Pino

Commonplace book

Though thirty spokes may form the wheel, it is the hole within the hub which gives the wheel utility.

It is not the clay the potter throws, which gives the pot its usefulness, but the space within the shape, from which the pot is made.

Without a door, the room cannot be entered, and without windows it is dark.

Such is the utility of non-existence.

-11. THE UTILITY OF NON-EXISTENCE, Tao Te Ching

4ِ ˹Remember˺ when Joseph said to his father, “O my dear father! Indeed I dreamt of eleven stars, and the sun, and the moon—I saw them prostrating to me!”

5 He replied, “O my dear son! Do not relate your vision to your brothers, or they will devise a plot against you. Surely Satan is a sworn enemy to humankind.

6 And so will your Lord choose you ˹O Joseph˺, and teach you the interpretation of dreams, and perfect His favour upon you and the descendants of Jacob—˹just˺ as He once perfected it upon your forefathers, Abraham and Isaac. Surely your Lord is All-Knowing, All-Wise.”

7 Indeed, in the story of Joseph and his brothers there are lessons for all who ask.

-Quran, 12 - Yusuf