2.3 Outline of the Single Monad Model of the Cosmos

Based on Ibn al-Arabi’s eccentric conception of time and creation, summarized above, the Single Monad Model of the Cosmos was developed between 2001 and 2005, published in 2007, and edited again in 2014. This pioneering philosophical model provided the ultimate link between the metaphysical reality of oneness and the apparent physical multiplicity of creation, by joining between the two contrasting and mutually exclusive views of discreteness and continuity; due to its two harmonious perspectives of time. Henceforth, the Duality of Time Theory was developed in 2017, from which all the principles of Relativity and Quantum theories could be derived and become complementary. According to this theory, space and matter are perpetually being re-created and layered into the outward dimensions. This creation process is happening perpetually in the inner levels of time, creating a whole frame of space at every single instance, which then appears to be evolving in the outer level that we encounter.

Therefore, on the ontological level, as the World is being created, time is discrete and uniform, but phenomenologically it appears relative and potentially continuous, because of the global perpetual re-creation that is captured locally at a fixed refresh rate. Accordingly, there is no gradual motion in the common sense that the object leaves its place to occupy new adjacent places, bu t it is successively re-created in those new places; so motion occurs as a result of discrete change rather than any infinitesimal transmutation.

With this unique approach we can accommodate instantaneous non-local change without breaking the speed of light limit, which is itself a direct consequence of re-creation. Consequently, the Duality of Time Theory provides a simple logical interpretation of quantum behavior, including all apparent dualities in nature, such as the particle-wave duality and the mass-energy equivalence.

As a result of the dynamic formation of dimensions in the inner levels of time, this model explains first how “space” and “matter” are created by the Single Monad, at every instance of the outward time, where they start evolving in the physical dimensions. Therefore, the speed of light in complete vacuum, or any other medium, is the speed of its dynamic formation, thus it is the maximum speed that cannot be exceeded, and it is invariant because motion is occurring in the outer time dimension that is orthogonal onto these spatial dimensions, which are being re-created in the inner (real) flow of time.

Therefore, the final time-time dimensions becomes genuinely fractal and complex, with real and imaginary parts. The speed of light itself, in any medium, is the dynamic ratio of the outer to inner times, which is equivalent to the corresponding effective fractal dimensions, being three for the normal Euclidean vacuum space, and smaller than that for denser mediums.

On the other hand, although the Single Monad, which forms the unit of space-time dimensions, is an indivisible reality, it is still a compound made up by the “Greatest Element” that is the only real ultimate substance in existence. Just as the Single Monad is creating the World every instance of the outer (imaginary) time, the Greatest Element is generating the Single Monad at every instance of the inner (real flow of) time, and this is what gives the property of spin that plays a key role in quantum behavior, and this also what makes the re-creation appears to be discrete.

All forms of manifestation of the Single Monad intrinsically cease from existence right after the instant of their becoming, and then they are re-created again in seven primary cycles that are the original creative Cosmic Week, outwardly equivalent to one instance of our normal time. The dimensions of space-time are dynamically created from these seven Cosmic Days.

Since the World takes seven Days to be created by the Single Monad, which manifests in the forms of the individual monads one by one in certain specific order, so any observer would have to wait, six Days, out of existence, from Sunday to Friday, in order to witness the next moment of creation, that is the next frame of space, on the following Saturday, but we perceive all this as a single discrete moment. In each Day of these Days of creation, a corresponding direction of the World is created, and each spatial dimension is made by two time directions.

The Single Monad Model of the Cosmos can be summarized into the following three complementary hypotheses:

1. The Single Monad: At any real single instance of time, there is only one Single Monad that alone can be described by real continuous existence. By perpetually manifesting in different forms, this Monad creates other individual monads, thus imaging itself to make a comprehensive image as one single frame of the entire cosmos. This still picture is created in one full Week of the original Cosmic Days of events, which are the inner levels of time, but this creative process is equivalent only to one single moment, that is the outward atom of time.

2. The Re-creation Principle: The forms of manifestation of the Single Monad cease to exist intrinsically right after the instant of their becoming, to be re-created again by the Single Monad in every original creative Week, from Sunday to Friday. Being one of these discrete instances, we don’t witness this creation process, since we only observe the created World on Saturday, the “last Day” of creation. So the seven Days of the divine Week are in all one abstract geometrical point of space-time, which then creates the space-time container which encompasses the whole World, both spatially and temporally. Due to this re-creation, although the internal flow of time is real and continuous, the outward time is discrete and imaginary, as we shall describe further below.

3. The Actual Flow of Time: Since the World takes seven Days to be re-created by the Single Monad, which manifests the forms of the individual monads one by one in chronological order, observers have to wait, out of existence, six Days, from Sunday to Friday, in order to witness the next moment of creation, that is the next frame of space, on the following Saturday. In each Day of these Days of creation, a corresponding dimension of the World is created. Therefore, the real flow of the actual created time doesn’t go linearly, but rather is intertwined with the observable, normal earthly days in the special and rather mystifying manner that have been summarized in Chapter IV of Volume II.

This complex view of space-time and creation will lead to the Duality of Time hypothesis on which we will be able to explain many persisting problems in terms of the genuinely-complex time-time geometry, including Quantum Gravity as we shall explain further in the following chapter. Einstein’s theory of General Relativity was able to explain Gravity in terms of space-time geometry, but it could not realize this hidden discrete symmetry which is the only way to reconcile it with Quantum Mechanics. The complex time-time structure of the Duality of Time is naturally discrete, and it explains Gravity as well as all other fundamental forces in terms of its complex-time geometry. Furthermore, this encompassing view of time will include not only the physical world, but also the psychical and spiritual worlds that will be described in the coming chapters.

Ibn al-Arabi stresses that this continuously renewed “return to non-existence” is an intrinsic condition of all created forms, and not due to any external force [II.385.4]. Typically he relates this fundamental insight to the Quranic verse: (but they are unaware of the new creation) [50:15], which he frequently quotes, along with the famous verse concerning the “Day of the divine Task/Event” [55:29] that he always cites in relation to his intimately related concept of discrete time. Therefore, the existence of things in the World is not continuous, as we may imagine and deceitfully observe, because Allah is continuously and perpetually creating every single thing at every instance, or in every single “Day of Event” [II.454.21, II.384.30]. If any entity in existence would remain for at least two instants of time, it would be independent from God, so with this re-creation everything is always in need for the Creator to bring it into existence.

Additionally, Ibn al-Arabi argues that there are no two truly identical forms, since otherwise Allah won’t be described as “the Infinitely Vast” . Because of this unique divine Vastness [I.266.8], the Single Monad will never wear two identical forms: i.e. it never wears exactly the same form for more than one instance; so nothing is ever truly repeated [I.721.22]. The new forms, he admits, are often “similar” to the previous ones but they aren’t the “same” [II.372.21, III.127.24]. Ibn al-Arabi summarized this by saying:

“At every instance of time, the World is (perpetually) re-formed and disintegrated, so the individual entity of the substance of the World has no persistence (in existence) except through its receiving of this formation within it. Therefore the World is always in a state of needfulness, perpetually: the forms are in need (of a creator) to bring them forth from non-existence into existence; and the substance (being the substrate for the created forms or accidents] is also in need to preserve its existence, because unavoidably a condition for its existence is the existence of the formation of those (newly re-created forms) for which it is a substrate.’ [II.454.19]

As we mentioned in the first volume, the Single Monad is also called the Universal Intellect, and also the Pen, among many other different names or descriptions. However, some confusion may occur with the Greatest Element that is creating the Single Monad itself; sometimes it is not very clear for some of these many variant names whether they are really for the Single Monad or the Greatest Element. One of these interesting names is “the real through whom creation takes place” , that is the most perfect image of the Real, as divine name of Allah, the Creator of the Worlds. Everything in the Creation is rooted in the Single Monad, just as the leaves and the fruits of a tree are rooted in the stalk that spring out of the seed. The Single Monad is like the seed for the tree of the cosmos, while the Greatest Element, is what makes up the seed down to the cells, atoms and subatomic particles inside it, just as the leaves were also “determined” in the seed even before it was planted.

Furthermore, one of the most interesting name of this Single Monad is “Everything” ! This name is interesting because Ibn al-Arabi says that “in everything there is everything, even if we don’t recognize that” . This is another way of saying that: “the Single Monad is in everything” , but it also mean that the internal structure of the Single Monad is as complicated as the World itself because: “in everything, even the Single Monad, there is everything, even the World!” This is plausible since both the Single Monad, that is the microcosm, and the whole World, that is the macrocosm, are both created on the divine Image. This reminds us in mathematics with fractals such as Mandelbrot set, Julia set and Sierpinski triangle, where the structure keeps repeating itself on any larger or smaller scale.

This also means that although each instance of the outward time is an indivisible moment, it is internally divided into sub-moments, just as the visible day, where the Sun rises, moves gradually in the sky and then sets to rise again in the next day. So on the outward dimension, this whole day forms an indivisible unit of time, but internally it seems to be continuously divisible into ever smaller time intervals, at least potentially.

Therefore, just as the Single Monad might be identical with the World, the moment might be identical with the day. It just depends on the scale we are using; if we were inside the Single Monad we might see creations such as the Sun, planets and the stars, but because we are outside we see it as a point. Similarly, if we suppose we go outside the Universe, we shall see it as a point; that is as the Single Monad, indivisible but compound. This is also similar in modern cosmology to the black hole, which occupies a single point in our space but itself is considered a complete world.

Based on the concept of perpetual cosmic re-creation, the World can be envisaged like a movie displayed on a computer monitor. This analogy is quite accurate in most of the details, even regarding to what happens inside the computer, since the Single Monad, that is the Universal Intellect, can be considered as a kind of “super-computer” which creates and manipulates the World, and displays it in the Universal Tablet that is the World-Soul, as depicted in the various figures in Chapter IV of Volume II.

Ibn al-Arabi asserts that the World appears with the same seven fundamental Attributes of the Real, because the World is His divine work, and as Allah said: (everyone works according to his own type) [Quran, 17:84, and Futuhat, II.438.19]. Therefore, the Perfect Human and the World, including individual human beings, are all created “according to the Image” of the Real, and that’s why Ibn al-Arabi considers the macrocosm as a great human being and the human being as a microcosm [Futuhat, III.11.18]. Likewise the computer is a certain kind of “image” of some specific aspects of the human mind, because the way it works resembles the human mind in many respects. However the shadow, or the image, in the mirror for example, resembles at best only one facet of the original. Likewise, human beings don’t fully resemble the Real, just as computers don’t, and cannot, fully resemble humans in many other respects, such as consciousness and free will, even though this is possible in principle.

It is known that the movie which is displayed on the screen is composed of a large number of succeeding still pictures that pass rapidly before the eye at very short intervals, so that the human mind observes only smooth changes between those successive pictures. By running the film at the proper speed we feel, by illusion, as if a normal motion of objects and images is happening on the screen. If we suppose that the screen has no visible edges, and especially with the new technology of three-dimensional holographic movies, it would be very hard initially to distinguish this illusion from reality. Similarly, the Single Monad is continuously and perpetually “wearing” new forms, which make us observe and experience motion, by mere illusion or creative imagination.

When we open our eyes we see a picture of many things around us, and if we keep on watching we see things moving. Each mental image is also internally created in one chronological sequence, and not all at once. Therefore, at every single instance and at each single point of space there exists a monad with a specific unique form. This same monad, still in the same instance, for us, but a full divine “Week” for the Single Monad itself, since we only exist for one moment in this Week, takes another form in another point of space, and so on. So in one single instance of time, the picture that we see is a combination of a huge number of reflected forms of the same Single Monad, which scans the whole of space at no time for us, and without real motion on the part of the Single Monad, because space itself is what we subjectively experience as a consequence of the succession of these forms within this Single Monad, and motion is meaningless when we talk about one single all-encompassing entity, but it is only some outward change of states.

It takes the Single Monad a full Week of creation to scan all the states in the cosmos, but since each individual observer is one single state, as conscious observers and not as corporeal bodies, they live a single moment in each full “Week of event” , in which they observe the other surrounding states as the traces or memory of the forms left over by the Monad after it has passed over them in one linear chronological sequence.

If this perpetual creative motion of the Single Monad is conceptually “stopped” and taken in isolation, all this will form a kind of “still picture” of things around us, including our bodies and as spirits or states of realization. Within this conception, the dynamic manifest World, then, is the instantaneous, continuously renewed succession of these slightly changing still pictures. Motion is observed because things successively appear in different places, but indeed there is no actual motion: for the observed objects are always at rest in the different positions that they appear in.

When we look at the screen of a computer monitor, at any instance of time, we see a still picture that is composed of an array of dots, or pixels, in the two dimensions of the screen; for example 800 horizontal by 600 vertical pixels. As demonstrated in Chapter IV of Volume II, this still picture is made by a single electron beam that scans the screen over and over again, one pixel at a time, starting from the lower left corner of the screen, and scanning horizontally all the 800 pixels that form one horizontal line, then switching back to the left to make the second line, and so on till all the whole screen is scanned, ending up by the upper right corner; just to switch back again in order to start a new picture from the bottom left corner, in the same way. Because this process is performed at very high speed or refresh rates, around a hundred million times per second, we only see a continuous picture in the two dimensions, and we never see the pixels being displayed one by one. By watching the continuous swift succession of pictures, we observe motion. While the beam is creating them, each pixel on the screen takes a specific form of a certain color and intensity that may slightly change from one frame to the other, creating the illusion of motion. This momentary form that the pixels wear every time they are scanned lasts only during the very short time while the beam is in its place. Once the beam leaves the pixel to the next one, the form vanishes intrinsically; we only see the traces of these forms for a short time till they are scanned again to wear a new form.

The Single Monad Model ultimately offers a logical interpretation of Quantum Mechanics by describing how actually the wave function collapses into a single eigenstate and what is the role of the observer in determining this state, in addition to the aforementioned realistic illustration of non-local interactions and the wave-particle duality. Hence, this model explains first how “space” , as a manifestation of multiplicity, is continuously and sequentially being created from absolute oneness, which reduces space into time, and time into number, so the cosmos becomes a simple arithmetic machine, and its finest structure is not only “quantized” but literally “digital” , or “binary” , where every geometrical point of space is perpetually fluctuating between existence and non-existence, corresponding to the speed of light and absolute rest, respectively. In the existence state, space and matter are created sequentially in the real flow of time, but then they instantly collapse in the second instance of the outer normal level of time, before they are re-created again, perpetually.