A00032 - March 17, 2022 Lecture on The 100 Greatest Muslims

Good Afternoon,

My name is Everett Jenkins and the title of my presentation is "The 100 Greatest Muslims".  However, before I begin my presentation I have a three part introduction which I feel is necessary for understanding of why we are here together this afternoon.  

First, I would like to acknowledge Cossette Sun, the person who initiated my being invited to speak this afternoon.  Cossette has been a dear friend for over forty years now.  As I recall, Cossette was the Assistant Librarian at the University of California Berkeley Law School in 1976.  I was a student at the law school at that time and I needed a part time job to pay for my education.  I was lucky enough to find work shelving books at the law library and, in that capacity, came to work for Cossette.  I believe it was the next year that Cossette left UC Berkeley to work for the Alameda County Law Library in Oakland and since I still needed a job, Cossette allowed me to follow her to the Alameda County Law Library not just during the time I was in law school but for almost two years after I graduated. 

I worked at the Alameda County Law Library from 1977 to 1980 when I was hired by the Contra Costa County Counsel's Office as a Deputy County Counsel.  I often reflect on my time working for Cossette and consider it as my true legal and scholarly apprenticeship.  It was during that time that I was able to learn how to do thorough legal research and it was that ability to do thorough legal research that enabled me to secure my position with the Contra Costa County Counsel's Office where I became the first African American to serve as Deputy County Counsel.

Being a Deputy County Counsel was the beginning of my 40 year legal career and, in so many ways, it was made possible by Cossette Sun giving me an opportunity to work for her in the law library.  So, this afternoon, I begin my presentation by saying "Thank You" to Cossette Sun for the opportunity and for making it possible for me to be standing before you today.

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The second part of my introduction is a personal introduction explaining why and how I have come to speak about "The 100 Greatest Muslims" when I myself am not a Muslim and do not read or speak Arabic.  This explanatory introduction begins some 32 years ago when I attended a family reunion in Alberta, Canada.   The August 1990 trip to Canada and meeting my Canadian relatives was a transformational experience for me which has led to a rather unusual writing career.

While sitting around the dinner table at my Cousin Paulette's house in Edmonton, the conversation drifted to the reasons why and how a branch of the Sanders (Saunders in Canada) family happened to be in Alberta.  Paulette's brother, Ron, gave a succinct answer, "Freedom," he said.  The Saunders family immigrated to Canada in 1909 in search of freedom. 

Paulette was able to dig out a book entitled The Promised Land by Pierre Berton which documented part of the Saunders family story.  The book told of how, when Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the advent of European American control over what was once Indian Territory ushered in a wave of oppression for the African Americans who lived there.  Previously, the Oklahoma African Americans had been able to enjoy a measure of freedom while Oklahoma was Indian Territory.  The Oklahoma African Americans owned extensive land holdings and ran successful businesses.  Indeed, there were even a number of all black towns that were established and became places where the Oklahoma African Americans came to feel safe and secure.

All this changed when Oklahoma became a state. 

With the advent of European American control, laws were passed restricting the activities and civil liberties of African Americans.  Shortly thereafter, the Ku Klux Klan was present in full regalia to make sure that the laws were enforced.  Oklahoma was no longer a safe haven for African Americans.  So some of the African Americans began to leave. 

As we now know, the early 1900s began what is today known as the Great Migration of African Americans.   When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, less than eight percent of the African American population lived in the Northeastern of Midwestern United States.  This began to change over the next decade.  By 1880, migration was underway to Kansas, but by 1900, 90 percent of African Americans still lived in Southern states.

Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population increased by about forty percent in Northern states as a result of the migration, mostly in the major cities.  The cities of Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, and New York City had some of the biggest increases.  Tens of thousands of African American workers were recruited for industrial jobs, such as positions related to the expansion of the Pennsylvania Railroad or on the assembly line of nascent automobile industry.  However, my relatives did not go to the northern states to work as industrial laborers.  Instead, they decided to go to a place where they could continue their agricultural occupations.  They decided to go to Canada.

Around the time that Oklahoma became a state, Canada began widely advertising the availability of land in its Western provinces.  Some Oklahoma African Americans, including my great great grandfather William Sanders decided to take Canada up on its offer.  The Oklahoma African Americans, many of whom had extensive land holdings in Oklahoma, decided to liquidate their holdings.  Some three hundred of them formed a trainload of potential settlers. 

Upon arrival at the Canada-Montana border, the trainload of settlers were not met with enthusiasm.  While the Canadian government wanted settlers , these settlers, were not quite what they had in mind.  A mini-international incident developed.  The resolution of the incident was that the trainload of African Americans would be allowed to immigrate but afterwards the Canadian government adopted a policy which severely limited the opportunity of African Americans to immigrate to Canada and to become Afro-Canadians.

The Saunders family, along with the other black immigrants, traveled to the northern part of Alberta, Canada, to create a farming community of their own.  They traveled to Athabasca, Alberta, about 90 miles north of Edmonton, and were granted homestead acreage.  It was there that the black immigrants founded the town of Amber Valley.  And it was there the black immigrants tried to once again lead peaceful lives.

Hearing the story of the Saunders family perked my interest in African American history in general.  I began reading books on African American history for the first time in some fifteen years.  I discovered that the trek that the Saunders family took was not the first taken by African Americans.  I discovered that even before the first Englishman ever lived in America, people of African descent were living here among the Indigenous Americans.  I discovered that contrary to previously held notions.  African slaves were the passive beings so commonly depicted in old movies but instead were courageous resisters of the oppression.  I discovered that an uncommon bond has existed between African and Indigenous American people which goes back perhaps as three thousand years.  I discovered there was much about my history I simply did not know and, as a consequence, there was much about myself that I did not know as well. 

I became fascinated by the subject and as my fascination grew into knowledge, I became a bit disappointed.  I was disappointed because I found the history books wanting in setting forth what I perceived to be the totality of African American history. 

For me, African American history is not simply the telling of the African experience in America.  While the African experience in America is important, it is not the totality of African American history.  African American history is, or should be, a tale of the dynamic interactions among all the cultures that have contributed to the American experience.  African American history is also a tale of a compelled African diaspora which included Chinese, East Indian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, Mexican, Canadian and other branches.  As an African American, a person with African and European blood flowing through my veins, I hungered for a book that would tell my forebears' story.     

And so, I decided to write such a book, and, in 1996, my first book, Pan-African Chronology: A Comprehensive Reference to the Black Quest for Freedom in Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia, 1400-1865 was published and my global writing career began.

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There are some footnotes about what I just said.  I went to Canada for the family reunion in 1990 but did not publish a book until 1996.  The gap between the inspiration and the reality was due to the fact that I was a practicing municipal lawyer in a very demanding city.  I just felt that I did not have time to write about my family history.  That all changed in February of 1994 when I lost consciousness while in my bathroom.  We I regained consciousness I had my wife take me to the hospital.  It was then that I found out that I had an ulcer.  While in the hospital, I also had an irregular heartbeat which was a cause of great concern.  While in the hospital in that condition, I began to reflect on what I was doing and not doing.  It seemed to me that my job had taken a toll on my health and that I had squandered a great deal of time not doing what I was meant to do. After all, I had been blessed with a unique heritage and a unique opportunity and that, quite frankly, I had squandered too much time in not telling my family's story.  It was while in the hospital that I vowed that once I was out I would focus on telling my family's story.

True to my hospital vow, once I got I began writing my family's Canadian story along with the story of the Black Indians that I believed to be a part of our Oklahoma origins.  Within two months, I submitted a preliminary outline of my story to some publishers.  I received a couple of positive responses, but the one from McFarland was the most positive.  The publisher at McFarland liked my outline but wanted to know if I could make it broader.  Instead of telling only the American story, he wanted me to tell the story of the African diaspora.  Naively, I said "Yes".

That is how I came to write about the Black Quest for Freedom around the world.

The second footnote is that in February 2021, Black History Month, the Canadian government issued a new stamp honoring the pioneers of Amber Valley.  The note on the back of stamp reads:

"Around 1910, a group of Black Americans made a bold journey to northern Alberta to create a better life.  They were among a larger number fleeing the escalating racial violence and oppressive Jim Crow laws in the United States.  In the isolated area of Pine Creek (later renamed Amber Valley), the 30 pioneering families, many from Oklahoma, carved farms from the dense bush and muskeg, enduring hardship and unforgiving winters.  They did not escape discrimination.  Black American immigration to western Canada sparked a backlash, prompting the federal government to implement measures that prevented other Black settlers from following.  Still, the community thrived.  A church and school were established early.  A general store and post office opened.  Midwives criss-crossed farmland on horseback as the population boomed, and the Amber Valley baseball team was famous throughout the province.  In the wake of the Second World War, many residents moved to cities for better economic opportunities.  Although the community dwindled in numbers, the influence of its descendants grew.  Many prominent teachers, lawyers, musicians, engineers, and other Blacks from all walks of life trace their success to the hopes and hard work of the pioneers of Amber Valley and nearby communities."

In addition to being very proud about this stamp and its description of the Amber Valley experience, I also note its mention of the famous Amber Valley baseball team.  Based on what I know, during the 1930s and 1940s, the all-black Amber Valley baseball team travelled all over Alberta playing the local teams.  In those days, the Amber Valley baseball team was like the Harlem Globetrotters of today.  They usually put on a show while playing baseball ... and they usually easily beat whatever team they played against.  I bring this to your attention because baseball season is near and because I believe that the legacy of the Amber Valley baseball team is a part of our American baseball heritage.  I believe this because the height of the fame of the Amber Valley baseball coincided with the youth of a young northern Alberta boy who once saw them play.  That young boy was a boy named "Billy Kinsella" and the memories of what he saw when the Amber Valley baseball team played would be recalled many years later when as William Kinsella he would write a book ... a book that one day would be made into a movie ... a movie called "Field of Dreams."

At least that is what I believe.

Now on to the main event.

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First of all, you all should know, I am not a Muslim.  I am simply a person on a search for truth -- the truth about myself, my people, my country, my world, and God.  In my search for truth, I have discovered that there is much that I once believed to be true that is certainly not the total truth and, indeed, may not be true at all. 

It was a search for truth that led me to write about my African heritage and in my search for truth about my African heritage, I found myself confronted with the fact that my heritage also included Islam.  

On almost any day of the week, in schools, churches, and the halls of power throughout the land, one can hear pronouncements being made concerning the "Judeo-Christian" heritage of America.  However, as a person of African consent, I found increasingly that there were other religious traditions which have obviously had some bearing on the individual that I am today.  In addition, to my "Judeo-Christian" heritage, there are also lingering influences of the tribal religions of the African and Indigenous American peoples and, perhaps, more significantly there is the ongoing influence of Islam.

In discovering the truth about my African heritage.  I was frequently confronted by the role that Islam played in developing African society and in initiating the African diaspora.  After all, it was Muslim Arab merchants who took African slaves and companions with them as they traversed the then known world. 

China, Malaysia, India, and Spain all came to be the home of Africans because of the peripatetic Arabs.  It was the Muslims who spread their religion to both the West and East coasts of Africa and through persuasion and intermarriage converted the African people to the Islamic faith.  And it was African Muslims from the West coast of Africa who frequently were the slave cargo of the European ships that came to the Americas, speaking such Muslim languages as Hausa, Mandingo, and Fulfulde.  It was these forefathers who played such an integral part in the bold experiment which eventually made me what I am.

In telling my story -- in telling my history, I ultimately felt compelled to learn about and tell my Muslim history and heritage.  I wound up writing the first two volumes of The Muslim Diaspora and when the second volume was finished in 2001, my publisher asked that I prepare a Who's Who in Islam.  Being naive, I again said "Yes".

I compiled over 3,000 entries for Who's Who in Islam and from that compilation I came to the compile the following list of the 100 Greatest Muslims of all time.  My list of 100 greatest Muslims reads as follows:

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 The 100 Greatest Muslims

Everett Jenkins' 2022 Version

1.    The Prophet Muhammad

2.     Umar ibn al-Khattab

3.     Ali ibn Abi Talib

4.     Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

5.     Uthman ibn Affan

6.     Aisha bint Abu Bakr

7.     Khadija bint Khuwaylid

8.     Khalid ibn al-Walid

9.     Husain ibn Ali

10.    Abu Hurayra

11.     Fatimah bint Muhammad

12.     Bilal ibn Rabah

13.      Al-Bukhari

14.      Abu Hanifah

15.      Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash'ari

16.     Saladin

17.     Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

18.    Abu Abdullah ibn al-Shafi'i 

19.     Al-Khwarazmi

20.    Ahmad ibn Hanbal

21.    Ibn Khaldun

22.    Malik ibn Anas

23.     Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz

24.    Abdul Qadir Gilani

25.     Ibn Sina

26.     Ibn Taymiyyah 

27.    Nizam al-Mulk

28.    Al-Kindi

29.    Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan

30.     Jalal al-Din Rumi

31.    Harun al-Rashid

32.     Abd ar-Rahman I

33.    Tariq ibn Ziyad

34.    Mehmed II

35.    Al-Biruni

36.    Suleyman the Magnificent

37.    Ja'far al-Sadiq

38.    Abd ar-Rahman II

39.    Ziryab

40.    Ibn Ishaq

41.    Al-Ma'mun

42.    Ibn Rushd

43.    Timur

44.    Akbar the Great

45.    Al-Farabi

46.    Al-Tabari

47.    Ibn Battuta

48.    Jabir ibn Hayyan

49.    Mimar Sinan

50.    Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya' al-Razi

51.     Hasan al-Basri

52.    Ibn al-Haytham

53.    Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj

54.    Mahmud of Ghazna

55.    Muhammad ibn al-Qasim

56.    Musa ibn Nusayr

57.    Shah Jahan

58.    Al-Mas'udi

59.    Al-Zahrawi

60.    Ibn Arabi

61.    'Omar al-Khayyam

62.     Jamal al-Din al-Afghani

63.    Ibn Abd-al Wahhab

64.    Rabi'a al-Adawiyyah

65.    'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

66.    Al-Hallaj

67.    Shahrastani

68.    Khwaja Baha' al-Din Naqshband

69.    Ibn Hazm

70.    Al-Tusi

71.    Shah Rukh

72.    Gowhar Shad

73.    Fakhr al-Din al-Razi

74.    Firdausi

75.    Zheng He

76.   Mumtaz Mahal

77.    Mu'in al-Din Chishti

78.    Nur al-Din Zangi

79.    Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi

80.    Malik Ambar

81.    Awrangzeb Alamgir

82.    Ibn Tufayl

83.    Muhammad Ilyas

84.    Sayyid Qutb

85.    Yahya al-Nawawi

86.    Muhammad Abduh

87.    Muhammad Iqbal

88.     Abul Hasan al-Shadhili

89.    Shah Waliullah

90.    Shamyl of Daghestan

91.    Abul A'la Mawdudi

92.     Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi

93.    Shaykh Sa'di of Shiraz

94.    Sayyid Ahmad Khan

95.    The Mahdi of Sudan

96.    Al-Muranabbi

97.    Uthman Dan Fodio'

98.    Mulla Sadra

99.    Ali al-Rida 

100.   Fatima bint Musa 

Others worthy of consideration:

Abdul Qadeer Khan, Hasan al-Banna, Ibn Saud, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Malala Yousafzai, Maryam Mirzakhani,  Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muhammad Yunus, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Osama Bin Laden, Ruhollah Khomeini, Sa'id Nursi

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Pre-2020 Version

(Based on Muhammad Mojlum Khan's 2008 The Muslim 100)

1.    The Prophet Muhammad

2.     Umar ibn al-Khattab

3.     Ali ibn Abi Talib

4.     Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

5.     Uthman ibn Affan

6.     Aisha bint Abu Bakr

7.     Khadija bint Khuwaylid

8.     Khalid ibn al-Walid

9.     Husain ibn Ali

10.    Abu Hurayra

11.     Fatimah bint Muhammad

12.     Bilal ibn Rabah

13.      Al-Bukhari

14.      Abu Hanifah

15.      Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash'ari

16.     Saladin

17.      Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

18.    Abu Abdullah ibn al-Shafi'i 

19.     Al-Khwarazmi

20.    Ahmad ibn Hanbal

21.    Ibn Khaldun

22.    Malik ibn Anas

23.     Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz

24.    Abdul Qadir Gilani

25.     Ibn Sina

26.     Ibn Taymiyyah 

27.    Nizam al-Mulk

28.    Al-Kindi

29.    Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan

30.     Jalal al-Din Rumi

31.    Harun al-Rashid

32.     Abd ar-Rahman I

33.    Tariq ibn Ziyad

34.    Mehmed II

35.    Al-Biruni

36.    Suleyman the Magnificent

37.    Ja'far al-Sadiq

38.    Abd ar-Rahman II

39.    Ibn Ishaq

40.    Al-Ma'mun

41.    Ibn Rushd

42.    Timur

43.    Akbar the Great

44.    Al-Farabi

45.    Al-Tabari

46.    Ibn Battuta

47.    Jabir ibn Hayyan

48.    Mimar Sinan

49.    Abu Bakr al-Razi

50.     Hasan al-Basri

51.    Ibn al-Haytham

52.    Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj

53.    Mahmud of Ghazna

54.    Muhammad ibn al-Qasim

55.    Musa ibn Nusayr

56.    Shah Jahan

57.    Abul Hasan al-Mas'udi

58.    Abul Qasim al-Zahrawi

59.    Ibn Arabi

60.    Umar Khayyam

61.     Jamal al-Din al-Afghani

62.    Ibn Abd-al Wahhab

63.    Rabi'a al-Adawiyyah

64.    Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

65.    Al-Hallaj

66.    Hasan al-Banna

67.    Khwajah Naqshband

68.    Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi

69.    Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

70.    Muhammad Ali Jinnah

71.    Fakhr al-Din al-Razi

72.    Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud'

73.    Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

74.    Firdawsi of Persia

75.     Mu'in al-Din Chishti

76.    Nur al-Din Zangi

77.    Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi

78.    Ayatollah Khomeini

79.    Awrangzeb Alamgir

80.     Ibn Tufayl

81.    Muhammad Ilyas

82.    Sayyid Qutb

83.    Yahya al-Nawawi

84.    Muhammad Abduh

85.    Muhammad Iqbal

86.     Abul Hasan al-Shadhili

87.    Shah Waliullah

88.    Shamyl of Daghestan

89.    Abul A'la Mawdudi

90.     Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi

91.    Muhammad Yunus

92.    Shaykh Sa'di of Shiraz

93.    Sayyid Ahmad Khan

94.    The Mahdi of Sudan

95.    Al-Muranabbi

96.    Uthman Dan Fodio'

97.     Mulla Sadra

98.     Malcolm X

99.      Sa'id Nursi

100.    Muhammad Ali

  

The third footnote is that not long after I said "Yes" to McFarland, I happened to go to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco to see the amazing exhibition entitled "Tomb Treasures from China: The Buried Art of Ancient Xi'an".  The exhibition was one of the highlights of the year because it was the first time that the legendary Terra Cotta Soldiers were to be displayed.  The Terra Cotta Soldiers are the hundreds of individualized life size terra cotta clay soldiers which were entombed in the burial chamber of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.   It was an amazing display of imperial power and prestige.  However, for me, the most surprising artifact in the entire exhibit was not one of the soldiers but rather a small six inch figurine of a dancing black man. And most surprisingly of all to me, was the fact that the figurine probably should not have been included in this exhibit at all.    

As the exhibit book noted: "According to official documents, the earliest recorded African kingdom known to China was Shunai, located in the southern part of present day Somalia.  In 629, Shunai sent a diplomatic mission to Chang'an.  It is believed that Shunai was one of the tribes the Tang called Kunlun.  The term Kunlun slaves referred to black servants, but may also have included Southeast Asians and other foreigners.  During the Tang dynasty, China engaged in sea trade with Africa from and entrepot in Canton, where domestic merchandise was traded for products like ivory and incense.  In Africa, in places such as Zanzibar, many Chinese coins and ceramics have been unearthed."

Reading 

One of the consequences of writing about the Black Quest for Freedom around the world, is the fact that 

 

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On the way to this  this morning, I listened to Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up."  It is a stirring piece of musical genius and contains the line "You raise me up so I can stand on mountains."  

Yesterday, we heard from individuals who stand on mountains.  The presentations on "The Ultimate Theory of Time", "The Spaces of Nature", "Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe" are pretty heady stuff and are undoubtedly flashes of genius.  However, today, I would like to focus on those who helped to raise them, and us, up to stand on mountains.  Today, I want to talk about the Muslim contribution to what we are and ever hope to be.

For now, I would like to focus on one flash of genius in particular.  I would like to focus on the presentation made by Naif al-Mutawa, and his Islamic Inspired Superheroes.  At the outset, allow me to say that I am not a Muslim.  However, irrespective of my religious affiliation, for me, the introduction of multi-ethnic superheroes displaying the 99 aspects Muslims attribute to God, could go a long way towards dispelling some of the ignorance and fear that we continue to harbor towards Muslims today.  

The disturbing report that, based on the complaints of a relative few, the airing of the cartoon series has been delayed is a troubling development that should cause all of us to pause.  It should give us pause not only because it is a shameful act of intolerance, but also because it fails to recognize that in so many ways so much of what we have talked about this weekend owes a great debt to the scientific and cultural achievements of Golden Age of Islam that lasted from 750 to 1258.

On Thursday, we were all amused by the tale of the reaction of Paul Bronston's patients to his new gynecological examination chair.  But in discussing medicine, it is often said that medicine was absent until Hippocrates created it, dead until Galen revived it, dispersed until al-Razi, a Muslim, collected it, and deficient until Ibn Sina, another Muslim, completed it.  After all, it was Muslims who were the first to develop hospitals and they set the standard for medical care for over 500 years throughout the world.  

In the discussion on the "Spaces of Nature," it is important to remember that the numbers that we use today are based on Arabic numerals and that Muslims gave birth to algebra and algorithms and advanced the fields of geometry and trigonometry.  It is important to also not that it is a Muslim who is considered to be the founder of chemistry and that even Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" which shows the proportions of the human body is based on discoveries mad 400 years earlier in the Epistles of the Ikhwan al-Safa.

In our discussion on "Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe," it is important to note that Muslims were the first to study stars with massive instruments in observatories.  Indeed, Muslims gave names and assigned magnitudes to over 1000 stars including the star Betelgeuse which was mentioned in the presentation.

So you see, Muslims have played a significant role in the scientific achievements of today.  But there is more.  If you look about this room you can see the Muslim influence -- the Muslim flashes of genius that continue to enrich our lives today.  The carpet which we walk on with its geometric pattern is a reminder of the development of the carpet making expertise of Muslims so fantastically displayed in such movies as Disney's Aladdin.

Indeed, the movies that are projected on screens in the movie theaters serve as reminders of the development of the camera obscura by Muslims, along with advances in the field of optics.  

The water glasses on the table remind us of advances made by Muslims in the are of glass blowing.  The presence of the precious water itself owes much to the Muslims reverence for water and Muslims development of water management and water distribution systems.  

Indeed, on a very mundane level, the programs that guide us to destinations are printed on paper -- a material that was introduced to West because the Muslims captured some Chinese artisans in 751 and, two hundred years later, Muslims introduced the material into Muslim Spain.  

Muslims not only advanced cosmology, they also advanced cosmetology.  Noting that beauty is one of the attributes of God, Muslims developed soap and perfume.  The seasonal clothing we wear today is based on a fashion trend begun in Muslim Spain 1200 years ago.  

My friends, the list of Muslim inventions and innovations goes on and on.  But alas, my time has come to an end, I know this because my awareness of time is based on a device that owes its existence to the Muslim daily prayer ritual,  To standardize the prayer ritual, Muslims advanced the development of clocks and it is that advancement that let's me know that I have run out of time.