Monthly Archives: June 2025

I professori puritani

E.W. Lane did it – in latin garb, as did F. J. Steingass and R. A. Nicholson, while Archibald Colquhoun just left things out:

per esempio, Tancredi ebbe paura anche di sé stesso, comprese di aver raggiunto il nucleo segreto centro di irradiazione del irrequietudine carnali del palazzo.
Tancredi was afraid of himself too, he understood that he had reached the secret core, the irradiation centre of the carnal restlessness of the palace.

Unscathed

Said Wung Zu to his bosom friend, ‘The only way to get into Shanghai unscathed by ai is to go first-class vegan’, ‘Bollocks and drumsticks’, Euro Peüm parried, ‘如果你说普通话,一切都会很热情’, as much to say, *Se parli mandarino, tutto sarà caldo*

Goalposts galore

A tip for AI’s confabulators: elect carefully the goal;

or, set passion’s rocket to the heart of the matter –

a secret only for the wise, when ignorance reigns,

‘cos if you set out for Madina you shall arrive,

but if for the dunya, only filthy lucre and the nafs.

as-Sihha – Health

Health, properly speaking, i.e. in His eyes, exalted be He, can never be the endless chasing after microorganisms and treating them with sub-molecular chemical concoctions: as-Sihha it is true means soundness, and by extension health, but finds its ultimate root, linguistically, in validity and truth, such that if the mumin finds himself in an invalid and untruthful situation, qua – within a polluted city, unbalanced community, or invented legal system, or after the conquest, seizure and subjugation of a language, and does nothing to change it – health can only be conceptual, not physical, and without physical health, the heart is doomed:

as he, on whom be peace and blessings, has said:

فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةً إِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ، وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ‏.‏ أَلاَ وَهِيَ الْقَلْبُ ‏

There is a piece of flesh in the body which if sound, then the whole of the body is sound, but if tainted then the whole of the body is tainted – take note! it is the heart.