Surat al-Zummar 39:6

خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَأَنزَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ الْأَنْعَامِ ثَمَانِيَةَ أَزْوَاجٍ يَخْلُقُكُمْ فِي بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ خَلْقًا مِن بَعْدِ خَلْقٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ ثَلَاثٍ ذَلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ فَأَنَّى تُصْرَفُونَ

"He created you all out of ONE living entity and from it brought out its mate; and He descended for you EIGHT pairs of cattle; He creates you in the bellies of your mothers one creation following another within THREE darknesses. THAT for you all is your Sustainer. The Dominion is His, There is no deity other than He, so then how do you get diverted, led away, turned away?"

The Ayat ( Sign, verse) chose to visit to me a few days ago at the time of Fajr. I listened to it every morning being recited by a Qari' who was previously unknown to me; the recitation is OK but somehow I do not move away from the Ayat. Every morning as I am having my coffee for the pre-dawn meal, I listen again and again to the Ayat. Today finally it started unlocking its secrets...There are many varieties of attention and many types of listening to the Qur'an, I have accepted that those various kinds of listening will also be visited on me depending on my state when I listen, on the Ayat itself which will be ready to unlock some of its treasure at the right time and above all depending on where Allah swt chooses to take me today. Some days, after listening I do not feel that I have listened ; on other days I listen but I know that I am skimming the surface and not diving and finally on other days the waters open, my attention is fit and I am allowed to go in.. it is on those days that I feel that i have been given a key and am permitted to look into the details of the Ayat...it is then that I sit down, read it carefully, look at the meaning of each word, at the ordering of the words...it is just the beginning of a process that will by Allah's permission continue for years for this ONE Sign.

The first thing that caught my attention is "He created you all out of ONE living entity" : this time instead of focusing on Creation, I am led to see all those who exist presently in this world as coming out of one entity and thus related. We are not strangers to one another, our original bond cannot be broken no matter how much it is denied in our heedlessness; difference and distance are not our original relations conditions. I, you and the others going back in the chain of species are relatives through this act of creation :

Surat al-Furqan 25:54

وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ مِنَ الْمَاءِ بَشَرًا فَجَعَلَهُ نَسَبًا وَصِهْرًا

And He it is who out of this water has created man, and has endowed him with [the consciousness of] descent and marriage-tie: [I.e., has enabled him to attribute spiritual value to, and to derive strength from, his organic and social relationships.] for thy Sustainer is ever infinite in His power.

Another indication of our similarities is the exact way we are being created stage after stage in the darknesses of the womb.

The second thing are the numbers: Mathematical order of creation. This is not just an enumeration of things that happened: the numbers in themselves must be signs. I have never understood the Sufi interest in numbers but may be this Ayat is going to open that door for me. 1, 8,3. Inshallah.

Then the last verb (Tusrafoon) in the passive tense: "You get diverted away" from this straight knowledge, from this Truth (Haqq) and the verse that had been previously floating in my consciousness for days finds her place here :

Surat al-Ann'am 6:73.

وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ بِالْحَقِّ

"And Hu [is the one] who created the heavens and the earth by/with/by means of/according to the Truth"

This evident Truth the pivotal pole of Creation is what we are being diverted away from. InSarafa means has turned away from the Direction, the Face of The Truth ( Al-Haqq) Allah swt.

And now the rest of the verse is clear :" THAT for you all is your Sustainer. The Dominion is His, There is no deity other than He". Haqq.

Alhamdullillahi Rabbil 'Alameen - Gratitude to Allah the Sustainer of the Universes for this Sign, this reminder, this morning, the gift of the Ayat, and the inexhaustible gift of the Qur'an.