Episode 1In us
Human reckoning: Katherine Johnson calculated Mercury trajectories by hand; John Glenn asked for her to check the computer before his 1962 orbit
But: Takes days, can err, needs paper and checking
The 99 Names · Name 40 of 99 · Act
الْحَسِيبُal-Ḥasīb
The Reckoner, and the One who suffices
Say it: al-Ḥasīb. A recording by our own reciter is on its way.
Heard together with: al-Ḥasīb / al-Muḥṣī
Start with what we know
Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us. It is the Name.
Episode 1
Episode 2In nature
Weak: animals keep time (circadian clocks)
Episode 3At our best
NASA's Five Millennium Catalog lists 11,898 solar eclipses from 2000 BCE to 3000 CE
But: Even this needs ΔT, an estimate for the slowing of Earth's spin, extrapolated into the future
Episode 4The Break
Take away paper, error bars, checking, extrapolation.
Not a faster calculator, but a reckoning with no rounding error, and enough for anyone who relies on it.
From the tradition: Two senses: reckoner and sufficer ('ḥasbunā Allāh', 3:173). Classical: He suffices without being sufficed
On screen
Glenn trusted a human to check the computer. al-Ḥasīb needs no checker, and is enough for whoever trusts Him.
Where it shows up
- In scripture
- Q 55:5; 4:86; 65:3; 3:173
- The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture
- Weak
- In the universe
- NASA GSFC eclipse catalogue (Espenak and Meeus)
- In nature
- Night sky: The Planets (BBC)
- In people
- Katherine Johnson's checking of Glenn's orbit
- In science
- Celestial mechanics; ΔT and the slowing of Earth's rotation
Watch and listen
Films, documentaries and voices that reach towards this Name. Each links out to where you can watch it.
Sources for this page
eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEcat5/SEcatalog.html; Wikipedia Katherine Johnson; api.quran.com