Al Baasit

The root is a spreading out flat — an open hand, a widened chest, a rug laid down. Basīṭ in Arabic means simple, because a simple thing is one that has been unfolded.

The name’s written form is not in the Qur’an, but the participle without its article is there three times, and every one of them is a limb stretched out: a hand refused to a brother who had threatened one, palms held out to water that will never rise to meet them, and a dog lying with its forelegs stretched across the mouth of a cave. It is the twin of the name before it, and the list keeps them together: the hand that closes is the hand that opens. Neither state is permanent, and neither is a verdict.