1.1 The Beginning
After I graduated from Aleppo University in 1990, I really wanted to study theoretical physics and cosmology, but I could only get admission and scholarship in experimental fields. So I did the master in Semiconductor Physics and Microelectronics Engineering at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University in 1992. Nevertheless, I spent most of my free time thinking about the cosmos, especially after I read Hawking’s books and attended some of his lectures and seminars that were regularly held at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). Fortunately, I must say, after several failing attempts to transfer the scholarship or find another funding to study the postgraduate diploma in mathematics, required by DAMTP in order to enroll for the PhD in theoretical physics, I was left with only one choice: to study cosmology on my own!
Henceforth, it was not very long before I discovered that the sort of cosmology I really wanted to study is not taught at any regular university, because it is found exclusively in the Sufi literature; widely dispersed and mostly encrypted in their own personal mystical experiences, usually without any rational elucidation.
However, I now strongly believe that this challenging path, that I had to follow, was surely predestined in a mysterious manner that I am nearly starting to grasp now, after about three decades of long and persisting reflection, with strong faith that far preceded the final unveiling comprehension. This would not have been possible at all if I was ever able to pursue any formal research on cosmology or theoretical physics at any university, because the incredible results and eccentric conclusions that are gradually emerging from studying mystical Sufi cosmology could not have been revealed via any ordinary logic or rational thinking.