When eternity touches anything temporal, silence deepens
and becomes one zeroed thing
made of both. Dervishes can find a hundred ways to say
how this happens. I’ve
no interest in more poetic images. Mysterious combinations
of Arabic letters stand
at the begining of certain Qur’anic chapters: alif lam
mim ba-mim. They seem
like other letters, but only as biscuits resemble the
moon! A true feeling of
what comes from the presence can free the imprisoned and resurrect the helpless.
Some word combinations, like skin-and-bone arrangements,
have sublime qualities. These
three people talking in the street are ordinary young
men, but Alif, Lam, and
Mim have an exchange more like Larry, Curly, and Moe.
Dżalal ad-Din ar-Rumi „The Three Stooges”