al-Ḥayy

The Ever-Living

Begin the series ↓

Recited as it sounds in the Qur'an, 2:255.

Heard together with: al-Ḥayy / al-Qayyūm

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

In us

The longest human life on record: 122 years and 164 days. Every life we know is received, fed, repaired, and ends.

Episode 2

In nature

A Greenland shark was found to be about 392 years old, give or take 120 (Nielsen and others, Science 2016). Ancient, and still mortal.

Episode 3

At our best

Voyager 1, launched in 1977, still sends data after 49 years, on a plutonium source that is slowly running down. Its instruments are being switched off one by one.

Episode 4

The Break

Take away a beginning, an end, food, repair, a source outside. Every life we know is lent. al-Ḥayy's life is not received from anything. A Persian king in the book of Daniel praised “the living God, enduring for ever” (6:27), the same words as the Qur'an's al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm (2:255).

Read: 2:255; 25:58.

From the tradition: Ashʿarī (al-Bāqillānī): knowledge, power, will, hearing and sight belong only to the living. Jeremiah 10:10 'A living God'.

On screen

Eywa is the sum of living things on Pandora. al-Ḥayy is not the sum of anything; every life is from Him.

Where it shows up

In scripture: Q 2:255; 3:2; 25:58; 20:111; Jer 10:10; Dan 6:27.
The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture: Jer 10:10; Dan 6:27; 'living God' throughout. Strong.
In the universe: Voyager 1's slow power-down (NASA).
In nature: Tardigrades: TED-Ed 'Meet the tardigrade'.
In people: Longevity research; Jeanne Calment.
In science: Biology: definitions of life; extremophiles; tardigrades survived low Earth orbit (2008).