A Reflection · Qur'an · Intelligence
Taught by the pen
From the first revealed word to GPT-5, from the pen to the prompt, from silicon to qubit. A reflection on knowledge that arrives faster than the eye can blink.
The threshold
In 2024, Google's Willow quantum chip performed in five minutes a calculation that would take the fastest classical supercomputer 10 septillion years.
And large language models — pen-fed children of human writing — now reason, translate, code, and converse. The pen the Qur'an first invoked has multiplied beyond ink, beyond paper, into machines that learn from every word ever written.
Was 'taught by the pen' ever only about a reed and ink?
Solomon's throne
Before your glance returns to you.
One of the most striking promises in the Qur'an: a man with knowledge from the Book transports an entire throne across kingdoms in a fraction of a blink. Fiber-optic transmission, instant teleconferencing, satellite imagery — the world has now made information-of-place travel faster than vision. Matter is not yet teleported. Knowledge is.
01
Qubits · Willow
105
02
LLM parameters
~1.7T
03
Light speed
299,792 km/s
04
GPT first launched
2018
05
Words read by GPT-4
~13 trillion
06
Time to train
weeks → days
The first revelation
Read. Your Lord is the Most Generous.
The first command of the Qur'an was not worship. It was read. The second revelation immediately invoked the pen, and the teaching of writing.
Civilization, neuroscience, the internet, and now artificial intelligence — all rest on one substrate: the written word. The pen was the first machine.
ٱقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ ٱلْأَكْرَمُ ٱلَّذِى عَلَّمَ بِٱلْقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ
“Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not.”
Faster than sight
I will bring it to you before your glance returns.
A man "with knowledge from the Book" offers to transport the Queen of Sheba's throne across kingdoms in less than a blink. For centuries this was understood as a singular miracle.
Today, an entire conference of faces, voices, and live cameras crosses oceans in milliseconds over fiber. Pictures of distant galaxies arrive on our phones. The verse has become a description of the ordinary.
قَالَ ٱلَّذِى عِندَهُۥ عِلْمٌۭ مِّنَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ أَنَا۠ ءَاتِيكَ بِهِۦ قَبْلَ أَن يَرْتَدَّ إِلَيْكَ طَرْفُكَ
“Said one who had knowledge from the Book: 'I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you.'”
The things you do not know
And He creates that which you do not know.
After listing horses, mules, donkeys — the transport technologies of the 7th century — the Qur'an pauses and leaves a deliberate gap: "and He creates that which you do not know."
Engines. Aircraft. Probes to other planets. Networks of light beneath the ocean. Machines that talk. The verse is not a list. It is a permission slip handed to every century that comes after.
وَٱلْخَيْلَ وَٱلْبِغَالَ وَٱلْحَمِيرَ لِتَرْكَبُوهَا وَزِينَةًۭ ۚ وَيَخْلُقُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
“And [He created] horses, mules, and donkeys for you to ride and as adornment. And He creates that which you do not know.”
Reflection
Every tool is a verse in motion.
We did not invent intelligence. We inherited it, named it, and now we are teaching machines to copy a fraction of it. The Qur'an asks only that, as we build, we remember who taught the pen.