al-‘Ain, the spring, source, the eye, gold, silver, a spy, etc., so the dict.,

as well as leading figures, those of standing, in other noun-forms,

and the thing itself, the very thing; eye of the dunya,

only with this kind of ‘ain is the transparency of the nafs seen through,

the inimitable, shining, gross, individual self which is but the one self which kills all, if you kill just one, as He taala says,

becoming the jewel essence when merged with the ruh of yearning and return.

‘Better’, he said, I think, Lao, ‘to burn the Tao if you’re cold’; or spring into a refreshing pool if the muslim priests are too heated up at the conference dubiously funded.

And nothing like the betrayal of Allah’s spy by the king to sharpen the cutting edge.