I spent eleven hours at work today (and last Thursday) literally being poked dozens of times with a sharp object.  By medical students.  They’re always really nice about it.  Sometimes, though, it feels like my own personal cross between Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (movie) and any typical Philip K. Dick scenario.

Tomorrow I’m off to Minneapolis (or was it St. Paul?), Minnesota, for Recently Deceased Uncle #2.  And to meet this Moor, Rashid al-Din. 

I took two or three Beginning Arabic classes at the community college, which got derailed by work and family crises.  But there’ll still be a few sessions left when I get back to town.  At least it’s given me enough of a start with the alphabet and pronunciation that I could sort of hack my way through it, especially with the nice little Arabic script book I found at the Tattered Cover when I was in Denver.  I also found a copy of Michael Sells’ Approaching the Qur’an, which is totally cool.  At a bookstore in Iowa I found an Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation of the Qur’an, which is much nicer than my little pocket King Fahd.  So it’s like, Qur’ans out the wazoo now.  I really hope to slowly pick up reading Qur’anic Arabic from all these materials.  At minimum, I find Sells’ existential-mystical take on The Book rather compelling.  It’s like, a taste.

Now "Sinan’s Boast" is on, in the computer, from the Hashisheen cd.  I love it.

i am the master of what is: the dwelling is not empty of the ancient sprouts. i am the witness, the spectator, dispenser of mercy in the beginning and the end. do not be misled by the changing of forms. you say, so-and-so passed, and so-and-so came: i tell you to consider the faces as all one face, as long as the master of existence is in existence, present, existent. do not depart from the orders of him who received your engagement whether arab or persian or turk or greek. i am the ruler, dispenser of orders and of will.  whoever knows me inwardly possesses the truth. knowledge of me is not perfect unless i say, my slave, obey me and know me in true knowledge of me: i shall make you alive like me, you shall not die; and rich, you shall not be poor; and great, you shall not be abased; hear and pray, you will be advantaged. i am the one present and you are those present in my presence. i am the one near who does not depart. if i punish you, it is my justice; if i forgive you, it is my generosity and my excellence. i am the master of mercy and dispenser of forgiveness and of the clear truth.  praise to god, lord of the worlds; this is a clear explanation.

And then there’s this anecdote:

the imam ja’far sadiq replied one day to a man who asked him whether it Was true that on the day of the resurrection god would be visible to all: "yes," said the imam. "he is visible even before that day, he has been visible since the day when he asked: ‘am i not your lord?’ the true believers have seen him even in this world. dost thou not see him?" and the man replied: "o my lord, i see thee! permit that by thy authority i go and announce it to the others." but the imam said: "no, say nothing to anyone, for the people are stupid and ignorant, they will not understand; they will disavow you and hurl the anathema at you." know, o my brother, that this subject was always kept hidden from the unworthy and the incompetent; it has been confided only to a small number. if one of the true gnostics is somewhere, the people slander him and mock him … each thing, whether it be exoteric or esoteric, can be for you yourself a form of worship.  worship, assuredly, is identical with knowledge, but worship in every case forms a thing in itself, different from every other thing. knowledge by the organ of your eyes means that you know this human form that guides you, which is proper to the person who bears outwardly all the features of simple human reality. but it is not with the eyes that you can obtain a representation of the heart. the knowledge of the heart is different from that of sight: it is pure luminescence, shining for itself. and neither have i the power to tell you more nor you the capacity to hear more.

"take one step outside yourself, the whole path lasts no longer than one step"  (some sufi)