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”