al-Awwal

The First, before whom there was nothing

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Recited as it sounds in the Qur'an, 57:3.

Heard together with: al-Awwal / al-Ākhir / aẓ-Ẓāhir / al-Bāṭin

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

A lifetime of decades; a felt “now” of a few seconds. Each of us was born on a date.

Episode 2

In nature

Small animals see change faster than we do: for a fly, our world moves in slow motion (Healy and others, 2013). Time itself feels different to each creature.

Episode 3

At our best

The oldest piece of the Earth is a 4.4-billion-year-old crystal from Jack Hills in Australia; the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. But every clock measures from inside time.

Episode 4

The Break

Take away a beginning, duration, ageing, the calendar. The Time Stone lets a hero move inside time. al-Awwal means there was no “before” to move into. “He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden” (Qur'an 57:3).

Read: 57:3.

From the tradition: Muslim 2713a: 'Thou art the First, there is naught before Thee'; Isaiah 44:6 'I am the first and I am the last'; Boethius on eternity.

On screen

The Time Stone lets a hero move inside time. al-Awwal means there was no 'before' to move into.

Where it shows up

In scripture: Q 57:3; Isa (peace be upon him) 44:6; Rev 22:13.
The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture: Isa (peace be upon him) 44:6; Rev 22:13 'the First and the Last'; Ps 90:2. Strong.
In the universe: Planck CMB; Webb earliest galaxy.
In nature: CMB clips.
In people: Bedtime prayer (Muslim 2713a).
In science: Cosmology: the age of the universe; the open question of 'before'.