seen-kaaf-nun

Joel called today about the root sheen-chaf-nun (qaf – I have to learn that Hebrew) which is seen-kaaf-nun in Arabic. About how it makes words for dwelling. And how one word in particular, mishkan means dwelling place, particularly dwelling place of the presence of God in the Tabernacle, which became the Temple.

So I went searching through my Hans-Wehr Arabic-English Dictionary, and found a few words. I got excited about the word sukun because in all the talk of home and dwelling and resting and quiet, there was ‘vowellessness’. First it was just funny – we could be the vowelless ones. But as I thought about it, I realized that part of what was so attractive about it is that it’s the rest between words. That’s why it’s called sukun. It’s where the sound stops. And it’s absolutely essential for the word to form. That’s why in Urdu (and apparently in Arabic) you have the phrase harkaat o saknaat to signifiy comings and goings, movements, behaviour of a person. It literally means the movements and the rests of a person.

Considering the work we’re doing and the reason we got into this whole root-hunting business today, it’s important to find that place between sound and sound, the place between Words, to rest, before launching off into sound again. Maybe it’s a fruity notion, maybe it’s all mystical and stuff. I like it, though. We’re setting a place of conversation. It’s sort of fitting that it begins with a rest, a quiet.

living islam

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