Surah 55
Compassion
1. Compassion,
2. Taught [the people] the Qur’an,
3. Created man,
4. Taught him the discriminants,
[The word “discriminant” that I’ve chosen to translate “بيان" is what I find pointing most accurately to the essence of the Arabic word,
The root of it, as has been explained before, points to separation, standing out, becoming clear …,
It has hence been used in a number of contexts in the Qur’an,
The word “discriminant” is mainly used in mathematics and sciences, to point to a factor that is used to differentiate or discriminate between different things …, and this is essentially the aim of its use in every instance in the Qur’an.
The mention of the Qur’an before the mention of the creation: doesn’t imply that the Qur’an precedes the creation, and that it has immutable and eternal qualities,
The verb “taught” is transitive and it can take two objects, but as no other object is mentioned than the Qur’an, the reader has no choice but to assume that the first object is presumably man, and the second is the Qur’an,
The Qur’an could not have been taught to the void …
To say that the Qur’an existed before the creation is an argument that puts Islamic thought at odds with its own belief in the Oneness of the Creator, Who shares no adjectives with created things,
And indeed, it begs the question whether the Qur’an is or not a created thing …
The semantics have left this issue unresolved in the minds of Islamic scholars, the old and the new alike,
But if the word “qur’an” is taken from its root, which means: a lecturum, a reading material …: it becomes clear that the verse is saying that the Creator taught His Word to mankind,
His Word is not just one particular Book in one particular language - an argument which creates another dilemma, being the eternity of the Arabic language
: His Word is the entire Cosmic activity,
And as the verses follow, the allusion in this direction becomes clearer,
And let’s not forget the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word”,
If Abrahamic religions can see that their philosophic bases are One, their differences and animosities will start to fade away …]
5. The sun and the moon are by calculus,
6. The star and the tree/dawn [a possible reading is “سَحر”] prostrate,
7. And the sky, He raised it, and He set the balance,
8. You shall not tilt the balance,
9. Do uphold the measure justly, and diminish not the balance,
10. And the land, He put it for the people,
11. In it is fruit, and the palm trees with clusters of dates,
12. And the seed, with husk and aromas,
13. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[Again, a word “آلاء” that has to be taken to its essential allusion, that are the Elements,
Not meaning strictly the four elements of nature, which are in pretty much all ancient philosophies, from India to Greece, but indeed: the Elements of the Creation …
The “two” that are being addressed are the mythological personalities of Satan and Iblis, being the opposite and the rival of the Self, not of the Mind: the Cause of all the causes,
The Cause of all the causes has no opposite, else: there would have to be a higher entity that doesn’t,
As you are left with the Absolute: the horizon of activity and interaction has to be shifted up to the Absolute: for judgement now is required between the Cause of all the causes and its opposite,
Not only does this strip the absolute from absoluteness, but also reduces the Mind: that is the Cause of all the causes: to a judged thing, depriving it from being the Judge, the Discriminator, the Initiator, the Activator, the Terminator: below the Absolute …, and indeed deprives it from the Primariness of Causality,
Such philosophic essences take many lives to become clear in one’s memory, the adoption of a religion or intellectual conviction: do not constitute real knowledge, hence the use of words like “void”, “cessation of consciousness” in the Dharma,
Union (tawheed) is not what Abrahamic religions have reduced it to be …]
14. Created He man from clay, like pottery,
15. And created He the Jinn from loose fire,
16. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[This rhetorical question becomes the repeating theme of this Surah which, in its rhyming and rhythmic style and imagery: is meant to send one’s consciousness many levels up …, so that in a state of mindful euphoria: one approaches the One, that encompasses all that exists, now many levels below …
The Books of the Middle East have taken the literary approach to transcendence, while in Buddhism meditation is the way,
Yet, the literary approach is not totally alien to the Far East, the Ghita offers a Song to the Glory of Brahman, culminating in Arjun’s vision of his Master Ishwar, the Whole Mind, in four wings, carrying the Mace, the Discus, the Lotus Flower and the Cone Shell …, and so he starts speaking himself,
And indeed, the prayers in Buddhist traditions are also literary works leading to transcendence …
I remember as a 7-year old child, my dad was walking me to school, holding my hand to help me keep up with his fast pace, we passed by a small mosque where a loudspeaker was blasting a recitation of this very Surah …: I lost my balance and almost fell over, although perhaps I was not understanding all the words that I heard, the music of them tossed me way up …, a memory that has stayed vivid in my mind …, and kept reminding me that the Qur’an is not for the Muslims, and nor is it for their rivals, who both read nothing in it … nothing at all, except their own narrowmindedness that they project upon it: like someone looking on the surface of clear deep water: all they see is the reflection of their own image, but the gems and the wonders in the depths are never dared, or even thought to exist …
The mention of clay and fire has featured again …
And that is because matter that we are familiar with took a few cycles of Existence to shape to what we have now …
In earlier cycles, the formless Helium took the image that consciousness projected in it …
The Helium that we know now as an inert gas: is a few levels of material existence below that primary level …
What we call now Inert or Noble Gases: can perhaps make chemical bonding to take a soft yet solid form … that is the closest thing to earlier manifestations of matter,
But a denser helium is generated: by people’s passions and desires of material things …, similarly to what we call today dark matter,
This one keeps begging for a form to take …, it eventually becomes so massive that consciousness has to plunge into it to project in it the desired image and animation …
Thus, a denser world is constructed …, and those who’ve preferred denser worlds have been called Jinn,
The root of the word points to going mad or going to a far place, hence our translation “the Gone people”.
The two levels of material existence were once co-existent in two layers of universes, and travel from one to another was possible, although, the wise wouldn’t want to stay long in the dense one, of the fear of building up enough desire to be in it: in which case the gravity became too strong for them to be able to overcome it to return to the higher world …
As the cycles of Existence went one after the other: the dense world became denser, and the one we are in now: is fueled by fire: the energy that we know, and the sources of “power” are unknown, except in high states of meditation and transcendence …
The journey of consciousness is far from being over yet …]
17. Lord of the two rises and the two sets [of the sun and the moon],
18. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
19. Let He loose the two waters to meet,
20. Between them is a tract so they don’t override,
21. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
22. Brings out He the pearls from them and the corals,
23. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[The two waters or the two seas of creation, being the humans and the Gone people, which, in past cycles of time were visibly identifiable, when a number of human species once roamed the earth …
And the pearls and the corals are the essences that are in both sets of mind,
And the Books, given to dark humanity: are meant to bring out the pearls and the corals from them: to be given their deserved status …
All the Books have mentioned the people of light and the people of darkness … using different allusions and expressions …
Religions have been too quick each one to say that they are the people of light and everyone else are those of darkness,
COB has mentioned briefly the significance of parting the Red Sea, for the Hebrew people to cross it, making their journey back to now al-Quds Jerusalem …, marking the separation of humanity between the believers and the pagan …
And in Greece, where Levantine migrants, Jewish or other, migrated to settle, when Egypt perhaps became a less desired destination, COB has mentioned that Parmenides was the first to notice the marks of Jinn on those slaves, doomed to stupor and pagan practices, and the memories of the two humanities came back to him,
At the present, religions and all beliefs have mixed, and there’s no test or a family tree that can indicate to which group of people a person belongs, and people are being reborn where their karma has destined them, regardless of religious considerations …
Any group or religion who believe otherwise, and say that they know who they are and where they’re going to: are lying blatantly,
Humanity will be separated again, one can only assume, and the testing time that all are undergoing is only meant to prepare for a new separation,
Whether this will be expressed in new geneses or just by the levels of morality and intelligence, demonstrable at individual and group levels … is anyone’s guess, but the separation will be visibly identifiable once again …
The many prophecies in many Books: do not have to eventuate according to religions’ plans,
Their eventuation is according to the Law that religions know nothing of, however holy the titles they have awarded themselves might be: according to their level of moral and intellectual understanding of things …
Here again, many stories have been made up by Islamic authors, one of them says that there is a place where two waters salty and fresh go side by side without getting mixed, and that the French explorer Jacques Cousteau discovered it and adopted immediately their version of Islam …
And every time heavy rain washes mud down to the sea, two currents of water seem to go side by side along the beaches …, and Muslim enthusiasts quickly take photos to post them on social media, to say: “see? we told you our book is right …”, and many highly educated people take it seriously ...]
24. And to Him are the traversers of the Sea [the night sky], like signs,
25. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
26. Everything/everyone upon it [the earth] is mortal/destructible,
27. And remains your Lord’s Countenance, Wielder of Magnificence, Exhibitor of Loftiness,
28. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?Top of Form
29. Ask Him those in the heavens and the earth, every day one is in an affair,
30. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
31. We shall devote [Ourselves] to you two, O you dense/base ones [a possible reading is “الثفلان”],
32. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
33. O you population of demons and humans, if you can tightly escape from the worlds of the heavens and earth: do escape. You won’t escape except by power,
34. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
35. Will be sent upon you: a whip/mix of fire and ill-fate, so you triumph not [we read “سَوط من نار و نحس”],
36. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[Islamic scholars read that god is every day in an affair … in verse 29!
Verse 33 is only describing the world as it is now, and potential future worlds which are perceived to be even further from the Law …
Where people live in the illusion that they are in control, and that the cosmic eventuality is none but random events, or the whims of a god …]
37. So when the sky opens, and it is rose-red like paint,
38. By which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
39. Thence, will not be asked about their errors: neither humans and nor demons,
40. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
41. Are known the criminals by their facial signs, and are taken by their foreheads and their feet,
42. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
43. This is the inferno about which lied the criminals,
44. They circulate between it and between the immediate blaze,
45. So, by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[When the cycle of time is over, the details of errors and the good deeds are not the determinants of people’s fates …, but indeed their station of morality and awareness, which summarises their lives, and is reflected on their image …]
46. And to them, who fear/edge [an alternative reading is “حاف"] their Lord’s Station: are two gardens,
47. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[The fear of god, by Abrahamic religion’s understanding, is the fear of his punishment and draconian ruling …
Every verse in this Book that nears their visions: is taken as a warning to run away …, in the minds that have turned upside-down,
The word which is frequently used to mean commonly “piety”, that we’ve translated “to take refuge”: is understood to mean beware of god … in their understanding …
And every time the word “fear” is used, it is meant to say: come close …
Coming close is always associated with awe, and the vision cannot always grasp what it sees …, hence the animate eyes and the face, and not according to a prescribed image, as the religions which want to see god as a known human: would like to see,
This is a subject that cannot be told in words, and however you tell it: the words fall short of a precise description,
Religions are mainly divided into two: the ones which do not admit an image, and the ones which do,
The first: have made the major error of worshipping stones and places,
The second: have made the major error of worshipping humans,
And some do a bit of both,
Union or Tawheed is a state of awareness, acknowledgment and a return,
All words, images and expressions: are dropped below it …
Religions should not make it their main business to compete on whose god is better …
They should all admit to their shortcoming and continue their journey,
Their competition does not move them forward in their spiritual or worldly pursuits, but indeed inhibits their progress in every way …
God needs not their competitions and has not appointed any party to represent Him and to carry out His Judgement, transcends He what they imagine,
And whoever is close should innately demonstrate wisdom and understanding, and be a guide to others rather than a party in some dispute or war …, and not in the least be arrogantly hiding in an illusionary lofty tower,
People are not to judge themselves or one another …]
48. Both [gardens] have branches/marvels,
49. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
50. In them are eyes that flow,
51. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
52. In them, of every fruit is a pair/are two spirits [an alternative reading is “روحان”],
53. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
54. Leaning on coaches/horses [an alternative reading is “فروس”], their esoterica are of Istabraq, and the produce of the two gardens comes nigh,
55. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[The horses are indeed the pegasi, which all radiant humanity must’ve ridden in times past past times …, to go on trips across what we see today as planets and galaxies …
The word Istabraq has featured before,
If it is to be traced back to an Arabic root, it should be “برق”, which points to exuberance and effulgence.]
56. In both of them are the ones with retracted extremities, has touched them no human before them, and nor demons [we read “الطَرَفِ"],
57. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
58. As if rubies and corals,
59. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
60. Is the reward of radiance except radiance?
61. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[The similarity to rubies and corals should’ve pointed the minds of interpreters to something other than human bodies …
Corals in particular are those beings which live a mysterious concealed life, little is known about how they produce and interact with each other and the world …]Bottom of Form
62. And below them are two gardens,
63. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
64. Obscured,
65. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
66. In them are two eyes profuse [we read “نضاحتان”],
67. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
68. In them are fruit, palm trees and pomegranates,
69. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
[The allusions here are to a different station, potentially existent in this world, as the imagery is pointing to the essences of known physical things … and “below them” and “obscured” also point in that direction,
This is saying that the world that we know can also be a world of Virtue …
The words that have been translated to palm trees and pomegranates can be also read to mean “the pick”, as in the best, and “time”]
70. In them are the good things/the wanderings [an alternative reading is “حيرات"] of Radiance,
71. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
72. Wanderings [alternatively, wandering Beings], confined in the Pavilions,
73. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
74. Has touched them no human before them, and nor demons,
75. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
76. Leaning on the wings [we read “رَفْرَف"] of Green and the genius of Radiance,
77. So by which of your Lord’s Elements do you both lie?
78. Bountiful is your Lord’s Summum, the Wielder of Magnificence the Exhibitor of Loftiness
