Here we briefly explain words you may stumble on in the pages. The explanations on the Dost side are general and carry no interpretation: they say not what Dost says, but what the word generally means in Sufism. Those on the physics side are written at the level in which they appear in the pages and in the source summaries, with their generally accepted meanings. The names of the forms on the pages (Both-and, Non-repetition…) are explained by the introduction page.
Allah
In Sufism and the Islamic tradition, the proper name of God. In these pages you see the name mostly in Dost's own sentences, where God is spoken of directly.
al-Haqq (Hak)
In Sufism, one of the names given to God; it means "the real, the existent." It is most often said over against the creation, that is, the created. In the pages, "Hak" and "Hakk'ın" are the same word; the second is its possessive form. The name Allah mostly appears where God is spoken of directly, while Hak appears in paired expressions said in relation, such as Hak–creation and Hak–servant.
Creation (halk)
In Sufism, said over against al-Haqq, it means "the created, the created world." The pair "al-Haqq and creation" is a frequent paired way of speaking in the pages.
Lord (Rabb)
In Sufism, the name that describes the aspect of God that nurtures, educates, and gives direction to a being. In the pages it always appears together with the servant, as the "Lord–servant" relation. The Side by Side pages state everywhere separately at which level this relation is spoken of.
Servant (kul)
In Sufism, the name given to the human being as the being who serves God, over against God. In the pages it appears as one side of the pair "al-Haqq and servant" or "Lord and servant."
Ilah (ilâh)
In the language of Sufism, the name that describes the aspect of God as the one who is worshipped. In the pages it is mentioned together with the Lord and the servant, as "the relations of ilah–Lord–servant."
Essence (Dhat, Zât)
In Sufism, God's own essence, thought of apart from His names, attributes, and self-disclosures. When speaking of a reciprocity or a relation, the Side by Side pages mostly add the note "not at the level of the Essence."
Necessary (Vâcib)
In kalam and Sufism, that whose existence is from itself, that is, whose being does not depend on anything else. It is the opposite of "possible"; in the pages it appears as "the asymmetry between the Necessary and the possible."
Possible (Mümkün)
In kalam and Sufism, that which can both be and not be, that which takes its existence from another. It is the opposite of "Necessary." It is distinct from the everyday sense of "might be"; in the pages this term appears with its own meaning.
Relation (Nispet)
In Sufism, the connection between two things, the situation of one thing in relation to another. "It is said at the level of relations" means that a statement describes not the Essence but the relation among the names.
Level (Mertebe)
In Sufism, one of the steps of being or of knowledge. "At which level a statement is said" shows from which step it speaks.
Self-disclosure (Tajalli, Tecellî)
In Sufism, it means that al-Haqq shows Himself in a form or a name. The word comes from the root "to shine, to appear." It is one of the words that appear most often in Dost's account.
Declaring incomparability (Tanzih, Tenzih)
In Sufism, the stance of keeping God far from resembling the created, of saying "He is like nothing." It is the opposite of "tashbih"; Dost holds the two stances together.
Likening (Tashbih, Teşbih)
In Sufism, the stance of describing God through a likeness, starting from His traces in the created. It is the opposite of "tanzih"; the two together are often seen in Dost's account.
Barzakh (Berzah)
In Sufism, it means the veil, the intermediate region standing between two worlds or two states. In these pages it is mentioned as the place between everyday perception and the unseen world.
Imagination (Hayal)
In Sufism, "khayal" does not mean the everyday "thing that is not real." It also describes the intermediate realm, between sense and reason, in which forms appear. In the pages this term appears with this meaning; the dream is also counted as an example of this realm.
World (Âlem)
In Sufism, it means everything other than al-Haqq, that is, the whole of the created. With plural use (worlds), several levels of being can also be described; in these pages both appear.
Form (Sûret)
In Sufism, a thing's visible shape, the mold in which it shows itself. A reflection in a mirror is also a form; "form" is often said over against "the reality within."
Veil (Perde)
In Sufism, that which separates one thing from another, that which covers it or makes it visible. In Dost's account the veil often does not only cover; it also shows.
The immutable entities (A'yân-ı sâbite)
In Sufism, it means the fixed realities of beings in al-Haqq's knowledge before they exist in the outer world. The word itself means "fixed essences"; in the sections read from Dost, their endlessness and the finitude of those who enter existence are said against each other.
The Breath of the All-Merciful (Nefes-i rahmânî)
In Sufism, "the breath of the Rahman"; an image describing the world's coming into being from al-Haqq, issuing like a breath.
The moment (Vakit)
In Sufism, it means the state the seeker is in, the "now" he lives. It is distinct from the everyday sense of clock or time period; in these pages it is mentioned as it appears in the section's own sentence.
Seeker (Salik, Sâlik)
In Sufism, the name given to the person who walks the spiritual path, who makes his way toward al-Haqq.
Sacred hadith (Hadith qudsi, Kutsî hadis)
In the Islamic tradition, a hadith whose meaning is held to belong to God and whose wording to the Prophet; it is conveyed in Allah's own voice. When a sacred hadith appears in these pages, we have not examined its chain of transmission or its variants.
Transmission (Rivayet)
In the Islamic tradition, the passing on of a saying or report through a chain that states from whom to whom it was conveyed. "According to the transmission" means that the saying has reached us through the transmitting chain of its owner.
Commentator (Şârih)
One who explains a work, who writes a commentary. In these pages the authors of commentaries written on the Futuhat and the Fusus are called "commentators."
Futuhat (Fütûhât)
Ibn Arabi's great work; its full name is al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya. On the site it stands as 18 volumes, 226 sections. These pages rest on its Turkish section summaries.
Dost
The name this site gives to Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165-1240); throughout the pages it appears only in this sense.
Section number
A notation such as c10k133 means volume 10, section 133. The "p." beside quotations shows the page number. The section number is linked to the site; by clicking you can go to that section's page.
Form of defying reason
Our working label. The name we gave to each of the patterns of speech in Dost's account that strain reason. A form is not content but a way of speaking; it does not indicate a characterization pinned onto Dost's words.
Enigmatic item
In the notes we kept while reading, a single sentence or passage that we marked as a place that strains reason. It is our working label.
Difficulty score
A grade from 1 to 3 that we gave each enigmatic item. 1 means "easily likened"; 3 means "we struggle greatly to find a likeness." It is our working label.
Superposition
The state in which, before measurement, several possibilities enter the calculation together for a quantum system. Superposition is said as a plain shorthand for "it is both here and there," but the theory writes it as the adding of probability amplitudes by a particular calculation.
Entanglement
The results of two particles in separate places look random when each is looked at alone, but when looked at together a relation emerges between them. This relation cannot be explained by narrating the particles as carrying something determined beforehand; it has been shown by experiments.
Decoherence
The very rapid erasure of the traces of possibilities' being together, that is, of interference, when a quantum system interacts with its surroundings. It explains why results look classical; the question of why "only one" comes out is not by itself resolved.
Measurement problem
The theory holds possibilities together up to the moment of measurement; in measurement, however, we see a single result. The question of when and how this transition happens is what is meant. It is still a debated question.
Collapse
The rule that describes several possibilities coming down to a single result at the moment of measurement. Some interpretations regard it as an additional rule of the theory, others derive it from the theory.
Bell inequality
If measurement results can be explained by things the particles carry, determined beforehand, there is a limit that the relation between two distant measurements cannot exceed; John Bell wrote this limit as an inequality. Experiments have exceeded this limit.
Hidden variable
A hidden detail that the theory does not state but is assumed to determine the results beforehand. Bell experiments showed that these results cannot be explained with local-type hidden variables.
Locality
The idea that a thing can be affected only by what is near it, and cannot be affected instantly from a distance. Bell experiments show that the "local hidden variable" picture does not hold.
No-cloning
That an unknown quantum state cannot be copied exactly. This is a consequence of the theory; it also blocks proposals for faster-than-light communication through entanglement.
Teleportation
The process in which a quantum state, while being measured in one place, ceases to exist and is rebuilt in another place. Unlike the everyday "teleportation," it does not carry matter; it carries the information of the state.
Uncertainty principle
The position and the momentum of a particle cannot be known at the same time with the desired precision; the product of the uncertainties cannot fall below a lower bound. Heisenberg set this out in 1927. It is a limit that comes not from the crudeness of the measuring instrument but from the structure of the theory.
Complementarity
An idea named by Bohr. Both the wave and the particle descriptions are necessary, but in the same measurement both cannot be seen fully at once.
Interference
Waves overlapping and forming a pattern of light and dark lines. Particles such as electrons or photons also give this pattern when sent through a double slit.
Quantum jump
The passage of a small system such as an atom from one energy level to another, without intermediate states being seen. Some experiments have shown that such a transition can be caught midway and reversed.
Copenhagen interpretation
The name given to the interpretations that developed around Bohr and Heisenberg. Their common ideas are the necessity of classical language in measurement, complementarity, and the result's being given by probability. They did not use the name; it was given afterwards, and there are places where the two names themselves did not agree.
Many-worlds interpretation
The interpretation that drops the collapse rule in measurement and says that every result continues as a branch. Everett proposed it; the name "many worlds" was given by others. This is a proposal of a theory, not an experimental result.
Multiple worlds
The interpretation that says that in measurement all the results continue as branches. It is the name later given to Everett's proposal.
Kochen–Specker theorem
The theorem showing that, in systems of three or more dimensions, assuming that all measurement results are determined beforehand and independently of measurement is incompatible with the theory.
Contextuality
That the result of a measurement also depends on which other measurements are made together with it. The Kochen–Specker theorem and related experiments show this.
Ontic
The name given to the view that says the quantum state describes something real belonging to the system itself. It is the opposite of "epistemic."
Epistemic
The name given to the view that says the quantum state describes not the system itself but our knowledge of it. It is the opposite of "ontic."
QBism
The interpretation that reads the quantum state as an observer's personal belief about probabilities. It uses the same mathematics as the other interpretations; its claims are debated.
Relational interpretation
The interpretation that says a system's properties take value not absolutely but relative to another system interacting with it. Rovelli proposed it; it is a proposal of an interpretation, not an experimental result.
Quantum Zeno effect
The situation in which a quantum system, when observed often enough, stays in its initial state and does not decay. It is also referred to as the "quantum Zeno paradox."
Tunneling
The phenomenon of a particle appearing beyond a barrier that it could not classically pass. It is one of the oldest predictions of quantum mechanics.
Time dilation
According to special relativity, a moving clock runs slower relative to a stationary observer. Airplane experiments with atomic clocks have measured this.
Relativity of simultaneity
In relativity, that whether two events are "at the same time" can change from observer to observer. For this reason there is no "universal now" shared by everyone.
Universal now
The idea of a single "now" that is the same for everyone. Relativity does not support such a common now.
Observer
In physics, anything that makes a measurement or interacts with a system; it need not be a human. Interpretations give the observer different roles.
Causality
One event's being the consequence of another event, chains of cause and effect. No violation of causality has been found in physics; in some cases only the "before–after" order remains undefined.
Einselection
The name Zurek uses to describe the remaining of a few stable states that the environment does not disturb ("selection made by the environment"). It is a part of the account of decoherence.