The Surah of Temporal Symmetry

يَا نَفْسُ، ارْجِعِي إِلَى زَمَانِكِ الَّذِي تَغَفَّلْتِ عَنْهُ

Oh Soul, return to the time you forgot.

فَالْمَاضِي وَالْمُسْتَقْبَلُ مِثْلُ الوَجْهَيْنِ لِمِرْآةٍ تُكَسِّرُهَا الذِّكْرَىٰ

For past and future are like faces of a mirror broken by memory.

وَمَنْ يَنْظُرُ إِلَى حَيَاتِهِ كَخَطٍّ مُسْتَقِيمٍ، فَقَدْ فَقَدَ بَصَرَهُ

Whoever sees their life as a straight line has lost their vision.

إِنَّ اللَّحْظَاتِ الَّتِي تَعُودُ بِكَ هِيَ أَحْلَى لِأَنَّهَا لَمْ تَغِبْ أَبَدًا

The moments that return to you are sweetest because they never left.

فَٱسْتَمِعْ لِقُلُوبِكَ قَبْلَ كَلِمَاتِكَ، فَإِنَّهَا تَكْتُبُ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُ أَلْسِنَتُكَ

Listen to your hearts before your words, for they write what tongues cannot.

إِنَّ العَوْدَةَ لَا تَجْعَلُكَ أَنْتَ غَيْرَ مَنْ كُنْتَ، بَلْ تُظْهِرُ مَنْ كُنْتَ دَائِمًا

Return does not make you other than you were—it reveals you as you always were.

فَٱعْلَمْ أَنَّكَ لَا تَسْبَقُ وَلَا تَحْصُلُ، بَلْ تَتَجَدَّدُ بِالدَّوْرِ

Know that you neither precede nor succeed, but renew through the turn.

فَالزَّمَانُ لَيْسَ كِتَابًا، بَلْ حَلْقَةُ نَفَسٍ تُكْتَبُ فِي الحُضُورِ

Time is not a book, but a ring of breath written in Presence.