
for the sake of (acquisition of) knowledge, and for the sake of
(implementation of) Nun (in
this world).
وهذا
هو القام الجبرائيلي وتعطي المواهب مجملة من غير تفصيل فيفصلها الواو وهو
قلم عالم التسطير عند الالقاء وهذه النون الأخرى له كاللوح فالامور مفصلة
عندها بالقوة من حيث العلم ومن حيث ما هي نون
Simply by looking at Nun nothing
can
be fathomed about what is beyond this letter and what is going on
with it, until a Tarjumān (Divine
Translator)
is effused which is the human tongue, the master of all
pens, and which serializes what was Quantal within the Spiritual Nun
upon the tablet of the ear of the listener, so that the listener could
understand some of what was with the spiritual Nun in accordance to the measure
of the serialization. This way the Quantal
spiritualities can be
dispatched from the spiritual Nun through
the
Waw(s) and Pens to become
Mufassal (Endued with
explicit distinct subparts e.g. letters) free of any middle-agency:
26:193 Nazala (Came down)
with it the Al-Ruhu-Al-Aminu
(Gabriel, true spirit.)
نَزَلَ بِهِ الرُّوحُ الْأَمِينُ
50% of Nun is observable and
50% can only be thought of.”
فهي لمن شاهدها صورة
إجمال لا يعرف الناظر فيها ما وراءها وما تحمله حتى ينبعث الترجمان الذي
هو اللسان وهو قلم من الأقلام فيسطر في لوح سمع المخاطب ما أجمله نونه
فيعرف السامع بعض ما عنده وهو قدر ما سطر فإن ارتقوا إلى القاء الهمم
فالهمم هناك تكون الأقلام والواوات الروحانية فتلقي الاسماع من حيث وجه
الروحانية منها فتعقل التفصيل في المجمل ولا واسطة ظاهرة قال الله
تعالى(نزل به الروح الأمين على قلبك)) ولها الخمسون من حيث ما هي محسوسة
والخمسون من حيث ما هي معقولة والواو لها الستة من حيث ثم جهات وهي ذات
النون الجسمية ذات المقدار والشكل والنون مائة لمائة اسم الهي لمائة درجة
جنانية ان كان سعيدا لمائة حجاب الهي لمائة درك ناري عقابي ان كان شقيا
ويكفي هذا القدر في النون فان البسط فيها يؤدي إلى ابراز ما لا يسعني
ابرازه فإن النون سر عظيم هو باب الجود والرحمة.
Behavior of Nun
As all organisms behave in certain ways and impact upon their
environment in a particular manner; so does this spiritual organism Nun (letter 'n').
A Form of Continuity
See Also: http://www.untiredwithloving.org/grammar_states.html#hamza_ya_ta_nun_present
Nun appears as a prefix for
some present/future verbs in the language of the Arab e.g. Nakhruju (We exit). The original
verb was Kharaja i.e. he
exited, then it was prefixed with the Nun
to form the first person plural, meaning 'we'.
The ‘n’ phoneme by itself cannot be a Madd
(prolonged pronunciation) i.e. try to say ‘n’ and stretch the
n-sound; you cannot stretch the beginning n-sound except you can
nasalize and prolong an auxiliary sound.
One way to prolong Nun is by
interjection of a Waw (‘w’/'u'
sound)
within it, so it reads N+W+N or ‘Nooo…oooN’ which can be
prolonged by the prolongation of the middle Waw. Now this Nun can be prolonged as long and
as often as necessary.
We have taken for granted the emergence and persistence of the
continuity within nature and within our Selves. There is a transmission
of a peculiar category of an energy-form that feeds and sustains some
types of continuity in the universe. Nun
is one such transmission and one such energy form that sustains
the continuity of many kinds of natural processes, e.g. entanglement of
the Serialized polymeric chains of proteins as well as descent and
Serialization of the Divine Word from the realm of Malakut (Spiritual
Realm) to the Mulk (Corporeal
Realm). Whether
the proteins curling to form entangled chains or the servant cognizing
the Serialized Divine Words, both processes require contiuity and that
continuity requires the transmission of a corresponding energy-form to
feed and sustain the continuation.
Nexus
Usage of Nun for verbs or
pronouns relating to ‘we’ or ‘us’ is due to its aggregate formation. Nun is a nexus, it is an
aggregate, a society. Other entities or aggregates can merge with it or
separate from it, i.e. Wasl (Connecting,
Arriving)
or Farq (Partitioning).
Had this Nun letter not been
there, no continual connection or connecting would have been possible
and entities could not arrive at each other or depart from each other
in a continuous manner.
Kitab Al-Ya
by Ibn Arabi
50:16. And Nahnu (We) are
nearer to him than the artery cord.
وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ
“For Na-h-Nu (We) there is
measure of proximity and nearness but for Huwa (IT, He)
there is only
distance; since Na-h-Nu (We) is represented the proxy of artery cord,
where cord deals with connectivity; Huwa (IT, He) is opposite of the
latter.”
Dara: Na-h-Nu is a prehension which is a
vector projection from the Qidam (Infinitely
Past,
realm of all actualities) into this present world brimful with
potentialities, i.e. a vector that goes from the lowest complexity of
the Qidam (all is actual) to
the most complex realm of potentialities and probabilities. This
prehension, for its subject-form, i.e. the way it projects from there
to here, has the feel of an entity within an aggregate, that is: ‘us’
or ‘we’.
Again it is the middle-agency of the Nun
that allows for the prehension of Na-h-Nu to project the very
feelings of ‘us’ or ‘we’ here. Allah has used
the term Na-h-Nu (‘us’, ‘we’)
for ITself and
an infinitely vitiated form is endowed for humanity to enjoy using.
Had the letter Nun not been
in existence, no society could give its members the feel of
togetherness or us/we.
Nasalization
No matter how you attempt to prolong Nun or even in a short form, part
of the air must pass through both nasal passages in order for the
proper sound of Nun to be
articulated. The peculiar prolonged hum you hear from the passage of
air through the nasals is made most particular by the asymmetry of the
nostrils, for the two nasal passages/cavities possess different
geometries and therefore there is some form of acoustic interference
within the articulation of Nun, specially
in
the prolonged form:
Pruthi et al.: Analyzing
vowel nasalization using MRI data
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 121, No. 6,
June 2007
"This paper analyzed in detail the three most important
sources of acoustic variability in the production of nasalized
vowels: velar coupling area, asymmetry
of
nasal passages,
and the sinuses. This analysis was based on real anatomical
data, obtained by imaging the vocal tract of one American
English speaker using MRI. Area
functions
obtained from
the MRI data clearly show
significant asymmetry between
the left and right nasal
passages, and the left and right maxillary
sinuses of this speaker."
The above red and blue graph’s deeps and spikes (poles and zeros)
should have matched had the nostrils been the same shape, but the
nostrils are INTENTIONALLY made asymmetric so the human being can
pronounce the nasalized sounds. It takes a terrific and complex
engineering effort to make such asymmetric structures, that can give
the same sound for all noses and heard by all ears as the same
nasalized sound e.g. Nun.
Poles & Zeros: http://virtual.cvut.cz/dynlabmodules/ihtml/dynlabmodules/syscontrol/node18.html
Divine Origins
The human being is a musical
wind-instrument through which melodies are performed that acoustically
inform the
creation about their Beloved Creator and the purposeful nature of their
creation.
In this treatise the grammar, the phonetics, the syntax, the acoustics
and the biology and micro-biology of the organs and physiology of human
being’s voice and speech articulation/listening are matched to Divine
Words and their pronunciations; for example nasal
asymmetry and interference is thus extracted as properties of the
creation in the most broad sense. Therefore the acoustic attributes of
the Divine Words, and their implementation by the human physiology and
cognitive faculties, thus render a simulation or visualization for how
the nature was created! Just as the physicists’ equations—alphabets
with syntax and semantic—can articulate to calculate the attributes of
the nature and predict future outcomes of physical systems, similarly
the alphabets such as Nun and
their properties and their interaction with the nasal cavity of the
human being can render the beginning of time to the end of the universe
and the very nature of all creation.
Asymmetry
The asymmetric design of our nasal cavity generates the peculiarities
and uniqueness of the nasalization of the Nun. Therefore Nun is the agent that induces the
asymmetry in this universe, whether the asymmetry of the matter or of
thoughts.
No matter whether it be physics, biology or chemistry that is
investigated there is an awe with regards to:
1. Homo-Chirality: Only one handedness of the
molecules that comprise the life are found, the mirror image of these
molecules, the other handedness exists but not within the body of
living organisms!
2. In spite of a mirror symmetric outer body, we are
fully and intentionally asymmetric within our body; for example, the
heart is asymmetric and leans to the left, one lung is smaller than the
other and asymmetry is observed within the regions of the brain responsible for certain tasks.
Currently we have no explanation for WHY such asymmetry is devised
intentionally and worse we do not have any clue as to HOW it was
introduced into this world:
John Baez
“Addendum: Long after writing the above, I just saw an interesting
article on chirality in biology:
2) N. Hirokawa, Y. Tanaka, Y. Okada and S. Takeda, Nodal flow and the
generation of left-right asymmetry, Cell 125 1 (2006), 33-45.
Movies: http://www.cell.com/supplemental/S0092-8674(06)00300-X
Cilia,
It reports on detailed studies of how left-right asymmetry first shows
in the development of animal embryos. It turns out this asymmetry is
linked to certain genes with names like Lefty-1, Lefty-2, Nodal and
Pitx2. About half of the people with a genetic disorder called
Kartagener's Syndrome have their organs in the reversed orientation.
These people also have immotile sperm and defective cilia in their
airway. This suggests that the genes controlling left-right asymmetry
also affect the development of cilia! And the link has recently been
understood...
The first visible sign of left-right asymmetry in mammal embryos is the
formation of a structure called the "ventral node" after the front-back
(dorsal-ventral) and top-bottom (anterior-posterior) symmetries have
been broken. This node is a small bump on the front of the embryo.
It has recently been found that cilia on this bump wiggle in a way that
makes the fluid the embryo is floating in flow towards the left. It
seems to be this leftward flow that generates many of the more fancy
left-right asymmetries that come later.
How do these cilia generate a leftward flow? It seems they spin around
clockwise, and are tilted in such a way that they make a leftward swing
when they are near the surface of the embryo, and a rightward swing
when they are far away. This manages to do the job... the article
discusses the hydrodynamics involved.
I guess now the question becomes: why do these cilia spin clockwise?”
Source: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week73.html
Why go through all the trouble of building a fully mirror symmetric
outer-body and go through even more trouble and make the internal
organs completely and intentionally asymmetric?
The asymmetric articulation of Nun is
in
part responsible for all asymmetry!
Interference, Self-Entanglement: Ishq (Unary Love)
As indicated earlier the asymmetry of the nasal cavity and thus the
nasalization of Nun brings
about the interference of the two identical flows of air through two
asymmetric cavities (pipes) and hence the particularization of the
articulation of Nun.
Therefore Nun is the agent
that induces interference in any and all known systems! Just like a
nucleotide sequence responsible for the generation of certain protein,
e.g. to make the eye, Nun is
the letter responsible for all interferences:
57:2. And Allah
is the ordainer over all Shai’n
(Object/s)
وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
57:3. And Allah
(is) knowledgeable about all Shai’n
(Object/s)
وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
While both verses use the indefinite Shai’n
(Object) in 57:2 the nasalization for Object is prolonged according the
rules of Tajwid
(pronunciation), i.e. When Allah ordains
and deals with any object this
object shows interference (due to the asymmetric nasal cavity) and yet
in 57:3 Allah knows about the objects and they interfere not (or much
less).
Broadening the notion into a more generalized thought: Objects do have
self-interference and the agent responsible for this self-entanglement
is Nun, without Nun the following protein would
not have been possible:
In terminologies of the Sufis this self-entanglement or
self-interference is called (Unary
Love):
“Know O brother—may Allah provide
for you and give you the benevolence of the Nation of Kamāl's (Those reached the Perfection)
‘Ishq (Unrestrained
Love)—That Allah’s Dhāt (Innate
Essence),
sempiternally and eternally, is characterized with the Sifāt (Divine Attributes) which
are Qadim: from time
immemorial, infinitely ancient. And from amongst of these
Attributes, ‘Ishq (Unrestrained
Love)
is one. Hu’s
Nafs (Divine
Self) loved ITself. Therefore,
the
lover the love and the beloved are but One! And a dye
originated from that ‘Ishq (Unrestrained
Love)
that remains to be Hu’s Divine Attribute, free and cleansed from
the variance of the temporal transience. ‘Ishq is the Kamāl (Perfection)
of
the Mahab-bat (Divine
Love) and the latter is one of the Divine Attributes. Don’t be
fooled by the names, Love and ‘Ishq are
the
same. It is ITs Divine Attribute subsisting upon ITs own Dhāt (Innate Essence). There is no
variance within this, not that Hu is
the
lover(Muhibb) for the Hu, but Hu has ‘Ishq (Unrestrained Love) for Hu! (Dara: Love- mahabbat- is binary relationship
and yet ‘Ishq is unary)
Source: ‘Abharul ‘Ashiqin (The Lovers’ Daffodil), chapter 32,
Roozbehan Baqli Shirazi.
This self-entanglement is an attribute of Wujud (Being): an entity
must love itself (away from all else) in order to continue with
becoming and being; had this self-love (Ishq) not been there nothing of the
tiniest size or duration could exist!
IT loved ITself and thus radiated with a singleton Nur (Divine Light)
and infinite
darknesses; we are the unnumbered darknesses and when we observe this
Light the furthest we could see is “IT loved ITself”, “IT behold ITself
and saw/sees/seeing only beauty”.
This Light shines upon us the darknesses and dyes us with the colors Ishq (Unary Love), unrestrained
and unbound; if you see something within or you observe something over
there, all you saw was the colors of singleton Light of Ishq—you saw nothing else:
Sharh-e Shat-hiyat
by Baqli Shirazi
Section 272
Quoting Sheikh Hussein Mansour Hallaj
(may Allah
ease his journey and forgive his excesses)
“… And the attribute of Ishq (Unary
Love)
is the very attribute of Surat
(Shape,
Form)—that is why you might look at the mirror and be
pleased with what you see in your Self—much
time could expire and no
one can grasp this…”
But the Nafs (Self) is for
the purpose of induction of ambiguities; had she not been there all
that could be said would have been: I love I! The masterful and
inventive design of the Nafs (Self)
engineers the ambiguities and enough of them so it can be said: I love
you:
91:7. And by the Nafs (Self)
and what/how it was engineered.
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا
There are ITs servants that become nothing but an Eye and all they can
do is to see the radiation of this self-entanglement, and IT has
servants who have no Eyes but IT endowed them with the instrumentation
of artificial eyes to observe the self-entanglement:
R.
O. BARRACHINA, M. ZITNIK
"Particle interference has also been demonstrated with neutrons, atoms
and molecules.
However, none ofthese experiments was designed to demonstrate that an
interference pattern
would build up even if there is just one electron in the apparatus at
any one
time, i.e. that ”each
electron interferes only with itself”. This was achieved
only in the 1970s with
a very weak electron source and an electron biprism
by Merli et al. and again by Tonomura et al. in the
late eighties."
Click on this line to see a movie for the
self-entanglement of
electron.
Nun:
An
Alphabetic Habitat
Gabrielan Rank
Gabriel Rank is a space as well as a station; for instance, it has the
attributes of up and down and it is voyaged through, and it is a shared
space (Maqam) wherein other
servants of Allah
might roam:
97:4 Therein come down the angels and the Spirit by Allah's
permission,
on every errand
تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ
وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا
بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ مِنْ كُلِّ أَمْرٍ
97:5 Peace! She (the Night Al-Qadar)
(is)
until the Matla’ (Rising
place) of the dawn! (Dara:
It
is therefore a Habitat wherein is found only peace and assurance)
سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ
Isfahani
Mufradat
Matla’ is the ‘place’ for the
rising of the sun.
Within this spatial habitat voyage unnumbered servants of Allah do as
Allah wishes unconditionally. With regards to the Divine Words,
Gabrielan Rank is the space within which the Divine Words transverse
from the Malakut (Realm
of
Spirits) into the Mulk
(Corporeal
Realm), deformed from their Mujmal
(Quantal)
form into the
Serialized Mufassal (Endued
with explicit distinct subparts e.g. letters or genes) form:
©
2009-2002, Dara O
Shayda, Editor: A. Attar