O, Ewes Guys!

...quit making fun of my Brooklyn accent.

"It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf."
--Thomas Fuller
Surah 8 Al-Anfal (The Spoils of War)

إِذْ تَسْتَغِيثُونَ رَبَّكُمْ فَاسْتَجَابَ لَكُمْ أَنِّي مُمِدُّكُم بِأَلْفٍ مِّنَ الْمَلآئِكَةِ مُرْدِفِينَ 8:9

8:9 If/When you plead/ed with God (to Intercede) and He Responded (s) to you, indeed He Extended (s) (outspread, expanded, prolonged, protracted) 1,000 Angels 'murdifoon' 'arranged in rank' (but the primary meaning here of 'rdf' is 'buttocks'--and don't be laughing just yet).

'The Lord is My Shepherd' not because I am a sheep (or ewe, whatever the case might be), but because I belong to His 'Fold' (a crash course on Tay-al-Ard is called for a this juncture). And a cut-and-paste illustration might help some, too.

Be cautioned that the 2-dimensional illustration is a bit misleading but is only being used for convenient reference. Misleading in that the figure of the soldier practicing a Military Parachute Landing Fall is doing just that and he is not actually rotating in space. From his perspective he is going through maneuvers, or engaged in battle or doing whatever he is being called on to do.

The soldier is used as the example here because of the use of the word 'murdifin' which does refer to the 'Buttocks', the 4th point of a textbook military parachute landing fall. And while the rest of the illustration is attempting to show the realignment of this Subject to God's Purpose (essentially, the meaning of the word Muslim*), what is actually moving is the Space-Time. Can you tell from this example which way the Plane is Moving (Folded)?

In addition to a novel approach to physics, let's see what this perspective does from the vantage point of the Theatre of War (I'll bet those video games will start looking pretty good about now).

إِذْ يُغَشِّيكُمُ النُّعَاسَ أَمَنَةً مِّنْهُ وَيُنَزِّلُ عَلَيْكُم مِّن السَّمَاء مَاء
لِّيُطَهِّرَكُم بِهِ وَيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمْ رِجْزَ الشَّيْطَانِ وَلِيَرْبِطَ عَلَى قُلُوبِكُمْ
وَيُثَبِّتَ بِهِ الأَقْدَامَ 8:11

8:11 That Deceptive Somnolence (cheating sleepiness/that blurs makes things vague), a Reassurance (Safety) from Us and the coming down of water (rain, m.a) from the Sky to Cleanse you and Rid you of the Wrath (vengeance) of Satan and Linked your Hearts (braced you, to each other) and Fixed your footing (your sure-footedness; a firmer footing implies stronger gravitational forces so what effect did this passel of warriors (collection of nearby point sources) have on local Gravity?)

فَلَمْ تَقْتُلُوهُمْ وَلَـكِنَّ اللّهَ قَتَلَهُمْ وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَـكِنَّ
اللّهَ رَمَى وَلِيُبْلِيَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ مِنْهُ بَلاء حَسَناً
إِنَّ اللّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ 8:17

8:17 So, you did not kill them but God Killed them; and you did not throw what/if you threw but God Threw/Cast; and ‘informed the Believers among them’/’labled the Believers among them’/’wore them out by the Believers’/in a good ordeal (first-class scourge—He Whooped their butts); Indeed, God is All Hearing, All Knowing (Aware)

وَاتَّقُواْ فِتْنَةً لاَّ تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ مِنكُمْ خَآصَّةً
8:25 وَاعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ اللّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
8:25 And fear (have a care) Sedition not infect those who are wrong/ed among you particularly and know that God is Severe in Punishment

إِذْ أَنتُم بِالْعُدْوَةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُم بِالْعُدْوَةِ الْقُصْوَى وَالرَّكْبُ أَسْفَلَ مِنكُمْ
وَلَوْ تَوَاعَدتَّمْ لاَخْتَلَفْتُمْ فِي الْمِيعَادِ وَلَـكِن لِّيَقْضِيَ اللّهُ أَمْراً كَانَ مَفْعُولاً
لِّيَهْلِكَ مَنْ هَلَكَ عَن بَيِّنَةٍ وَيَحْيَى مَنْ حَيَّ عَن بَيِّنَةٍ وَإِنَّ اللّهَ لَسَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ 8:42

8:42 That you in count/numbers (to the enemies/opposing force) the minimum (least, fewest) and they in count/numbers (to the enemies/opposing force) the maximal (superior, ) and the base installation (riders at the back/below) of you had just avoided not disputing/differing in/by the date (promised, appointment) and but for God's Judgment His Will was Done that they mistook (weakened) from your appearing greater in number from what is Evident and hailing from the neigborhood/district/vicinity Proof/Evidence/Testimony that Indeed God is All-Hearing, Omniscient.

{Aside: (whisper) If You have been following this blog since its inception You know that somehow I have managed to avoid Chapter 8 for the better part of 3 years, and for good reason. Knowing how You feel about my 'unique' interpretation of the Science in the Quran, I know You might be none too pleased with my take on History, especially if it has anything to do with Battles. The Battle alluded to here is a famous one, but I have a memory like a sieve when it comes to such things, so I hope my contemporary retrospective on it does not incentivize You to do something I will regret (again) or make me any fatter.}

The section appearing in Red Font in Sign 8:42, hailing from the neigborhood/district/vicinity Proof/Evidence/Testimony, is the interpretation of what took place at the 'lowest level'--under the Fold. Basically, the 'Forces on the Right' were outnumbered by the larger 'Forces on the Wrong' that struck fear in our heroes due to their superiority (not only in number, but it would appear they also had the higher ground and the better equipment/horses) and first saw the defending contingent as few in number, but at the last chance the 'guys from 'the 'hood'' contingent shows up (apparently they were quibbling about the date/time of when exactly the Battle was to take place--and they did not have what I am holding--an iPhone), but fortuitously they all resolved the dispute in time to make a good impression--good enough to weaken the other side by the mere appearance of their overwhelming numbers. Since, based on this narrative, the supporting forces from the vicinity did manage to converge on the battle field in what appeared to the opposing side in surprisingly large enough numbers (described as making the enemy perish/go missing/weaken or tire by the 'hulk', or what 'appeared to be a large looming object') as to make them lose any hope of being able to win the day.

(I added enough back links to "Micelles, Gravicells.." but the moral of this story has to do with the human body and Gravity interactions---and by extension any body and gravity, including such as may be found in the 'nethermost' regions which implies sub-atomic; attention is drawn to the location and timing of the lesser forces (at the bottom levels) vs the more evident superior forces (at the top), and then local or neighboring/vicinity effects of the emergent forces at the point they converge and seem to be much larger than is first apparent due to higher dimensional objects being 'folded' onto the common plane (ground); which seems to be related to tay-al-ard or space-time folding (higher dimensions must be involved for any of this to make sense, check out the lusona lesson below to see how this would apply).


The reason for thinking that Our Subjects were at what seems to be a 'disadvantage'--that being on the lower ground-- is the description of their having been 'al-rakib al-asfal' which means 'mounted on the bottom' as compared to the superior/maximal force which was also 'uppermost' or on higher ground. But, how, one might wonder did they suddenly appear to be such a vexing number if in fact those with the better view could clearly see them and surmise their evident or apparent number?

I wasn't there, but based on the History as rendered in Sign 8:42 by the carefully selected words and the proviso (it's postulated) that the Quran was intended to make sense or be useful 'fi qul zamaan wa makaan' (for all time and every place), I suspect something else was happening 'below the Fold'.

The word 'al-rakib' also means 'constructed', 'composed', 'superimposed', and 'framed' while 'al-asfal' along with meaning 'foot' or 'bottom' also means 'nethermost' or 'undermost', adjectives which imply 'layers' or 'tiers'. (If you haven't been following carefully, then take a few minutes to consider the mathematics and geometry of tilings or tesselations and symmetry , groups, and groups as sets--do that while I now go freshen up at the gym--because "God Loves Beauty" and I like to please God).
...to be continued
--Ok. I'm back!

Say what you want about Arabs but the simple fact of the matter is that they always know (at least back then) exactly where they are and what time it is---or they would be dead in the desert pretty darn quick (without GPS).

So how is it that these guys on this day of Battle were remiss about the time? They steered by the Sun during the day and the Stars/Planets at night for the simple reason that they had to in order to survive the aeolian landscape which they inhabited. Sands shifted and did not form reliable landmarks, and this begs the question: where were their heads at that they were confused about the appointed time to engage the enemy? {If you've visited the links above about math and tesselations, then a quick review about Escher's work Relativity and the subject of having 'companions' as a matter of explaining the nature of what we call Reality and the Multiverse might help fix the following concepts in your mind}.

Recall that Sign 8:11 mentions that these warriors were of "two states" of mind, the one being somnolent (described as deceptive or a cheat) and the other being 'braced' or 'connected/linked to each other' and sure-footed (gravitational increase due to linking) after having a rain come down. The 'sleepy' state is also described as being a Reassuring or Safety mechanism from God; but once the Rain comes down (recall the word 'ma' means water and it comes down from the Sky when it Rains) the warriors' 'sleepiness' is washed away and they feel consciously connected to each other which reinforces their resolve/sure-footedness (a relationship that is in 'sleep' mode (perhaps a ground or sub-ground state) becomes activated when the bodies become linked/connected to each other and augments the effect of gravity; Warning: the somnolent or sleepy state is a Safety mechanism, so proceed with Caution before waking or linking/superimposing anything up ) . It is no small coincidence that Sign 8:11 incorporates m.a and relates battle (competing/non-compatible) having to do with--of all things--Forces (does anyone now know why F=ma?)

Okay. I will spin my wheels here a little bit longer, because someone else has to know the answer since this isn't all about m.e (never was, never will be...). So, I will digress and mention that now you will be introduced to one possibile explanation to the age-old question: Where do Angels come from? (The short answer is from the top of the nautilus spiral).

Lusona are line drawings made by the Lunda-Tchokwe group of the Bantu, an example of which appears in the illustration on the right. Sona making integrates mathematics, art, and culture and traditionally were passed from one generation to the next during a 6 to 8 month period of male initiation rites. It is used here to help further demonstrate the concept behind our paratrooper's realignment in the above drawing and shed some light on an alternative explanation as to where those ('extra-dimensional') forces came from that are mentioned in Sign 8:42.

The lusona used in the example has translational, and rotational symmetry and provides a simple case for the purposes of illustration. More challenging examples can be tested using examples without rotational symmetry or more complicated group geometries like you would find in arabicized tilings or tesselations; in which case one would have to resort to more complex mathematics (probably need a good grasp of rotational matrices) rather than simple inspection. (Find more at Paulus Gerdes Ethnomath, Mirror Symmetries)

The first sequence of drawings breaks down the geometry of one lusona, noting that the proportion between the base diamond and those on the perimeter is 1/3. The 'key' objects are also proportional to the diamonds.

This next sequence illustrates that through translation and rotation symmetries the 'key' elements are assembled/connected to the diamond base (for lack of a better term, let's call it 'The Field"). And it is interesting to note for the purposes of this explanation that the 'key' elements are not directly connected to each other, so in a manner of speaking, they are not 'aware' of each other (another way of saying inattentive or 'sleepy'); and in this manner the original lusona is realized as shown at the upper right corner of the drawing on the left.

But Reality is seldom 2-dimensional and in order to visualize what is happening when space-time folds on itself as it would in cases of tay-al-ard or higher dimensional beings (like Angels) 'coming down' for a visit, the lusona is extended into 3-dimensions by the indicated spiral. An image of a nautilus is shown to help with the visualization that something is sprialing up out of the page or down into the page.

There have been previous discussions about the Golden Ratio (1.618) and it is often suggested that it is the expected ratio at which the nautilus shell expands, however, it has been reported that mathematician Clement Falbo measured a series of nautilus shells at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences, and he found that while they were indeed logarithmic spirals (like the golden spiral), their ratios ranged from about 1.24 to 1.43, with an average ratio of about 1.33 to 1. And that 1/3 expansion is in keeping with the ratio of our lusona here.

And in keeping with sound mathematical practices, the lusona is 'superimposed' onto the image of the nautilus with the logarithmic spiral curve in blue and it coincides at 6 points. Depending on variations and accuracy it is expected that it may coincide at 7 points. The case for 8 points coinciding is not as readily deduced from this investigation. It is of further interest to note how the 'keys' just happen to frame the chambered region of the nautilus.

[You, with the super computer, can see what happens in analogous situations for even higher dimensions, say up to 7---oh, why stop there, try up to 11---and let's address the validity of 'string theory' once and for all---the mathematics have to include all of the operations appearing in green and summarized in Sign 8:9; this is not a homework assignment, it's strictly voluntary and while cases with symmetry are more manageable, it would be an interesting excercise to see what happens when dealing with deformations or non-symmetries]

*وَجَاهِدُوا فِي اللَّهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهِ هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ مِّلَّةَ

أَبِيكُمْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ هُوَ سَمَّاكُمُ الْمُسْلِمينَ مِن قَبْلُ وَفِي هَذَا لِيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ شَهِيدًا عَلَيْكُمْ وَتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاء عَلَى النَّاسِ

فَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِاللَّهِ هُوَ مَوْلَاكُمْ فَنِعْمَ الْمَوْلَى وَنِعْمَ النَّصِيرُ 22:78

22:78 And Strive in God's True Struggle; He elected you and did not make any difficulty for you in Religion (the Dean/Righteous Way); your forefather Abraham, he is who called you Muslims from the onset (before), and in this the Apostle Bears Witness over you and you are the witnesses over Humanity; so ordain the prayers and give in Charity and Heed/Follow God; He is you Protector/Guardian; the Finest Protector, the Finest Vanquisher.

__________________________________
At Men, I Pause

(That Includes Womb-Men)

Above Left: The Desired Effect

Above Right: The Inevitable First Encounter With A Woman In Flatland.________________________

And that's why We are back to this:

Pearls Before Swine is a cartoon strip that appears regulary in the Los Angeles Times newspaper; the buttocks reference came up on 2 consecutive days March 30 and 31, 2010--a little overkill don't You think? I got it the first time but didn't think to post it here.