Marlowe led the way beside the burn towards the still snow-covered Bod an Deamhain. ‘There’ said Spade pointing to a half-concealed truncated head beneath some heather. ‘So it’s no conspiracy’, said Marlow as he inspected the hugely swollen head, still dripping red and vocalizing somewhat, and pointed to the sword beside it; it’s Abdalwahhab’s, I recognize it’. ‘No’, parried Spade, its a scimitar of Persian steel, but a replica, for use west of Constantinople, belonged to the Steingass’ estate – I’ve seen it in the Woking mosque museum’.

They continued upwards and as expected discovered the shrunken torso, its heart still beating faintly, extremely faintly. Quickly Marlowe pulled out his connector, shielding it from the steady rain. After several tries he eventually managed to contact an imam close in madhhab to Imam Malik – in a Zawiyya he had once visited near Shanghai, a case of mistaken identity. ‘Yes’, said Tuan SklavedesDankbaren, the imam, ‘Amal and iman were Siamese twins for the Imam of Madina, inseparable – except by a costly, linguistic operation, they cannot be understood apart; schizophrenia ensues t’otherwise, one being residing in his head, another in the real world: we have a character for uniting the two in Mandarin – 信 which means iman, expressed by a man standing by words which in turn refers to sincerity – without action, no sincerity; of course in simplified script all that is lost – and we’re subject to the same linguistic tyranny as you.’ Please record the following: إن الله لا يقبض العلم انتزاعًا ينتزعه من العباد، ولكن يقبض العلم بقبض العلماء حتى إذا لم يُبْقِ عالمًا اتَّخذ الناس رؤوسًا جهالاً، فسُئِلوا فأفتوا بغير علم؛ فضلوا وأضلوا and get your academic blood hounds to translate it for you.

Back at Campsleuth they had it rendered into English: ‘Allah does not seize back knowledge by stripping away access to it from the slaves of Allah; rather He seizes it back by seizing back the ulama on their death – so if there remains no further alim in the world then people shall take up with ignorant leaders who when asked about something will give fatwas without knowledge, leading others astray as well as themselves’. ‘What do you think Tuan SklavedesDankbaren meant by giving us this,’ queried Spade; ‘Easypeasy, I’ve got it!’ replied Marlowe, ‘Knowledge is not information: it cannot be separated from a beating heart, in situ, amongst friends, connected to a company, a group who know each other and live together; knowledge cannot be computerized, information can, hence the separation of iman from amal, ὅπερ ἔδει δεῖξαι: the deen must be mentalized out of existence.

‘It rather reminds me, said Spade, now we’re here of what Mr Brown said to Q. Victoria when translating the Gaelic: linguistic castration’. ‘Yes indeed, and if you need further confirmation of the track, here’s the clue: اللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابًا مُتَشَابِهًا مَثَانِيَ تَقْشَعِرُّ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ الَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ – The skins of those who fear their Lord tremble at it – in Sura The Companies’. ‘But where’s the link?’ asked Marlowe. ‘Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib who asks for beneficial knowledge – the proof of which is that the hearts are humbled, the skin trembles and tears flow: in his nutshell: iman elicits knowledge, not information, which in turn has a physical effect on the body, i.e. movement and action. Presto. Case solved.’

‘And the severed head and torso?’, enquired Marlowe. ‘Part of knowledge shall die with him when he expires, it is true – because, and this is the last clue you’re getting for the mystery of the separation of iman and amal, up to very recently, historically speaking, a man or woman was not considered to have knowledge unless he or she had got it, face to face – or knees to knees as the case may be – from another man or woman who had it: remove the body with all its activity and all you are left with is information, wa basta: did not Malik relate that he had heard that Luqman al-Hakeem made his will and counselled his son, saying, ‘My son! Sit with the ulama, pressing your knees against theirs, for Allah gives life to the hearts by the light of wisdom as Allah gives life to the dead earth with the abundant rain of the sky.’’ And another thing, said Spade, ‘Face to face means anything could happen – within the realm of real knowledge, for the teacher might up and go, saying, “”Halluma, to the hills’ – something which is not latent with a mere manuscript, a printed book or Chatgpt; and the fella atransmitting may be ill, so you moved to find a cure, or in need, so you’re moved to slake it – all Heisenberg, or Jungian synchronicity: the subtle graciousness of the Geisha only manifests to the observer who is present.