He wondered: Is this truly the path he has been searching for? Or the path he was sent to find? Is it the real, direct road—the shortest way to God? Had Abu Al-Hakam really reached God?

He sought an answer not merely to relay to the old man, but for himself—his own soul whose veil of stagnation had been lifted, now aflame with restless motion and boiling questions, pressing forward without hesitation to find what would satisfy it.

Suddenly, he became a detached observer, never immersed in what the others dissolved into as they flowed with the words the chanter uttered—no matter what they were, even if outright blasphemy—unaware of the meaning of what was said. He could watch their melting away, the nodding of their heads in unison, though the words’ meanings varied. They did not truly understand what was being whispered into their ears—or so he believed.