1. Testing Possibilities:

One of the main consequences and principles of this model of cosmogony and creation, as we have seen in the previous chapter, is that the creation is being continuously refreshed, like a kind of computer screen. A first possibility could be, therefore, to measure the 'refresh rate' of creation, which is also the smallest quantum of time, or the length of the moment (al-zaman al-fard). As we have noted, this could be expected to be equal to 24 hours (or 24 60 60 seconds) divided by the whole number of states or entities in the world. So with such an extremely small quantity of time, there is no possible device that could measure it.[122] If we think, for example, of using high-speed cameras and then replaying their images in slow motion in order to see the flickering,[123] we shall find that this is not possible even in theory, no matter how fast the camera might be. Since the camera, no matter how fast, is itself part of the world whose re-creation it is supposed to observe, it will not be able to see its state of non-existence because then it will not be existing itself. Similarly, we ordinarily do not notice the re-creation of the world because we are part of it. However, a specially detailed study of the memory and other human internal and external senses would be necessary to judge how the actual process of perception of the world is happening with the re-creation principle in mind, both in our 'normal' state and in those specially enlightened perceptions of the 'knowers' which Ibn Arabi points to as the ultimate root of his cosmological thesis of 'perpetual re-creation'.

On the other hand, other promising domains for testing and examining this model would involve the properties of light particles (photons) and other elementary particles. The peculiar properties of photons that are normally treated as electromagnetic waves can be a starting point to test the model above. The photon, being a wave, has a probability of existence anywhere in space and at any time as long as it is still undetected; it takes fixed space-time coordinates only after it is detected either by the eye or by a device. We can therefore say that the photon of light, being the fastest in nature, does not undergo any re-creation, and that's why it is the fastest, because creation or re-creation is a process that takes the smallest quantum of time. Therefore one key to test the Single Monad Model experimentally could be in the emission and absorption of light by different known processes, or in the process of converting light into mass (and vice versa) through electron-positron annihilation and pair production (see further below).

The best and easiest potential domain of investigation in this regard is to look at the electron orbits around the nucleus, where it is known that the electron jumps between the orbits when it absorbs or emits a photon of light. Because this process is quantized, the electron may not exist between the orbits; it is therefore re-created in the new orbit (see also the following section). We can therefore say that the re-creation time (i.e. the moment) equals the time the electron takes to move between the orbits (i.e., actually re-appears in the new orbit). This time-gap, however, is different from one atom to another, or even from one orbit to another inside the atom, because it depends on the kind of atoms and on temperature, etc. It is not possible here to discuss this subject in detail, but it is certainly a good point which may constitute a new subject of research.

We may also look in the annihilation of particles and anti-particles into light and vice-versa ('pair production'). For example, when an electron meets with a positron (each has a mass of 9.1 10^-31 kg) they are both annihilated into a massless photon (energy) according to the famous equation E=mc². One electron alone can not annihilate, and one positron alone can not annihilate. But it is possible to convert energy into particles, as when two sufficiently strong photons meet; they convert into an electron (negative charge e^-) and a positron (positive charge e⁺). It is worth mentioning here that Ibn Arabi has apparently referred to phenomena that have only been known scientifically after the discovery of elementary particles at the beginning of last century. For example, he says:

When two monads/atoms (jawharan) [like two photons] are joined, it is as though they are two bodies. That is to say, when they are joined with each other, each one of them can be called a body (jism) so that in this respect they are two bodies, as He said: and of every thing, We created two pairs (51:49). He actually created one pair masculine and feminine, for example. But He called it 'two pairs' for this reason that we just mentioned, because each one of them alone without the other is not a pair, but when another is added to it then each one of them may be called pair (zawj), so they are two pairs.

[I.721.18]

In other places he says that the body is composed of at least 8 points, like a unit cube which is similar in shape to the Kaaba [III.276.6] (see also section VI.6). We have already seen in Chapter VI above that in Ibn Arabi's cosmological symbolism, the Kaaba represents the Single Monad. Therefore, we may look at the possibilities of how mass emerges out of massless photons in annihilation and pair production and see if this phenomenon can be related to the cosmogonic conceptions of the 'Week' of creation explained in Chapter III and the 'intertwining of days' explained in Chapter IV.

Yet another related and handier possibility of investigation involves the refraction of light in transparent materials. As is well-known, light slows down when moving in transparent materials such as air, water and glass; usually the denser the material, the more slowing light suffers, which is indicated as a higher refraction index. The reason why this is the case is because light is absorbed by atoms along the path and then is emitted again by almost every atom along its path. Any absorption and emission of light can be related to the phenomenon of re-creation, so the re-creation hypothesis can be investigated via the phenomena underlying different refraction indexes. The refraction indexes of hundreds of minerals and their density and other properties are already widely available.[124] So it may be possible, by comparing these data, to find some correlation between the refraction indexes and the underlying refresh rate of re-creation.

Testing this model could also be done by computer simulation, especially since Ibn Arabi himself (in Kitab Ayyam al-Sha n: 11-16) invited people who can do more accurate calculations to calculate the intertwining of Days on a smaller scale than hours (for example, minutes and seconds), as we pointed out in section IV.4. This simulation would have to take into account that, as we mentioned in section III.6, Ibn Arabi's theory means that the world is created in six comic 'Days' as space and then displayed on the last Day of creation (Saturday) as time.

In general, the possibilities of testing these hypotheses in physics are diverse and worth trying, but here we are more interested in the theological and philosophical consequences developed in the following sections.