alt=""/>ammad and Allh, though most interpreters would avoid the troublesome theological implications and instead assert that Muammad had seen the angel Jibril (Gabriel). For its description of this meeting between the Prophet and a supernatural Somebody, the fifty-third sra might resonate with those of us who have traveled the entheogen road.
So I began to read, starting with the sra’s introduction, “Bismillhir Ramnir Ram”: “In the Name of God, Ramn, the Merciful.” People usually translate ar-Ramn as something like “compassionate” or “gracious,” but there’s reason to suggest that it’s actually a proper name that originated in southern Arabia and was associated with pre-Islamic monotheism there. In the Qur’n’s description of unbelievers in 25:60, it would seem that ar-Ramn was regarded as a new, alien deity, distinct from the Allh that was already worshiped in Mecca: “And when it is said to them, ‘Prostrate to ar-Ramn,’ they say, ‘And what is ar-Ramn? Should we prostrate to that which you order us?’” In 17:110, the Qur’n clears up the confusion, clarifying that ar-Ramn and Allh are in fact the same being: “Call upon Allh or call upon ar-Ramn. Whichever you call, to him belong the best names.” Early in the Qur’n’s unfolding, Allh became the dominant name, appearing nearly three thousand times in the text, compared to fifty-seven appearances for ar-Ramn (not counting the Bismillhir Ramnir Ram in the superscriptions of sras).
Following the introductory Bismillh, the first numbered verse of the sra is a short Wa-l-najmi idh haw (“By the star when it falls”). Prior to making persuasive arguments, the Qur’n often attests to its own claims through oaths. The oath verses generally accompany issues of particular gravity, such as punishments in this world or the next. In 53:1, the oath is not by the star’s usefulness for human navigation, or its beauty as an adornment of heaven, or even the star itself; we are to look not at the light, but the
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