In a well-known narration, the Prophet (upon whom be peace) said, “Allah does not take away knowledge by removing it from the hearts of people, but He takes it away by the death of the scholars until no scholar remains. Then people will turn to the ignorant who, when asked for religious opinions, will issue decrees without knowledge. They will be misguided and will misguide others” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 100; Sahih Muslim, 2673). In truth, therefore, the rise of ignorance is predicated on the demise of scholars.

Hocaefendi, Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, a visionary scholar and spiritual leader, dedicated much of his life to promoting knowledge, understanding, and unity among people of all faiths. In a few decades, Gülen grew from a local educator and preacher in Turkey into a global advocate for peace and interfaith dialogue, inspiring millions worldwide with his message of respect, tolerance, and service to humanity. His teachings were grounded in a deep Islamic spirituality, yet his outlook remained inclusive, advocating for harmony across religious and cultural divides. His work found resonance not only among Muslims but also among people of various faiths, who saw in him a man committed to bridging the divides that often fragment communities.

Gülen’s philosophy emphasized that true faith is a source of empathetic engagement and understanding. He believed that love for one’s own beliefs does not diminish the capacity to respect and appreciate the beliefs of others. This conviction led him to establish dialogue initiatives across the world, seeking common ground between Muslims, Christians, Jews, and followers of other religions. Through platforms such as the Hizmet Movement, Gülen fostered a global community committed to education, social development, and peacebuilding. In his view, service to humanity was the highest form of devotion to God, and he encouraged his followers to embrace education as a tool for enlightenment and societal advancement.

His approach to interfaith dialogue was not just intellectual but deeply heartfelt, driven by the cognizance that the human composite consists of the spirit, the intellect, and the heart. Gülen’s words carried a rare poetic depth, often touching on the shared values of love, kindness, and compassion that underpin all major religious traditions. He saw these qualities as essential threads in the fabric of human connection. Gülen likened interfaith efforts to the nurturing of a garden, where every flower represents a different tradition, each contributing to the beauty of the whole. Gülen embodied the paradigmatic Hadith of Mercy: “Those who are merciful are treated with mercy by the Most Merciful. Bestow mercy onto those on Earth, and He who is in Heaven will bestow mercy onto you” (al-Tirmidhi, 1924).

In his passing, the world has lost a scholar who embodied the timeless values of compassion and unity. Yet, his teachings and the movement he inspired live on, continuing to illuminate paths toward understanding and cooperation. Fethullah Gülen’s legacy reminds us that even in a divided world, there are bridges to be built and that peace begins with the simple act of seeing ourselves in each other.

In a saying attributed to Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, the Hanafi School’s foremost reference among the Sahaba, the company of scholars was likened to the beneficent rain through which the barren land blossoms: “Sit with the scholars and listen to the speech of the wise, for indeed Allah gives life to the dead heart through their light of wisdom, just as He revives the dead earth with rain.”

Across faith divides, Gülen rejuvenated countless hearts with his wisdom, much like rain, which when it revives barren land, does not discriminate upon where it falls. His wisdom, preserved in his works and carried by his students, will continue to shower upon whoever seeks it, for just as not all those who traverse the world are truly alive, not all those buried in the soil are truly dead.

A scholar buried is a treasure entrusted to the earth. The treasure is buried, but also waiting to be discovered by those who seek it.

There is often mixed joy and sorrow when traveling abroad, sometimes discovered in the journeying, sometimes found at the destination. Such a mixture was mine on a recent trip with Hizmet to India, where interfaith dialogue and its wonderful fruits across the many faiths of that subcontinent were very clearly evident, but that alongside increasing communal discord and even serious and extensive street violence in the face of protests against government policies of division and exclusion. Unfortunately, such social upheavals are today not limited to India; they seem to be spreading like fires in drought-stricken forests around the world, engulfing too many developing and developed countries, alike.

Early one morning around 2am, when sleep evaded me, I deeply felt the poignancy of this turbulent travel, while my mind drifted to recollect some stories often told of St Francis of Assisi preaching not only to human beings but to birds, as well as other creatures of creation:

When he drew nigh unto Bevagna he came unto a spot wherein a great multitude of birds of divers species were gathered together. When the holy man of God perceived them, he ran with all speed unto the place and greeted them as if they shared in human understanding. They on their part all awaited him and turned toward him, those that were perched on bushes bending their heads as he drew nigh them, and looking on him in unwonted wise, while he came right among them, and diligently exhorted them all to hear the word of God, saying: “My brothers the birds, much ought ye to praise your Creator, Who hath clothed you with feathers and given you wings to fly, and hath made over unto you the pure air, and careth for you without your taking thought for yourselves.” While he was speaking unto them these and other like words, the little birds—behaving themselves in wondrous wise—began to stretch their necks, to spread their wings, to open their beaks, and to look intently on him. He, with wondrous fervour of spirit, passed in and out among them, touching them with his habit, nor did one of them move from the spot until he had made the sign of the Cross over them and given them leave; then, with the blessing of the man of God, they all flew away together. All these things were witnessed by his companions that stood awaiting him by the way. Returning unto them, the simple and holy man began to blame himself for neglect in that he had not afore then preached unto the birds. [Saint Bonaventura, The Life of Saint Francis, 12.3]

And so I wondered (dreamed?), what might the birds tell us of their lives and struggles in this newly disruptive age?

The Birds: A Parable

Once upon a time, there was a bountiful flock of birds, all with iridescent blue-green plumage and a melodic trilling song of thanks through God for their heritage as a single community: together they preened, together they sang, together they lived and thrived upon the resource-laden land God gifted to their stewardship.

As time passed, other flocks were drawn to this same rich territory, as well, all with their varied distinctive plumage—fiery yellows and reds, subdued grayish-browns, and dazzling whites—and all with their individual God-given songs of praise.

The original flock generously welcomed all these newcomers, judging that sharing was better than selfish hoarding, opening better than closing ranks, and accepting different characteristics better than demanding uniformity in attributes. Together they fashioned a unity in their very diversity, sharing the riches of the land, extolling their variegated colors in songs to their Creator, generating a harmonious chorale that exemplified the Creator’s love for all of His making, as stewards of land and of one another, together…together. Generations passed in peace, colors and songs filled the land, and unity was manifested.

But a season came when a spirit of fearful possessiveness arose among some of the descendants of the blue-green flock, who began looking askance at those whose colors and songs differed. “What place have these foreigners amongst us? Have they not intruded into our way of life, depleted our resources and now threaten our very existence? Let them depart to other lands, apart from us, with their own kind.”

Though few in actual number in the beginning, these dissident voices seeded fear and discord, which took root and grew widely where once unity had thrived. For although the ones they called “foreigners” had passed many generations upon the shared land and even now comprised only a small proportion of the overall population, hardship borne of dissimulation had come to many of the birds across all the flocks. Stewardship of the land had been overshadowed by exploitation of resources for the benefit of a greedy few, and the detriment of many. Now, a scapegoat was needed to divert attention from the real causes of increasing distress and hardship.

Arbitrary hierarchies were manufactured and enforced, purporting to be inherent and according to “purity” of color and song. Only those deemed worthy now had a proper place in society, and their numbers were strictly circumscribed by documented ancestry via sole descent from the first flock. All others were relegated to some separate, ignoble status. And now, uniformity and unison in song, rather than harmony of distinctives, became the priority: “How else could the Creator receive proper praise? So-called harmony was really just cacophony, and no God could be pleased with that!” If the song were different, it had no arena, even when the song was echoing celestial praise; if the bird’s color and song were different, the bird was no longer welcomed, it had no place.

Unity was shattered, harmony disappeared, estrangement normalized. Jealously ostracizing others became the common rule. Harsh words became the norm…violence the ready remedy…destruction, injury and death the ultimate result.

More fully awake, now, I considered, “Can the birds recover themselves? Can they listen anew to St Francis’ call together joyously to offer praise to their Creator and so be content? Or is it too late?”

Perhaps more importantly, is there more than a fanciful story, here? what might these birds tell us of today’s challenges to our societies…to our very humanity? Can we, today, respond to the call of St Francis as did the birds of the field near Bevagna, to live together in peace unto the praise our Creator, seeking only His commendation?

When President Trump recently visited India, banners were emblazoned with the slogan that the world’s oldest democracy was meeting with the world’s largest democracy. Thomas Mann, in 1947 testimony before a U.S. congressional committee, noted a depressing increase in “spiritual intolerance, political inquisitions, and declining legal security,” that typically foreshadows an ultimate breakdown in democracy itself, which can only finally usher in a breakdown in societal peace and prosperity (subsequently realized in the fever of McCarthyism in the US, and the violent partition of India). Where there is no sense of the sacred through acceptance of difference and mutuality in dialogue, there is eventually only polarization: there will be those who agree to think the same way who are called friends; while all the rest are demonized as enemies. And where there are only friends and enemies, insiders and outsiders, “us” and “them,” civil war—metaphoric at least, actual bloodletting at worst—is inevitable.

So, can India recover itself? It was once the standard bearer of secular/multi-faith democracy in the developing world—or is it too late? Can we in the US recover ourselves? We were once the standard bearer of an immigrant-filled country grounded on practicing civil discourse in the developed world—or is it too late?

May the Creator grant that we all together comprehend and affirm His path of acceptance, affirmation, and peacemaking:

The Spirit has never ceased brooding over the waters … ever creating, superintending, re-creating, all that is, according to the counsel of God’s own purposive will. Together with the angels and saints, we rejoice in faith, hope and love, as the Only Holy One continually, eternally renews the face of the heavens and the earth.
Our Only Creator
through His creation
is creating us
is sustaining us
is provisioning us
is re-creating us
unto the restoration
of all His creation.

The United Nations actually has a name for the new consciousness that is emerging across the globe: a culture of peace. There are two main hallmarks of this consciousness. The first is the understanding that we are all members of one human family. All our religions teach us to follow a path of righteousness, defined by caring for one another with generosity, compassion, mercy, and love. In previous times, we have limited the expression of these virtues to those within own tribe while arming ourselves against outsiders. The key realization of the 21st century is that there is no “other.”

Our quickness to judge others according to their race, religion, gender, ethnicity, or culture is fast diminishing. We no longer live in isolated pockets of people who look like us. Those who go to school together, work together, and meet as neighbors can’t help but notice our common humanity. And blood feuds, bigotries, and grudges nurtured for generations in closed societies are evaporating in the fresh air of inclusivity. This trend is helping us transcend the ideal of mere tolerance, as we move onto firmer ground of respect, caring, and appreciation.

The 20th century saw the rise of the interfaith movement, an important step in the advancement of humankind. For the first time, scriptures of all faiths were made available in translation, and timeless mysteries stood revealed. Concurrently, there was an enormous increase in the percentage of the world’s population that could read and even attain levels of higher education. While some leaders have continued to fan the flames of intolerance for political and economic purposes, there is a growing consensus across the globe that people of faith have more in common than the differences of their religions might imply. Interfaith organizations and observances are now widespread, and we will soon see differences of religion as another expression of the glorious diversity of our human family, along with skin color, language, and cultural background. Once we gain the wisdom to see beyond our differences, we will come to appreciate the rich storehouse of insights each tradition brings to the compendium of human knowledge and understanding. Then we will be ready to learn from one another.

In this new “universal” consciousness, it will be challenging to incite members of any group go to war against another. We have already begun to recognize that violence is not a useful way to resolve conflict because it creates a loser. In fact, everyone involved in violence, whether victor or vanquished, suffers a loss, as American combat veterans realize when they return home with PTSD and suicidal dreams. In days of old, war was considered a glorious and noble occupation. Conquest was admired and the “spoils of war” – including enslaved peoples – were considered legitimate acquisitions. Today’s understanding is more compassionate, more nuanced. War is not yet obsolete, but it is considered to be a last resort when dialogue and diplomacy fail. Dialogue and conflict resolution are now being taught in schools, and the spirit of reconciliation will be increasingly enhanced by the desire to take care of those beyond our own identified group.

We are at our best when we endeavor to understand and empower one another. Fortunately, this universal spiritual truth, so nobly expressed as the Golden Rule, is becoming ever more apparent. Every tragedy that we hear about from across the world, whether a war, an earthquake, or a tide of desperate migrants, inspires us to open our hearts and our pocketbooks. For the first time in our history, we feel the pain of people we don’t know; we are becoming one global community.

And not a moment too soon. The combined effects of human waste emissions on our air, water, and soil, along with the beginnings of potentially massive changes in the global climate, are putting the very future of human life in peril. The planet is crying out for us to change our ways and we are finally starting to listen. Indigenous peoples around the world have always told us to walk lightly on Mother Earth and treat her with respect. Will we wake up to this wisdom before it is too late?

As we reach the next level of human evolution, we begin to understand at the very core of our being that we are part of a living Earth amidst a living universe. This is the second hallmark of the emerging consciousness: the renewal of our sense of deep connection with nature, realizing that our future must include new ways to live in harmony with our environment. Our scientific approach has objectified the Earth and all the creatures who call it home. The arising culture of peace will be one of relationships based on honor and respect.

As world leaders tackle the issues of a planet threatened by desertification, shrinking coastlines, and extreme weather, the people of the world are seeking innovative solutions that will bring us inexpensive and abundant energy sourced from renewables such as the sun, the wind, the tides, and perhaps even the geothermal energy of the Earth itself. Can we learn to split the atom safely, with no hazardous waste? Can we achieve zero-point energy? These questions are for the scientists of our time. What is clear is that humanity is now aware of the need to power our lives in a way that neither depletes nor despoils the natural environment, but rather aligns with natural systems in which there is no waste that is not also used to nourish.

The United Nations began the 21st century with eight “Millennium Development Goals,” designed to significantly reduce global poverty by 2015. We now see the emergence of a new agenda called the “Sustainable Development Goals,” a comprehensive blueprint for maintaining not only a healthy relationship to the world around us, but also for fully developing the human potential of every child. It is encouraging that every nation has signed onto this commitment to creating a caring society.

Our relationship to the Earth becomes even more significant as we move increasingly towards a virtual reality. Our devices connect us to one another – both personally, to our friends and families – who are never too far away to be in touch, and worldwide, to our sources of news and information. New directions in education will allow young people to rapidly excel in both the sciences and the arts. Yet we will need even more grounding in nature, and more balance between heart and mind, as intellects soar to new heights.

Yes, the 21st century will see the opening of humanity’s heart. As we release the fear that stems from a sense of separation – whether from one another or from God – we heal into a wholeness never before experienced outside a small tribal community. The whole Earth is our community! This realization allows us to lay down our arms and experience love. This love is what will be needed to repair all that we have broken in our beautiful world. Only by caring for one another and for our Mother Earth can we create a new culture of peace, one that will assure the flourishing of the human race in the face of whatever challenges may come.

Perhaps this time of awakened consciousness will be seen as an evolutionary leap of the spirit. Imagine how powerful we will become when we recognize the spark of the Divine within every human heart, and indeed all of creation! Instead of arguing about the existence of God or the truth of our religions, we will simply see all life as sacred, cherishing the beauty of the world around us and the infinite light we see in one another’s eyes.

How do we know that the 21st century will be the time for such wonders? As we stand at the threshold of a new world, we find ourselves at an unprecedented point of tension and time is running out. Behind us lies a path to the destruction of our environment. We cannot continue to tolerate dysfunctional governance, financial systems that benefit only the few, and a consumer culture that fills our oceans with plastic and our bodies with toxic chemicals. We cannot continue to accept a civilization where some live in comfort and some in starvation. When the air temperatures and the sea levels rise, we will need a healthy planet with healthy people ready to take care of one another. And we can do it – in fact, we are ready!

What more could define this moment in time? Perhaps when we at last achieve a planetary culture of unity and peace, then we may be ready to communicate with civilizations from the stars beyond our sun. A humanity united in love may be welcomed into worlds beyond worlds.

So let us go forward together, unafraid to experience a new way to live on planet Earth as the one human family we are, caring for one another and flourishing in peace.

May peace prevail on Earth.

If you want to know why some of us are so poetic, while others are strictly straightforward, then read on this unprecedented discussion and see how the Left Brain and the Right Brain discuss their differences.

Moderator – Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, we have two guests that have long been the focus of media attention: Left Brain and Right Brain. We are going to discuss their opinions on various issues. Without losing much time, I want to get to the first question. Many public figures who have inspired people go through a period of self discovery, after which they define their identities and their surroundings anew. Did you have a similar self-discovery period? And if yes, how do you define yourself now?

Left Brain – I guess I never had a distinct enlightenment period, but I kept building on top of what I already knew about myself. So, my self discovery starts with my babyhood, really. For example, as the eyes gained the ability to distinguish colors and to focus on objects at different distances, I realized that I can collect information about the outside world through colors, shapes, and distances. As the muscles became stronger, I felt free to move my body and developed the notion of being distinct from other things around me. I also realized that I can gather data about what is where, how I can find what I need… When I learned to speak, I developed the notion that there are other people like me out there, for whom I am the other. And so on…

Right Brain – Before I say anything, I would like to bring to your attention that the way I am named is not something I came up with or something I am delighted by. For me, there isn’t a left-right distinction. There is a brain, and that’s it. And actually, I would not call the eyes separate organs. They are only a different part of the same organ, i.e. the brain. Muscles are alike. They are not distinct entities. We are all part of the same organ. So, for me too, self discovery started with my babyhood, but realizing my new abilities forced me to redefine myself, again and again. For example, when I discovered my legs, I did not become a brain with legs, but opened my eyes to a new dimension of my existence. I realized that I was not just about what I thought I was. The same goes for vision, or smell. When you smell something for the first time, that is a creative act. When you taste a fruit for the first time, that is an invention for you. All these culminate in a notion in which everything unifies. Walking is thinking, thinking is walking. Seeing is tasting, tasting is seeing. So, for example, if you cannot solve a problem, try smelling it, tasting it, walking it.

Left Brain – Let’s not get poetic here. If you cannot solve a problem, that’s because you either haven’t gathered enough data or haven’t yet developed a known pattern of solution. It’s also possible that your attention, in the moment, is distracted, due to things like walking, smelling, tasting; you know what I mean?

Moderator – Let’s not lose our focus here. The next topic I want to bring forward is a little more subtle: love and marriage. What do you think love is, and why are marriages today more restrained than before?

Left Brain – There are different categories of love. For instance: the love between couples, the love between parents and their children, and the love between friends are not the same kinds of love. So I am assuming that you are specifically talking about the one between couples. Even in this type of love, there are various facets. Sometimes, it means dedication to support each other. Sometimes it is being valued by the other. You can extend this list. Love is like light. The same phenomenon can display itself in different colors and strength. Today, there is a lot of research about the physical manifestations of love, and the properties of successful marriages. There are also studies on divorces. It seems that, for the moment, there is no predictor of the fate of a given marriage in the long run. Having said that, I should admit that there are some proxies of an imminent divorce. For instance, addiction or a lack of intimacy often lead to divorce. Aside from the factors that are related to the conscience of individuals, there are more subtle factors that need extra focus. The fast pace of change in modern life versus the slow change of cultural settings definitely brings stress to many couples. The norms and expectations from each other depend on one’s cultural and emotional baggage. Whether one can fulfill those expectations given the modern conditions is another story. All these are playing a role in restraining the family in our times.

Right Brain – Like anything else in the universe, we look for unity. If you love someone, you want to be with them, because love is a realization that part of your existence is in the other. We all crave for being one with those we love. But why don’t we feel such emotions for anyone but only for certain people? Perhaps, this is one of the points where the veils before destiny are pulled open. When we tell someone that we love them, we actually mean, “I need you… and I need to be needed.” This is a two-way hunger which is quenched by the unity of the lovers. This is why love inherently demands continuity; for unity is only established when all separations in time and space are eliminated. And this is why, perhaps, marriages are most troubled today. Life conditions and individual choices are not made in order to nourish continuity. Staying side by side is mistaken for unity.

Moderator – Have you ever fallen in love?

Left Brain – Is there anyone who hasn’t? As one colleague of mine says, “we are wired for love and belonging; that’s why we are here.” Love is one way of becoming a part of something bigger than us: having a family, raising children, and contributing to the well-being of our society through various love-inspired activities. Even ascetics and saintly people pursue a path of love inspired by God. So, love is all around us.

Moderator – But I asked if you ever “fell in love.” I understand if you don’t want to go that deep into your private life.

Left Brain – (pauses for a second) … I might have felt special things for some people. But, in the long run, I saw that those feelings did not bear any meaning for the real life. And this realization gave me immunity towards those special feelings. If you can stand back, and take a deep breath… Oh yes, and let me say this as an aside: this is how love works. You cannot step away from the situation and breathe deeply or think clearly. Love only works when you can’t think clearly. This loss of brain power is eliminated when you hit the bottom of the love you are falling into. So, what was I saying? If you stand back and take a deep breath, you’ll see that there are thousands of people with whom you can get along with at least as well as the one you are with at that moment. Nobody is irreplaceable. There is always another one more beautiful, friendlier, more generous, more sacrificing, etc. There is always going to be another love following the current one. So, no need for falling!

Moderator – What about you, Right Brain? Have you ever fallen in love?

Right Brain – I can’t breathe without love! For me, life and everything in it gains meaning only through love. And this meaning is not always visible at first sight. “L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur.” As the fox tells the Little Prince, what’s essential is invisible to the eye; one only sees well with the heart. So, falling in love reveals the meanings hidden behind objects and events. It’s not that you fall in love with something that is extraordinary, but that love makes the ordinary things extraordinary. It is the intertwining of their destinies that make people special for each other. Imagine this: the Great Author of the universe is writing a love story of you and your beloved one. What greater meaning can you ask for? For me, each and every person I fell in love with is special, no matter how the story ended. I always keep a room reserved for them in my heart.

Moderator – In the last century, scientific thought and technological achievements led many people to question their religious teachings and affiliations. Their faiths were shaken as a result of their experiences in intellectual and social areas. I even remember a book titled Youth’s Faith Is Stolen by Questions. My question to you is: how do you define the relationship between religion and science?

Left Brain – This question has been asked on many other occasions. For me, this is a straightforward issue. Personally, I am a believer. For me, science gathers information about the outside world. Religion tells me about the purpose of the world. A more cliché way of saying the same thing is, “science answers how, religion answers why.” Therefore, I don’t see why the two should contradict or clash. You can have a user’s manual for a car or a computer. But what you are going to do with it is totally up to you. Science and technology are like that manual. From them, we learn to make use of what is available here in this world. But religion guides us in what we should do, or how we should do it.

Right Brain – If you go back in history, you’ll see that religion and science were not different entities. Even the several branches of science we have today were united as a single body. If you were a knowledgeable man, you knew everything. Of course, with the accumulation of more and more information, a classification was needed, but unfortunately this classification led to oblivion among these different classes. Nowadays, people are rediscovering the value of the unity of knowledge through interdisciplinary studies. The same, I think, is true for religion and science. Had things taken a different route in history, one in which the sense of unity was essential, the definitions we are using today would have been completely different. Science would not be the study of how the universe functions but how God executes his will in the physical realm. Similarly, instead of being perceived as a set of rules that bound both God and people, the laws of nature would be defined as the stable patterns (straight paths) of creation that host the travelers in life. Accordingly, those stable paths would be a restriction for us, as humans, but not for the Lord of the worlds. Such an understanding would have, perhaps, fostered a completely different history than what we have now. Reading the creation as verses from the Perfect Designer, treating life events as personal instant messages from the closest Friend would transform our journey in this world from a merciless struggle of survival to being the hero of our stories, which are produced by the Supreme Sustainer.

The same goes for how religion is perceived and practiced. Instead of becoming a set of precise actions and words, religion would be the way to educate our conscience and will in order to be respectful lovers of God. Instead of becoming a formula that “ensures” heaven solely for its followers, religion would be the means to spread peace and prosperity to everyone, just like the All-Merciful one sustains even those who deny His existence.

Moderator – Finally, I would like to ask you the ultimate question. Where is the world headed regarding its current economic, ecological, and political unrest? Do you see hope for the future?

Left Brain – Oh, absolutely! People have been voicing similar concerns for such a long time. Even when the world population was a third of what it is now, there were debates on whether food would be enough, and so on… But today, we are here with 7 billion people. It may be painful, but I am sure in the long run, things will get settled.

Moderator – Painful? What do you mean by that?

Left Brain – Of course there are wars , and there is a disparity in the distribution of wealth, and healthcare is not accessible in many places. So, it is going to take some time until a global welfare and healthcare system is established to cover everyone. But with the advent of technology in communications and transportation, this is going to become easier over time, and we’ll get there. Until that point, though, there are going to be losses.

Right Brain – There is an old saying: “If He didn’t want to give, He wouldn’t give us the need to ask from Him.” I think the fact that we are yearning for a better tomorrows is a sign that we’ll get there.

Moderator – Then, would you blame the turbulence of today to yesterday’s lack of desire for better tomorrows?

Right Brain – You’re making me smile. Desire for a better tomorrow is not the same thing as desire for a better income. If everybody dreams for a better tomorrow, then this becomes a global prayer for peace and prosperity. If everybody wants what’s best for themselves, things don’t add up. This is even worse if some people think of their prosperity at the expense of others. So, in this sense, I think we can talk about a lack of desire for a better tomorrow, which governed the world for most of the last century. Today, though, through the growing means of communication and transportation, interfaith and intercultural dialogue activities are blossoming. These carry the potential to initiate a global prayer for peace and prosperity. When that happens, I am hopeful that that prayer will be answered.

Moderator – Thank you Left Brain and thank you Right Brain for allowing us to have a peek into your personal worlds.

This mystical unveiling, found in Ibn `Arabi’s vision of The Universal Tree and Four Birds, appears in his work entitled, Cosmic Unification in the presence of essential witnessing, through the assembling of the Human Tree and the Four Spiritual Birds. Ibn `Arabi’s vision offers a mystical grounding for dialogue among religious traditions, echoing the forms of dialogue identified by contemporary scholars and practitioners of interreligious dialogue. Ibn `Arabi’s distinctive philosophy of the Oneness of the Many or Diversity within Unity is an insight that will provide the basis for such mystical grounding (Chittick 1998, 169).

Background

If we are to understand Ibn `Arabi’s writings, the background for such concepts is important.

Five centuries after the advent of Islam in 1165 CE, Muhyiddin Muhammad Ibn `Arabi was born at Murcia in southern Andalusia in the Golden Age of Islam. During that period, the Iberian Peninsula witnessed an extraordinary cultural interaction between Muslims, Jews, and Christians under Islamic rule,which existed until the Christian domination of Spain became complete under the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in the year 1492, thereby ending this cultural interaction (Hirtenstein 1999, 9).

Diversity within Unity

As a young boy growing up under such extraordinary conditions, Ibn `Arabi displayed visionary

abilities. His greatest vision occurred nearly thirty years later when he experienced a spiritual ascent beyond the seven celestial bodies, arriving at “the Universal Tree surrounded by four mystical birds: the Ringdove, the Royal Eagle, the Strange Anqa and the Jet Black Crow” (Jaffray 2006, 35). From this vision Ibn `Arabi came to develop his philosophy of Diversity within Unity (Jaffray 2011, 1).6 Author Angela Jaffray says, “Ibn `Arabi clearly acknowledges the monotheistic sense of God, but acknowledges Diversity among the different religions, but in Diversity, God wills unity” (Jaffray 2011, 1).

In the Universal Tree is observed a diverse unity based on the multiplicity of beings rooted together in one Divine Being. The tree and four feathered creatures that sit upon its branches bring forth a type of mystical grounding, fostered in unity for dialogue among religious traditions. The types of dialogue revealed within the tree will be the dialogues of life, of study, of prayer, and of spirituality, all of which, if followed in an atmosphere of mutuality, will have the potential to facilitate people toward the dialogue of action—an action bringing forth a vision of justice for all.

Discourse of the Universal Tree

Upon meeting the Universal Tree, Ibn `Arabi greeted it and the tree responded by saying:

Listen, O wayfarer, O king. I am the Universal Tree of synthesis
and likeness. I have deep roots and my branches are lofty…
… I am the synthesis of the divine words… (Jaffray 2006, 35-37)

In her commentary, Jaffrey interprets for us: the Tree consists of unity and multiplicity. The well-rooted trunk represents unity, and multiplicity reflected in the leaves. The leaves represent human beings, and the branches a synthesis of all the Divine’s Names and Attributes manifested to the leaves [humankind] (Jaffray 2006, 82, 83).

The Tree demonstrates the universality of God’s all-inclusive infinite ways in which He manifests Himself to creation. Ibn `Arabi writes, “People of God say there are as many ways to God as the breaths of the creatures…” (Twinch 2011, 3). In other words, there is one Divine Being, but God manifests Himself in infinite ways to each person.

In today’s global village of numerous religious and cultural traditions, we come together on a daily basis as the multiplicity of leaves on the Universal Tree interacting with one another. The daily interaction of people, known as the Dialogue of Life, is what Cardinal Arinze, past President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, describes as the form of dialogue most within the reach of anyone. “It is interreligious relationships … of daily life … we draw on the values of … different traditions … without discussing religion” (Arinze 1997, 17). This, according to Islamic scholar Mahmoud Ayoub, is the way in which during the course of daily living that “the common Abrahamic prophetic moral and spiritual heritage can help the children of all three families of Abraham come together to face the problems of the modern world, striving together for the common good of society” (Ayoub 2004, 313-319).

Discourse of the Ringdove (al-mutawwaqa al-warqa)

The Ringdove states,

I am the Dove of oft-repeated praises. Beautiful realities descend upon threads toward the hearts… in search of the One [Divine Being]. (Jaffray 2006, 41, 21)

The Ringdove receives melodious sounds offered by the tree’s branches so that She may carry the tree’s rhythmic song of unity and love (Jaffray 2006, 36) encapsulating God’s offer of grace to all. Jaffray notes that in another of Ibn `Arabi’s writings, entitled The Tarjuman Al-Ashwaq, Poem XIII, the ringdove, with her dark neck ring, represents the covenant entrusted to her by the Real(representing God or Allah). In this covenant, she is given the special job of bringing forth the inspiration of the Divine (Jaffray 2006, 84).

According to Ibn `Arabi, the Divine’s inspiration “is all the words of the Great Koran, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the Scriptures…and it is through speech, listening, and hearing, wecome to know what is in the Self of the Real, since we have no knowledge of Him except through the knowledge given to His messengers on earth by the Divine Spirit” (Almirzanah 2011, 88-89).

Discourse of the Royal Eagle (`uqab)

The Royal Eagle states,

I am the Intellect … I am the bearer of everything known, high and low
… I am His … the light of His existence. (Jaffray 2006, 43, 46)

Jaffray says that Ibn `Arabi calls the Eagle `uqab, which is associated with the ProphetMuhammad, and in philosophical terms is known as the First Intellect. The Royal Eagle is illumined with knowledge from God, the same spiritual knowledge that was given to Muhammad. Ibn `Arabi states, “the intellect [is] the bearer of everything that is known high and low … which takes from God … and is set forth … in the Qur’an” (Jaffray 2006, 46).

The grace-filled words of Allah given to Muhammad—words that verify the Torah and Gospels are, according to Muslim scholar and spiritual leader M. Fethullah Gulen, ” words that descended to the Earth [issuing in] a deep understanding of balance … heralding to its followers a path that leads to universal harmony” (Gulen 2010, 145). Such inspired wisdom given to the Messenger on earth and recorded in the scriptures according to Ibn `Arabi, “is that which God has made clear that He is in every direction turned to, each of which represents a particular doctrinal perspective regarding Him, and confirmed in the Qur’an 2:115, wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God” (Almirzanah 2011, 116).

Understanding the Divine knowledge imparted in each other’s scriptures is important for interreligious dialogue and is supported through the hard but necessary work of study, which is referred to as the Dialogue of Study (Knitter 2002, 204), or as Ayoub describes it, the Dialogue of Belief, which “engages the minds and hearts of people [together]…in their search for truth” (Ayoub 2004, 318). Discovering the truth of every faith through study, remarks Cardinal Arinze, is a way “to appreciate objectively the religion of the other and not run the risk of misrepresenting it” (Arinze 1997, 96).

Discourse of the Strange Anqa (`anqa mughrib)

The Strange Anqa states:

I am the one who has no existent entity. I am Dust in which God reveals the bodies of the world … Nothing can be manifested that I am not in … I wander through the gathering of those with bowed heads. (Jaffray 2006, 46, 47, 91)

Commentary notes from one of Ibn `Arabi’s earlier works entitled “Anqa mughrib,” according to Jaffray, identifies Jesus as the Anqa (Jaffray 2006, 93). Philosophically speaking, the Strange Anqa is also a metonym for the Greek notion of hyle (Arabic: hayula), or prime matter, which according to Ibn `Arabi, citing from Qur’an 56: 6, “. . .was scattered dust” (Jaffray 2006, 94). Dust, according to Ibn `Arabi, “is God’s desire to bring the cosmos into existence and His Theophany” (Jaffray 2006, 95). The Anqa [Dust] Ibn `Arabi says, “comprises every form…[but] human minds cannot know it by … their thinking … It is concealed, but without being absent … [and] in any form it wills, it manifests itself” (Jaffray 2006, 96).

The Anqa further explains its reality: “Although the door of my existence is sealed nothing can be manifested that I am not in… I wander through the gathering of those with bowed heads” (Jaffray 2006, 47). Ibn `Arabi claims, “Allah is revealed in every face, sought in every sign … and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature” (Jaffray 2006, 1). In other words, bowed heads (prayer), “is the means of seeing God … [where] the form of God becomes visible to the heart” (Corbin 1969, 248).

Approaching God through prayer is essential to interreligious dialogue. Prayer, according to Gulen, “is a mysterious key to His everlasting treasures…[to] a most secure shelter… Those who step into this shelter are considered to have obtained [the] key…” (Gulen 2003, 4). Together in prayer we have the ability to obtain the key of God’s treasures, which may offer a solution to suffering stemming from the disease of prejudice and collectively help bring forth a “breeze of hope for those who are suffering…” (Gulen 2003, 4). Asking for the Divine’s guidance through prayer must always be preliminary to meeting on the level of words. Calling on the Divine, known as the Dialogue of Prayer, brings an openness to the conversation says Cardinal Arinze, “an openness to the action of God’s Grace in the person through the dialogue” (Arinze 1997, 95).

Discourse of the Jet Black Crow (al-ghurab)

The Jet Black Crow states:

I am of numbers, the singular among counted numbers. The Real summoned me into His presence and I came … His knowledge flows in me… (Jaffray 2006, 48, 50)

Although many equate the Crow with evil, Jaffray says from a philosophical and cosmological point of view, Ibn `Arabi saw that the crow represents the Universal Body—the Perfect Human Being. The Crow in Ibn `Arabi’s vision is Abraham, the intimate friend of God (Jaffray 2006, 101). In the reading of scripture and according to the commentary by Jaffray, Abraham demonstrates the true qualities of the perfect human, in trust completely abandoning the self, and filling the self with God, for he was called and he “readily responded” (Jaffray 2006, 101).

Abraham’s attribute of abandoning and filling the self with the Divine is needed in interreligious dialogue. This is a deep spirituality according to Gulen, that is very important in devotion and servitude to God, for the person who has reached complete spiritual knowledge of Godis the one according to Quran 66:6, who “do not disobey God in whatever He commands them, and carries out what they are commanded” (Gulen 2011, 149). Such souls experience the pleasure of intimacy with Him at every moment so long as they keep their “eyes fixed on the door of the Ultimate Truth” (Gulen 2011, 150). According to Cardinal Arinze, this is the Dialogue of Spirituality—”a dialogue that calls on a person to go to the higher self and indeed to go beyond self and aspire to some form of relationship with a Divine Being, or God” (Arinze 1997, 101).

This deep spirituality, according to Gulen, “should turn and direct others to God from the bottom of [our] hearts, thereby leading us to work toward improving and reforming the world…” (Gulen 2012, 219). Such spirituality allows one to be more aware of what “the faith Spirit [brings] down upon [the] heart” (Ali 2010, 219)—bridging an awareness of what the Divine commands for the world. This is an awareness that can bring about the Dialogue of Action—an action, according to Cardinal Arinze, “referring to Christians and other believers cooperating for the promotion of human development and liberation in all its forms,” (Arinze 1997, 18) demonstrating to the world how we are to dwell within God’s creation with the attributes given to us by God to promote mutuality and unity.

A Good Word Produces Action

Produced within the tree is:

A good word is as a good tree; its roots are firmly established and its branches are in heaven; it gives its produce every season by permission of its Lord. (Qur’an 14:25)

The good fruits of dialogue require us to “invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious…” (Ali 2010, 156).

In interreligious dialogue, we come to see the universality of God’s love and concern for everyone. According to Cardinal Arinze, “When deeply committed spiritual leaders of different religions meet … something wonderful happens … because they are sincerely looking for God, they are better able to understand each other” (Arinze 1997, 110). Interfaith dialogue seeks to bring about a cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions with the ultimate goal, according to Ayoub, of making possible “the ability of all women and men of faith to listen to and obey the voice of God as it speaks to all faith communities…,” (Ayoub 2004, 319) thereby bridging a path to forming new relationships and unity among believers. In creating new relationships, Cardinal Arinze considers it important that “every believer…should strive to be more open to the action of God … and be willing to go where the divine light leads” (Arinze 1997, 70, 71).

Following the divine light in spirit and in an atmosphere of common mutuality, interreligious dialogue has the potential to bridge the path toward a global ethic of love and tolerance seeking solutions to the immense social, economic, and ecological crises facing the world today. The Universal Tree demonstrates to us a well-rooted trunk from whose branches bring forth the multiplicities of God’s Names and Attributes manifested to all people in diverse ways. From Ibn `Arabi’s point of view, only through “the acquiring of gnosis (spiritual knowledge) can the Heart be receptive…to the universality of God” (Austin 1980, 146) and find “that despite the multiplicity of God’s names, attributes, and acts, there is but a single Being…” (Jaffray 2006, 12).

In an unconventional way, The Tree raises a type of cosmic conversation weaving together the dialogues of Life, Study, Prayer, and Spirituality, directing us toward the dialogue of Action—an action working for peace and justice. In the spirit of love, may we all come together like Birds of a Feather in the hands of the Divine. As Mr. Gulen notes, may we come together “as limbs of the same body … ceasing the duality that violates our very union. We should clear the way to unite people; this is one of the greatest ways in which God grants people success in the world, and how He transforms this world into a Paradise. It is in this way that the door of Heaven will be opened wide in order to give us a warm welcome. Hence, we should remove all ideas and feelings that pull us apart, and run to embrace one another.” (Gulen 2010, 7)

Brenda Pletcher is a student of religious studies at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, who has a special interest in Interfaith Dialogue.

References

• Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. 2010. The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an, Madison Park, Pacific Publishing Studio.
• Almirzanah, Syafaatun. 2011. When Mystic Masters Meet: Toward a New Matrix for Christian-Muslim Dialogue, New York: Blue Dome Press.
• Arinze, Cardinal Francis. 1997. Meeting Other Believers; The Risks and Rewards of Interreligious Dialogue, Huntington, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division.
• Austin, R. W. J. 1980. The Bezels of Wisdom, Mahwah, Paulist Press.
• Ayoub, Mahmoud. 2004. “Christian-Muslim Dialogue: Goals and Obstacles.” Muslim World 94, no 3 (July): 313-319. Academic Search Elite, EBSCO host (accessed July 3, 2012). p. 318.
• Chittick, William. 1998. The Self-Disclosure of God, Principles of Ibn al-`Arabi’s Cosmology, Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Corbin, Henry. 1969. Alone with the Alone; Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
• Gulen, M. Fethullah. 2003. Time to Pray, The Fountain 42 p. 4,
• ——. 2010. Toward A Global Civilization of Love & Tolerance, NJ: Tughra Books.
• ——. 2011. Emerald Hills of the Heart: Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism 1, NJ: Tughra Books.
• ——. 2012. Reflections on the Qur’an: Commentaries on Selected Verses, NJ: Tughra Books.
• Hirtenstein. Stephen. 1999. The Unlimited Mercifer; The Spiritual life and thought of Ibn `Arabi, Oxford: Anqa Publishing.
• Jaffray, Angela. 2006. The Universal Tree and the Four Birds, Oxford, Anqa Publishing.
• ——. 2011. “Water with One Water,” Ibn `Arabi on the One and the Many, http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/watered.html Retrieved 8/30/2011.
• Kakaie, Ghasem. 2011. Interreligious Dialogue: Ibn `Arabi and Meister Eckhart, http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/interreligious-dialogue.html Retrieved 9/12/2011.
• Knitter, Paul. 2002. Theologies of Religions, Maryknoll, Orbis Books.
• Steindle-Rast, David. 1996. Meister Eckhart from Who God Hid Nothing, Boston and London: Shambhala.
• Twinch, Cecilia. 2011.”The Circle of Inclusion,”
• http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/circleofinclusion.html Retrieved 9/12/2011.

Matter and Beyond explores a wide range of ethical, philosophical, spiritual and scientific questions through interviews with leading scholars and scientists on compelling topics such as: mysteries of consciousness, the healing powers of music and sound, love, ecology, astronomy, artificial intelligence, cosmology, quantum mechanics and free will, spiritual capital, bioethics and unity of knowledge.

What follows is an interview with Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world’s leading experts on Islamic science and spirituality. He is professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. Professor Nasr is the author of numerous books including Man and Nature: the Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man (Kazi Publications, 1998), Religion and the Order of Nature (Oxford, 1996), and Knowledge and the Sacred (SUNY, 1989).

M&B: You study mathematics, physics, geology, and history of science. In what way does this benefit you?

Bismi’llah al-Rahman al-Rahim . Let me begin with the Name of God. I was gifted when I was a young person in science and mathematics. After I came to America to study I received the highest grades in many national tests in these fields. So everybody thought that I should be a scientist. And I had a great deal of love for science and a wish to understand the real significance of what nature is. Furthermore, I loved mathematics. Consequently I went to MIT, which was the leading scientific institution at that time, and still is today in this field. I was studying physics and mathematics, but concentrating on physics. Soon, however, I realized that in fact modern physics, not only quantum mechanics but going back to Newtonian physics, does not deal with the nature of things. It deals with mathematical structures related to the quantitative aspect of phenomena. You will never come to know the actual nature of things by studying physics. So I lost interest in becoming a physicist. And then I went from there, after studying mathematics and physics at MIT, to study geology and geophysics at Harvard. The reason I did that is that I wanted to know also a descriptive science. Now, during all those years that I was studying the sciences, in parallel I was studying philosophy a great deal. The scientific discipline of my mind served me in a very positive way later on.

First of all, throughout all the criticism I have made of modern science in the last fifty years, nobody has been able to say that this man does not know anything about modern science because I do know something about this science. Secondly, it has of course given me mental discipline and, I hope, some clarity, which I try to reflect in my writings and my lectures.

M&B: For most people those disciplines are separate. What are your comments about that?

I believe that one of the greatest tragedies that has happened in Western civilization after the Middle Ages, and has resulted in what we see today, is compartmentalization, that is, a separation of various modes of knowing, various forms of knowledge, from each other, so that few matters are known in a complete way. Here I am, a professor at a major American university, and the students who come and study with us-their minds are like drawers in your bedroom. You put socks in one drawer, underwear in another, shirts in another… So they go from one class to another, they learn certain things, but there is no connection between various subjects that they learn. It is not only I who say this; the great English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said this over a half a century ago. This compartmentalization is one of the greatest dangers facing modern civilization. In traditional civilization there used to be a unity of knowledge. Of course, Islamic civilization is based upon tawhid, upon unity, and in the framework of the Islamic sciences all the different disciplines, from poetry to music to philosophy to history to geology to medicine to physics and mathematics, all of these have some kind of interrelation. There has always been an overall world view that has embraced them.

Now, that has been destroyed, but there have been some attempts to try to create a metaphysical basis to reintegrate the sciences. For example, Whitehead was interested in this matter and he tried very hard to do this, but none of these people really succeeded because the whole education system in the West is now based on this kind of specialization and unrelated disciplines that have nothing to do with each other. So what to do? You end up with a scientistic positivist claiming that nothing unscientific is important, that there is no other mode of knowledge but science-that is one side. On the other side for now we see those who emphasize only the outward meaning of religion with little interest in its intellectual and spiritual aspects. And other people fall in between.

What I have tried to do in my life is to resuscitate a vision of the unity of knowledge based on a metaphysical foundation and, more particularly, within the Islamic tradition, where this has been so important.

M&B: Was knowledge compartmentalized like that in the past? Could you give us some examples from history?

No, it was not. Let me mention the field of art which in traditional civilization was related to knowledge, to the science of forms. Now that link has been largely severed as has the link between various branches of knowledge. It is a modern illness that has deprived poetry and art of their intellectual function, that is, their relation to knowledge at the highest level. In the nineteenth century, when a lot of the Romantic poets of the English language such as Wordsworth depicted poetically beautiful scenes of nature and were against the vulgarization, the destruction, the ugly landscapes that resulted from the Industrial Revolution in England, their poetry was taken simply as sensibility, as emotion; it was not allowed to challenge the science of the day, which reigned supreme as the only legitimate form of knowing and in fact continues to do so.

This situation goes back to Galileo and Descartes, who took away from nature all quality and said everything-beauty, other things-are subjective and the object of scientific knowledge is ultimately pure quantity. Modern science still suffers from that myopia, whereas external reality is not pure quantity. Let me give you some examples. Take one of the great Ottoman mosques such as Sultanahmet. Now, when you stand on one side of the square before you get to the mosque, you have trees, and you have cars going by, you have before you a space-a space that you experience. You can describe that space from the point of physics-Cartesian coordinates, measurements, and so on,-but your immediate experience of that space is still there. When you go across the square and into the mosque, you again experience a space but it is a very different space. You have the same situation in the sacred architecture of Persia, in the Arab world, of the Taj Mahal in India, and in other places. The great architects who built these edifices provided for you an experience and a vision and another aspect of the reality which we call space and they did so on the basis of a science which was not divorced from other forms of knowledge. They did not create only a subjective space but one as real as the space across the street that we can measure with Cartesian coordinates and that cars drive through without ever thinking that this is a different space, qualitatively speaking, from the space of the mosque. Both the immediate experience of the space in the street and the sacred space in the mosque prove the poverty of the reduction of space to pure quantity á la Descartes.

It is the same with music. Music takes you out of your ordinary experience of time. So does poetry, but especially music, and it makes you experience time in a different way. Now, that other time that you experience is not simply a fantasy; it is not simply subjectivism; it is another aspect of reality. In all traditional arts there is a science that reveals another dimension of reality without this science being completely divorced from other modes of knowledge. A traditional mosque or cathedral is related to cosmology and theology as well as the science of forms, materials, colors and optics. Such edifices are themselves testimony to the unity of knowledge and the necessity to reject the compartmentalization of various modes of knowing.

M&B: In what ways can we relate human and experiential aspects of knowledge to scientific knowledge?

As you sit here, you have a single center of consciousness. Otherwise, you would be mentally ill and you would be taken to see a psychiatrist. A normal human being, who does not have a mental illness, has one single consciousness although it can partake of levels. In our everyday life we try to relate the different things that we do and think and say to that center determining who we are. So the yearning for unity is within the very nature of the human state.

When we do a lot of irrelevant things, totally separate things, what happens is that gradually we become compartmentalized ourselves; we become scattered. That leads actually to a kind of psychological dislocation and a house divided against itself, as Christ (pbuh) said, shall not stand.

There are many people who, in order to live with themselves, have divided their mind into several parts. With one part they pursue science, with one part they pursue art, with one part they pursue religion, and with one part they pursue this and that other activity. They are not integrated. But the goal of human life on earth is to become integrated. The consequence of this lack of integration, this lack of unity, is to be seen in so many fields today, for example in modern medicine. That is why we are talking just now about holistic medicine as embracing all the different elements of our being-our body, psyche, soul, spirit-that must be taken as interdependent realities whose harmony is necessary in order to have real health.

More and more people are also now speaking of a holistic worldview whose loss has caused the environmental crisis. Ecology by nature is a discipline that brings things together. If we destroy the Potomac River here, we do not know what effect it will have on the fish in Mexico. But it might have an effect of which we are not as yet aware. Now many are beginning to realize more and more that on the earth everything is intertwined and our experiential knowledge cannot be divorced from scientific knowledge and vice versa.

Today even some modern scientists are beginning to realize this truth, but they still exclude the spiritual world and the psychological world from their science. At least on the material, however, level they are realizing that this cutting of things from their natural setting and analyzing them and getting knowledge about them is not the whole of knowledge. There is also crucial knowledge based on the interrelatedness of things. And I think it is here that Islamic thought can make a very important contribution to contemporary thought.

M&B: In what way is acquiring that kind of knowledge about the interrelatedness of nature different from the design argument in theology?

First of all, the design argument may also be found in Islam in another form. We have it in all religions. But putting all the theological aspects aside, if you find a watch on a table, you would think that someone designed it and that the person had the intelligence to design a watch. When you see things much more complicated than the watch, working in a remarkable fashion, it creates in you an awareness of an incredible intelligent design and a sense of awe, of wonder. That is what modern science has for the most part tried to destroy. Einstein, one of the greatest scientists, had this sense of wonder-but ordinary science as it is taught in schools is against encouraging this sense of wonder. Rather, it has tried to equate to explain with to explain anyway, providing a view in which there is no sense of wonder. The enchantment of nature, wonderment, they have been all cast away. Now, all religions emphasize the human soul’s experience of wonder. For example, the Qur’an speaks so much about God’s creation and asks us to think, to meditate upon and to wonder about God’s creation. That is impossible without accepting the remarkable design in God’s creation.

M&B: Do you think that becoming aware of ecological problems is related to realizing human responsibility? A crisis can always be positive in a way in that it can force us to re-examine our position. When the earth trembles under your feet, you are in a different frame of mind than when you were walking on solid earth and you did not think about the earth. When you are sitting here you do not even think about the floor, but if the floor begins to shake, if there is a big earthquake, you will immediately think about the floor.

Now, the environmental crisis has caused many people to realize that modern science and technology by themselves are not going to solve all the problems of the world. It is true that greed, domination, and power politics have all played a role in this crisis, but they were always around. Such things have been around since time immemorial. What has changed is what modern technology and science have made possible-the destruction of all of human life, the destruction of whole ecosystems. Attila the Hun, Julius Caesar, Darius the Great or other great conquerors had vast armies consisting of hundreds of thousands of men but those armies could not destroy nature in the way one single chemical plant, one single oil spill can do. So a lot of people have become aware that there is something wrong; there is something seriously wrong. And that is the only positive aspect of this crisis because it makes us aware of the threat to human life.

I have written for fifty years on this matter. I am one of the first Muslim thinkers to have written about such subject is and one of the first to predict the environmental crisis and I stand by what I said but this matter half a century ago. Every kind of trying to save the planet by recourse to only good engineering or economic planning is just cosmetic. I just had a discussion, which is coming out in the next issue of the Islamic Science journal, in which I said that if someone has cancer as a result of which his skin turns yellow, if you just put some cosmetics on the face of woman so that her cheeks seem rosy, that is not going to cure her cancer. We need to do something much more profound than this.

M&B: Do you think developing religious and artistic views of nature, as you have described, and finding various ways to gain knowledge to reach God will affect people’s responses to the global environmental crisis?

Ordinary people are drawn by their inner nature to the beauty of God’s creation. In Washington, D.C., in the beginning of April, you have the cherry blossoms. I know you have seen cherry blossoms-one of most beautiful natural manifestations in big cities anywhere in the world. There are hundreds and hundreds of Japanese trees which were presented to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century and which are found especially around the basin near the Thomas Jefferson Monument and certain other places in Washington. They are very beautiful when in bloom, and people are drawn from all over to their beauty. So, there is still certainly attraction to the beauties of nature. But the problem is that modern education and culture have eclipsed or lessened the awareness of human beings of the relation between this beauty and the Beauty of God. So many people will say, “Oh, what a beautiful tree!” But that does not usually remind them of God because of a secularized culture that has dominated the West for the past few centuries. But the natural inclination toward beauty is always there.

In this context it is interesting to note that many people who are atheists are also environmentalists. They want to preserve nature. They want to preserve the forests and the mountains. That, for them, is “God,” without realizing that they are seeing God’s Theophanies, God’s creation, in these beautiful, natural scenes that are for them “sacred” and “sacrosanct.” In a godless cosmos that dominates over the mindset of so many in the West, however, there is no room for the presence of the sacred in its true sense. Furthermore, there is no way of solving the environmental problem without realizing that nature is sacred in the religious sense of this word. Therefore, you have to first of all revive awareness of the sacred, which I have tried to do in several of my writings.

It is important also to realize that the sacred is not only a category pertaining to the Torah, the Gospels or the Qur’an, a church or a mosque. Of course, they are the heart of the sacred for the followers of these various religions, but the sacred also exists in God’s creation, in planets and animals, in the mountains, deserts and seas, in the firmament and the stars. It is crucial to treat nature as something sacred if the present environmental crisis is to be overcome. Unless we do not do that, nothing else is really going to work.

M&B: That seems to be a common point between all the religions. May be something around which people can come together?

I wrote a book called Religion and the Order of Nature that was translated into Turkish two years ago. It is one of my major books, one in which I speak precisely about how all the religions of the world, despite all their different languages and forms, have a remarkably similar view towards the order of nature, where the order of nature comes from, why this order, and how important it is in this domain for the religions of the world to work together. That is perhaps the best hope that we have because in most places in the world people still listen to their religious leaders, whether they be imams, priests or rabbis. If on Fridays the imams in mosques would concentrate on the importance of treating nature as God’s sacred creation, within a few months such teachings would affect what the people do.

A few people will say, “We do not care,” but the vast majority of ordinary people would listen, and so I think that all the religions of the world have a responsibility and all the religions of the world can work together very closely in this vital matter. Furthermore, members of the Abrahamic family have to realize that the love for nature is not pantheism. It is not the negation of the transcendence of God.

Let me end with this famous poem from Rumi. It says, “If only the world of existents had tongues, so with those tongues they could unveil the mystery of existence.” I have always said, echoing Rumi and our other sages, that everything is alive, everything bears within itself a divine mystery, but it does not have a tongue to speak to us in such a manner that we can hear its call. We have to learn its language expressed through what appears to us as and from the ordinary human point of view as eloquent silence. 

Interview conducted by Mustafa Tabanli for Ebru TV for the television show Matter and Beyond, episode 23.

Although the dialogue of civilizations has always been laudable, modern global developments such as economic inequalities, environmental destruction, the spread of information technology, and the increasing power of civil society make dialogue critical for global peace and welfare. Facing these Herculean global challenges, economic and political solutions are not enough because they empower the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and weak, leading to the erosion of human dignity. Without a moral dimension, globalization is doomed to remain fragile. Furthermore, it can create resentment as well as a sense of injustice and anger among the poor and weak. However, conflict between the winners and losers in globalization is not inevitable. Religious leaders have the authority and responsibility to add a moral dimension to globalization by voicing “the silent cry of those who today suffer from want, hunger, disease, powerlessness, and lack of freedom” (p. 11).¹ In Sacks’ account, religion is integral to global politics.

Belying Enlightenment predictions that religion would become “mute, marginal, and mild,” (p. 11) people are turning to religion across the globe, from Latin America to the Middle East, from the U.S. to China. Increasing global religiosity does not necessarily contribute to humanity’s hope for peace due to the dual nature of religions as a source of conflict and conflict resolution. In order to contribute to dialogue, harmony, and peace religions must find ways to “acknowledg[e] the integrity of those who are not of our faith.” It is their willingness to “make space for difference,” to “hear the voice of God in a language, a sensibility, a culture not our own,” or simply, their capacity to “see the presence of God in the face of a stranger.” If religious leaders fail to accommodate other religions, with the increasing salience of religion in international politics, religions will continue to be a source of discord, not harmony. Sacks is unequivocal in his contention about integrating faith into solutions to global problems: “If faith is enlisted in the cause of war, there must be an equal and opposite counter-voice in the name of peace. If religion is not part of a solution, it will certainly be part of the problem” (p. 9).

After describing the moral and political necessity of incorporating religion in global politics, Sacks answers the most thorny question facing religious mobilizations for equality, peace, and harmony: Can monotheistic traditions accommodate the dignity of followers of other monotheistic and polytheistic religions as well as non-theistic religions and philosophies? Is the unity of God compatible with the dignity of difference? Offering a Jewish perspective on monotheism, Rabbi Sacks suggests that monotheism is compatible with the diversity of religions.

Before explaining the Jewish perspective for making space for other faiths, Rabbi Sacks argues that the notion of the universality of truth and the danger of particularity (a notion he traces back to Plato’s The Republic) can have non-religious as well as religious roots. Rabbi Sacks identifies Western universalist cultures that have propagated the idea of the existence of one universal truth: ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Christianity and Islam, and the Enlightenment. In addition to these five universalizing cultures, the world is going through a sixth-global capitalism. These attempts to unify the world under one religion or culture are not compatible with the Divine Will that is revealed by the diversity and complexity of the natural and social world. Despite his criticisms of universalist cultures, Sacks claims that some universal moral truths exist as codified in the Biblical “covenant with Noah” which forms the basis of modern human rights norms. Despite the existence of these moral universals, Sacks rejects that the existence of one God requires “one faith, one truth, one way.” By creating complexity and plurality in the cosmos, God teaches a lesson on the dignity of difference.

According to Sacks, Judaism represents the best example of a monotheist accommodation of religious plurality. In contrast to the universalist monotheisms of Christianity and Islam, Judaism is a particularist monotheism that “believes in one God but not in one religion, one culture, one truth. The God of Abraham is the God of all mankind, but the faith of Abraham is not the faith of all mankind” (p. 55). One God shows His majesty and mercy through diversity in the cosmos as well as in faiths. God and religion are uncoupled. “God is universal, religions are particular” translations of God in a specific language in the form of a specific life, nation, and community of faith.

Rabbi Sacks’ account puts Abrahamic religions on equal ground. Stressing that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are religions of revelation, Sacks argues, “In the course of history God has spoken to mankind in many languages: through Judaism to Jews, Christianity to Christians, and Islam to Muslims. Only such a God is truly transcendental-greater not only than the natural universe but also than the spiritual universe articulated in any single faith, any specific language of human sensibility” (p. 55). However, as I explain later, Sacks revised or removed many of his statements accommodating Christianity and Islam in later editions of his book.

The dialogue of civilizations is the key to sustaining moral universals, accommodating the dignity of difference, and humanizing globalization. To this end, Sacks envisions two simultaneous dialogues with complementary functions-an interfaith dialogue and a faith–globalization dialogue. Before defining the term “dialogue,” he clears up some misconceptions about it. Dialogue is not about winning an argument or changing one’s own beliefs, but it is a “disciplined act of communicating . . . and listening.” By communicating we make our “views intelligible to someone who does not share them.” By listening we enter “into the inner world of someone whose views are opposed to” our own. In short, the aim of dialogue is not “to change one’s beliefs but make space for another deeply held belief” (p. 83). Once the space for another’s belief is created, the dignity of difference can flourish.

While interfaith dialogue should focus on finding religious justifications for the dignity of difference, faith–globalization dialogue should offer ways to enhance distributional justice in world resources. The integration of religious communities into this process is imperative because they embody the moral responsibility to alleviate the suffering of the poor and oppressed.

Among some Jewish moral responsibilities is tzedakah, which requires Jewish people to give charity for distributional justice. In addition to tzedakah, Jonathan Sacks stresses education, civil society, and environmental sustainability as other topics which activists should incorporate into the dialogue of civilizations.

The Dignity of Difference is an important contribution to the debate about interfaith dialogue, as well as globalization and its discontents. It weaves its argument through theology, political science, economics, and philosophy. Yet, there are three issues Sacks fails to address. First, it is not clear to what extent Sacks’ reading of Judaism is a standard Jewish reading. In other words, “how Jewish is his description?” This is important because of his claim that Judaism is the only particularist monotheism advocating the dignity of difference and accepting Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on equal theological grounds. As Richard Harries the Bishop of Oxford details, after the first publication of the book, other Jewish authorities criticized Sacks’ description of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as being on equal theological grounds.² This criticism suggests that there is not a unity of opinion among Jewish scholars about whether and how to accommodate other Abrahamic traditions.

These criticisms led Sacks to rephrase and remove some statements. For example, in later editions, he removed this statement which had been included in the first edition: “Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are religions of revelation-faiths in which God speaks and we attempt to listen.” He also revised the statement that “God has spoken to mankind in many languages: through Judaism to Jews, Christianity to Christians, Islam to Muslims” so it became “As Jews we believe that God has made a covenant with the singular people, but [this] does not exclude the possibility of other peoples, cultures and faith finding their own relationship with God within the shared frame of the Noahide laws.” From an interfaith perspective, these criticisms and Rabbi Sacks’ responses indicate interfaith dialogue may not be sustainable without an intra-faith dialogue within each religion.

Secondly, Sacks refers to seeing God in the face of the stranger, but his examples and his argumentation are based on monotheistic traditions. Accepting the dignity of an atheist or a polytheist from a monotheistic perspective is hard, and Sacks fails to get directly involved with this difficulty.

Third, while Sacks talks about accommodating more religious voices in global governance to rectify the inhumane aspects of globalization, he tends to ignore the most outstanding obstacle in front of the integration of religious voices into politics: secularism. How can secular state institutions integrate religious voices while maintaining the separation of church and state? With their claim to sovereignty, nation states, tend to eliminate differences in the name of state- and nation-building and security. Can secularism, sovereignty, and nation state accommodate religious pluralism? If so, how?

Interfaith dialogue can provide solid, theological ground for the religious foundations of the dialogue of civilizations. Creating space for others’ beliefs is one of the most important and urgent challenges of increasingly interconnected and complex global world politics. By articulating Jewish justifications and parameters for the dialogue of civilizations, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks joins the company of other religious voices such as Fethullah Gulen³ and scholars such as Fred Dallmayr⁴ advocating interfaith dialogue, tolerance, and harmony. Any religious and secular voices advocating that end will help both to avoid the clash of civilizations and possibly to add a moral dimension to globalization.

Voices for interfaith dialogue from Judaism are particularly important for religious and practical reasons. Jewish scholars’ struggle to accommodate other religions can influence other Abrahamic religions and the interactions of Abrahamic religions with non-Abrahamic religions. Politically, it is important because Jewish voices for interfaith dialogue may moderate the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and Palestine.

Notes

1. Jonathan Sacks expands some of his arguments in his subsequent book To Heal A Fractured Word: The Ethics of Responsibility. New York: Schocken. 2005.
2. Richard Harries (2004). “Jonathan Sacks’s The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations,” Scottish Journal of Theology. (57)1: 109-115. For another thorough review see Fred Dallmayr (2003). “The Dignity of Difference: A Salute to Jonathan Sacks,” Kroc Institute Occasional Paper # 24:OP:1.
3. Ali Ünal and Alphonse Williams (Compiled by). Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gulen. Fairfax, VA. The Fountain Press. 2000.
4. Fred Dallmayr. Dialogue Among Civilizations: Some Exemplary Voices. New York. Palgrave Macmillan. 2002.

When I first heard a politician say, “We can rule from beyond the grave,” I didn’t respond very positively. “What does that mean?” I exclaimed in confusion. However, as it dawned on me that he was actually referring to great men and their immortal ideas about transcending our limited ideas, I gradually began to appreciate his meaningful words. As he continued, he mentioned Rumi and quoted his words, “Come, whoever you are; ours is not a caravan of despair.” I then realized that this wise politician’s words were a subtle yet powerful invitation to unity and brotherhood.

The greatest challenge ever known to humankind will probably always be that of transcendence. Surpassing one’s biases, expanding one’s horizons and striving toward universal brotherhood, thereby existing above the cherished limits of one’s comfort zones is probably the toughest virtue to cultivate and practice. The more we choose to identify solely with our primary reference groups, the more we become divided. When these sources of identity are closer to us in time and space like those of political parties, provincial and ethnic group memberships, we only become even more constrained. This parochial mentality will sooner or later give birth to fear and hatred for those unlike us, or those who do not share our ideas and experiences. Inevitably, hostility and bitterness will be generated as consequences of these narrow and circumscribed reference points. In contrast, the farther we traverse beyond the “grave,” beyond space and time, the more our horizons expand and inch toward universal brotherhood. Rumi touches upon this very lesson in transcendence calling all of us passionately to his caravan. It was in the same light that Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, addressed all of humankind with these timeless words: “Those who believe in One God are but brothers and sisters.”

Scientists today will vouch for the fact that technology has shrunk the boundaries of our world, ensconcing us in one big global village. This extraordinary sense of the compression of time and space has made it possible to imagine ourselves in the prophet Adam’s time again. However, the relevant question to ask ourselves at this juncture is whether or not our outlooks and mentalities have developed to a degree, so as to embrace and accept the virtue of togetherness that prevailed during that time. The bitter truth remains that although materially superior, we are far from the solidarity that was typical during the time of Adam. There is however a light at the end of this dreary tunnel. If we cannot bridge the gap that exists between our differences, perhaps tracing our roots back to common fathers will help reconcile some of these discordances. It is at this key juncture that the acknowledgement of great prophets and their messages becomes mandatory. It is through the legacy of such distinguished messengers that we shall endeavor to reconstruct our spiritual world. Abraham is the best example of one such prophet who is still accepted as a common father and loved by all believers whose heritage is intrinsically connected with him.

The Prophet Abraham: The Beloved Patriarch

Abraham is the beloved prophet of the members of three great religions, who take him as an exemplar, dutifully venerating this revered patriarch. Sacred texts of the three monotheistic religions make many deferential references to the prophet Abraham. For instance, a verse from the Old Testament reads:

Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, unto a land that I will show you: And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

Likewise, the New Testament makes the following mention of the great prophet: . . . Abraham, who is the father of us all (Romans 4:16). Another verse of the Bible states, For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith (Romans 4:13). The Holy Qur’an similarly proffers an exceptional place upon the prophet Abraham. In response to the dispute between the Jews and Christians and their tendency to appropriate him to themselves, it clearly indicates that Abraham was a Hanif (Follower of the Truth). It further explicates that he was essentially Muslim and joined not gods with God (Al Imran 3:68). What is even more wondrous is that while referring to Islam, the Qur’an describes it (at least seven times) as Your father Abraham’s religion. 1

One may ask, “Isn’t it an incredible mistake to call someone who lived 2,600 years before Prophet Muhammad a ‘Muslim,’ which is a derivative of ‘Islam’ ?” The answer to this objection is that the Holy Qur’an clearly elucidates the fact that the religion before God is Islam (Al Imran 3:19) indicating that the essence of all the religions brought by the many prophets since Adam has remained the same. In the same light, Islam is but a reinforcement of these very principles. Most importantly, in Arabic the word Islam means, “submission to God’s will.” Islamic scholars hence summarize the following four essential principles that have remained constant in all religions:

Unity of God: The belief that there is one God Who is the creator of existence.

Belief in the Afterlife: The belief that after death we will be resurrected and asked to account for our actions in this world.

Complete faith in the Prophethood: The firm belief in all prophets and God’s message they brought to humankind.

Adherence to Justice: The fulfillment of man’s responsibilities to God, to others around him, and his responsibility to himself: his thoughts and actions (worship, law, morality).

Consequently, Islamic scholars do not accept as celestial any religion that does not include these four points. These issues endure in the Old and New Testaments, as well as in the Qur’an. So much so, that the names, deeds and miracles of prophets in the Old Testament are found in Christianity and Islam as well. It can therefore be argued in accordance with the above explanation that in essence, Judaism and Christianity are nothing but “Islam.” It must be reinforced that this Islam, which has prevailed over a constantly evolving humankind since the time of the prophet Adam, has essentially been the same. It is precisely due to this unchanging core that it was easy and natural for some of the peripheral details of the religion to become modified in accordance with the constantly evolving social conditions as and when each prophet was sent to propagate a specific message.

Rediscovering the Most Important Prophetic Link

Abraham represents a very important link in the chain of prophets, each of which accentuates some kind or degree of human development. According to the Qur’an, Abraham’s book does not take into precise consideration detailed matters of right and wrong or, in other words, issues of human law and punishment. The Divine Will therefore consigned appropriate books and divine messages to other prophets. Upon examining the chapters in the Qur’an related to Abraham’s book such as A’la and Najm, (verses 36-54 or others²related to Abraham), we see they are all related to faith, worship, and virtue. This offers further proof of the fact that as in the Old Testament, legal decrees, as far as the prophet Abraham is concerned, are absent in the Qur’an. This, however, should not be understood as a misgiving or an aberration. It is supremely important to acknowledge that a prophet like Abraham on whom members of the three major monotheistic faiths all confer respect, appreciation and love, emphasized faith, worship and virtue rather than legal judgment. This can be argued for the following reasons:

Judicial matters are subject to constant change depending upon the socio-political situation of the existing people. It is because of this that Muslim scholars collectively adopt that “changes in time and legal matters cannot be denied.”³ It would therefore be a colossal task to attempt to unite these three religions, under the umbrella of a common law.

With some exceptions, spiritual and moral values are predominantly universal. The values represented in Abraham’s character and actively realized in his life, are values that can be adhered to by all of humankind. The conscious implementation of these values is necessary for both individual and communal spiritual evolution.

Furthermore, these values transcend the boundaries of religion. Values form the inner framework of anyone intent upon leading a life of righteousness and decency. It is precisely because of this all-embracing nature of Abrahamic messages that they render themselves the perfect tools for the arduous task of propagating unity and brotherhood.

Abrahamic Messages: Enduring Lessons in Unity and Brotherhood

There are innumerable Abrahamic virtues mentioned in the Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet (hadiths) which carry timeless lessons for humankind. It is interesting to note that most of these lessons imparted by Abraham are those that were reinforced emphatically on more than one occasion by Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. It is hence evident that a journey into the essence of the three faiths will reveal but one beating heart! It is the purpose of this text not merely to enumerate these virtues, but also to explain how these can be used as founding stones upon which to build the palaces of unity and brotherhood.

Abandoning meaningless imitation of ancestors

The Qur’an mentions that one of the greatest obstacles encountered by the prophets in conveying the divine message was the meaningless imitation of tribal ancestors. When the prophets attempted to expound the divine word, one of the commonest excuses offered by the tribes for not accepting the call was the inexplicable fear of abandoning the path of their ancestors. Whether it was worshipping idols or indulging in other despicable rituals, the very fact that it was practiced by their ancestors was given as evidence of its purity and necessity.⁴

One of the matters in his calling that the prophet Abraham constantly dwelled upon was humankind’s enduring struggle with this particular weakness. In the following verse, it can be seen that he cried out to both his father and his nation about this. From the very fact that “father” and “nation” are mentioned, it is clear that Abraham reiterated to his father the mistake of imitating ancestors blindly from his initial call until the very end of his life. He said to his father and people:

“What are these images to which you are (so assiduously) devoted?” To this they replied, “We found our fathers worshipping them.” When Abraham stated, “Indeed you have been in manifest error-you and your fathers,” they answered, “Have you brought us the truth, or are you one of those who jest?” To which he replied, “Nay, your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. He who created them (from nothing): and I am a witness to this (truth).” (Anbiya 21:52-56)

Verification of faith

This is probably one of the first messages that comes to mind when Abraham is mentioned, especially today. Just as he opposed the tradition in former pagan societies of continuing the religion of their forefathers or being satisfied with what they had learned from their ancestors about faith and worship, he also took the verification of revealed faith as a reigning principle. The Holy Qur’an does not mention the verification of all matters involved in faith; however, it does clearly put forth the verification of two of faith’s most important principles. One of these is related to God’s existence and unity and the other to resurrection (or the dead being raised to life in the afterlife). If humankind can instill these two principles as the edifices of faith, it is believed that other matters can be easily accepted.

Rather than resorting to the compulsive instruction of abstract philosophies, Abraham verifies the matter of God’s existence and unity by intelligently illustrating God’s majesty that is clearly visible in the exterior realm of existence such as the impeccable order prevalent in nature and in the universe. Thus, he plants the internal seeds of faith by opening our eyes to the external verification of matters of faith. Abraham explains his message of divine unity through indicating the uselessness of the worship of stars, which was the religion in esteem in his community. In order to guide his people to truth, Abraham takes what they worshipped as a starting point. First he says to the brightest star in the sky, “This is my Lord,” (according to your claims), but when it fades he assumes that the brighter moon might be God. However, when the moon disappears, he says that the sun, which is the brightest of all, must be his Lord. When he sees the sun set, he tries to make his people understand that those things that set cannot be God (An’am 6:75-81).

The Qur’an mentions this even more striking investigation related to the resurrection of the dead (belief in the hereafter):

Behold! Abraham said: “My Lord! Show me how you give life to the dead.” He said, “Do you not then believe?” He said, “Yes! But to satisfy my own understanding.” He said, “Take four birds; tame them to turn to you; Put a portion of them on every hill, and call to them: they will come to you (flying) with speed. Then know that God is exalted in Power, Wise.” (Baqara 2:260)

Razi, a great commentator on the Qur’an, formulated the basic principle presented to humankind in this verse related to the investigation of faith as “the verse that proves that religion must be based on proof, not imitation.”

Investigation of faith: Basing religious precepts upon intelligent rationale

It must be emphasized that “investigation of faith,” one of Abraham’s clearest messages, is a very convincing argument for those today who shy away from religion because they are tired of imitation. This Abrahamic message explains clearly that religion must rest on an intelligent and methodical investigation, and not on blind, heedless imitation. Indiscriminate imitation is construed as a mistake, a crime committed in the name of religion by incompetent men of religion. As a matter of fact, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, comprehending that his community of followers was more in need of seeking verification of faith, said “We are more apt to uncertainty than Abraham.”⁵ Commenting further on this subject, God’s Messenger said, out of his modesty:

Just as I never wavered (in faith), Abraham never wavered in any way. If prophets had the impediment of doubt, I would have been the most vulnerable, but you know that I have never been uncertain. You should know, then, that he never fell into uncertainty either. ”⁶

Thus, it is necessary to understand the nature of Abraham’s uncertainty in this light. Of course, it is not possible to doubt the degree of the submission to God of a prophet like Abraham; it has been clearly verified in the Qur’an.⁷ In this case, this Abrahamic story is a message and lesson for future humankind regarding the necessity of the verification of one’s faith. Moreover, the fact that principles of faith are open to intelligent verification presents a great challenge to atheism.

Watering the tree of divine unity

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Abraham that is mentioned again and again in the Qur’an is his not being from the pagans. This is a striking expression because it is reiterated in six different places regarding Abraham: He is not from the pagans. ⁸ In one case, he exclaims, I am not from the pagans (An’am 6:79). It is obvious that a prophet will never adhere to the precepts of paganism. Despite this indubitable fact, the repeated assertion about Abraham being not from the pagans must be an emphasis on how sensitive he was on matters regarding the Unity of God. This situation allows us to make this conclusion: just as lack of faith has different degrees, faith has different levels of conviction in the Unity of God.

Willingness and unquestioning obedience to the Divine alone

The other distinguishing attributes of Abraham mentioned in the Qur’an are different reflections of his multi-faceted messengership. He was devoted to the divine and complied with his duties without hesitation or doubt. Abraham is said to have met his Lord willingly, with a peaceful heart, when he was ordered by the Divine in his dream to sacrifice his only son, whom Abraham had so lovingly fathered at a very advanced age, and who had been born as a result of much pleading and prayer. There are several lessons to be learnt from this great apostle and the incredible incidents of his life such as his struggle alone against a whole community including his parents, the king, the law and custom; his disputes with the king; destroying idols; being thrown out of his family; being thrown into the fire; exile and migration: all of these difficult experiences that he faced are expressions of the strength and power of his belief in the Unity of God.

Tawhid-Unity

Regarding Abraham’s pure belief in God’s unity, it is fitting to quote another verse in the Qur’an. It is stated in the verse 106 of the chapter Yusuf (Joseph): And most of them believe not in God without associating (others as partners) with Him! This verse can be assumed to make an allusion to those who fall into the clutches of shirk, the worship of others instead of God or along with God, the gravest sin in Islam. As a matter of fact, the clear reference to “hidden shirk” expressed in Prophet Muhammad’s sayings warns us that even exemplary Muslims can unconsciously fall into hidden shirk in spite of their belief in God. In a hadith from Al-Mustadrak, the Prophet lays down a guideline that must be thought about seriously: Love. The various objects of an individual’s love and affection which are cherished in the heart are the rightful determinants of a person’s religion. If love is not centered on God, it is denotative of shirk. In order for a person to escape from the grip of shirk, he has to be consciously in control of all the emotions which are generated in the heart. Emotions like love, hatred, appreciation, reprimand, malice, and enmity must be directed solely according to God’s approval. Thus the guideline put forth by the Messenger of God was:

Shirk is more silent than the sound of a small ant’s footsteps while walking on Safa (a small hill nearby the Ka‘ba in Makka) during a dark night. The smallest degree of this shirk is liking someone in spite of oppression and hating someone in spite of justice. Do you think that religion is anything other than love and hate? God said, “If you love God, conform to Me.” ⁹

In chapter Mumtahana, in the first verse, it is indicated that those who show love to God’s enemies have strayed from the true path precisely because of this misdirected love.

To further illuminate this fact, it is important to recapitulate the hadith about those who are so fond of money that they refrain from giving a small share to the less fortunate. Those resembling the aforementioned are rightly called abd al-dinar (slave to the money) and abd al-kadifa (slave to velvet) and are duly cursed.¹⁰ In addition, many other indulgences and vices such as hypocrisy,¹¹ swearing oaths in the way pagans do,¹² belief in superstition,¹³ and sorcery¹⁴ are expressed as shirk in the hadiths. Some scholars also consider attribution of divinity by some Jews to Ezra (Uzayr) and some Christians to Jesus, by way of addressing them as “son of God” as shirk, despite their belief in God, the Merciful and the Compassionate, Who created the heavens and the earth.

In this case, Abraham’s belief in the Unity of God, which is repeatedly lauded in the Holy Qur’an, is an uncorrupted conviction in God’s unity that has been purified of the minutest and most hidden of polytheistic tendencies. The late Fahraddin Razi described the station of Abraham’s faith as follows: “Those who are familiar with Qur’anic knowledge know that Abraham drowned in the ocean of tawhid (belief in the Unity of God).¹⁵ Abraham’s tawhid is hence presented as a remarkable example to all believers who love him (Jews, Christians, and Muslims).¹⁶

Lessons from a true hanif

The word hanif is mentioned almost in the same vein as Abraham. In fact this word is mentioned ten times in the Qur’an and almost all of them in relation to Abraham; most of them are explicit and some are implied. The term Abraham’s hanif religion is mentioned five times. The word hanif is an adjective from the infinitive, hanef. Hanef tends from error to straightness, from crookedness to rightness and from superstition to truth. Thus, a hanif is one who has renounced crookedness and turned to the straight path. Aeons of customary practice have transformed this word into a synonym of Abraham’s religion during the time of ignorance.¹⁷ It literally means one who has left other religions and idols and turned toward the one God. According to explanations of the hadiths, it not only refers to the turning away from superstitions to the Truth, it is also laden with the messages of tolerance and acceptance. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said, —I have been sent with tolerant and easy Hanifism.—¹⁸ This hadith was conferred on the people in attendance at a festivity (iyd). Aisha explains that the Messenger of God offered this explanation so that —the Jews would know that there is tolerance in Islam,— and it was also indicated that the Prophet meant —Let Jews and Christians know that there is expansiveness in our religion.—¹⁹ Confirming that Hanifism carries the messages of tolerance and easiness (in other words a general, universal acceptance coupled with simply elucidated principles) Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said, —Tolerant Hanifism is the most lovable religion to God—²⁰; —Your religion (the path you follow) is the best and easiest.—²¹ God declares to the Prophet, He has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on you in religion, the faith of your father Abraham (Hajj 22:78). In the religion of Islam, expressed as Hanifism, tolerance and easiness are among the most basic principles: Thus it is due to mercy from God that you deal with them gently, and had you been rough, hard hearted, they would certainly have dispersed from around you. (Al Imran 3:159) God’s Messenger announced that —Religion is easiness,—²² and, according to Aisha, he would always choose the easiest way to put forth a command.²³ He would say to those extremists, who in the spirit of attaining —the most perfect— in religion, would not be satisfied with perfection and would go to every kind of difficulty and trouble, —This religion of Islam is easiness. Whoever races violently to do the best in religion (will not be successful and) religion will overcome him. So take the middle road, do the best according to your power, and give good tidings.—²⁴

Regard for nature and one’s environment

One of the most noteworthy traits of Abraham was his humble regard for the environment. When Abraham built the Ka’ba and began the Hajj at God’s command, he also took precautions to make it a clean and safe place.²⁵ In light of this, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, declared Makka as haram (sacred, inviolable) as a precaution to guarantee the safety and cleanliness of that holy site.²⁶ This declaration not only prevented bloodshed there, but also prohibited hunting and the cutting of trees, the searing of leaves and uprooting of weeds. Thus, it became the prototype of environmentalism by taking humanity’s first serious decision about the protection of the environment, an issue which is on the top of humankind’s agenda today. Later when the Prophet declared as haram an area of 35 kilometers in diameter surrounding Madina like a green belt, he made a due reference to Abraham’s similar action in Makka.

Faithfulness to promises and conscientiousness in the performance of one’s duties

One of the many attributes that makes Abraham prominent is eloquently expressed in the Qur’an in: Abraham who fulfilled his engagements (Najm 53:37). He was always known for his honesty and his faithfulness toward the fulfillment of any promises made. The Holy Qur’an emphasized this side of him as well: Also mentioned in the Book (the story of) Abraham: He was a man of Truth, a prophet (Maryam 19:41). Due to these attributes, Abraham successfully passed all the tests given to him by God: And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with certain Commands, which he fulfilled (Baqara 2:124). Islamic scholars say the fact that the number of characteristic attributes possessed by Abraham which were duly tested was thirty²⁷ indicate that approximately thirty virtues of Abraham are mentioned in four different chapters of the Qur’an.²⁸

Hospitality

One of Abraham’s celebrated attributes is hospitality. It is said that he was the first real host actually to entertain guests and was hence given the nickname Abu’l-Adaiaf (father of guests).²⁹ The Qur’an informs us that on one occasion, he slaughtered a fat cow and prepared an elaborate dinner for some unexpected guests with whom he was not even well acquainted.³⁰ From the hesitation of the guests to eat the food that was served, and Abraham’s subsequent apprehension at their shying away from the food, it is assumed that these guests were strangers.

Steadfastness and compassion

Another attribute of Abraham mentioned in the Qur’an is his compassion. Even his name, which is Syriac, is meaningful and befitting to one who showed enormous compassion. It is an expression that means compassionate, merciful father. ³¹ We also understand from explanations of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, that regarding the matter of being merciful to others, Abraham underwent a special instruction from God.³² After this, Abraham never left this line of mercy in word or in deed until the very end in spite of his being imprisoned (for guiding the people around him)³³ or whilst being thrown into the fire³⁴ or whilst being exiled from his homeland.³⁵ In the words of our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, he acted —sweeter than honey— toward his clan³⁶ and did not ask for them to be punished. He said, —My Lord! Surely they have led many men astray; then whoever follows me, he is surely of me, and whoever disobeys me, You surely are Forgiving, Merciful— (Ibrahim 14:36). His sharpest words to those who were going to throw him into the fire were, —Fie upon you, and upon the things that you worship besides God! Have you no sense?— (Anbiya 21:67). Even these words only show Abraham’s uniqueness among God’s messengers in terms of being merciful to his people. We do not encounter any divine revelation or historical account where he is reported to have cursed his nation even under the worst conditions. Abraham’s compassionate nature was most pronounced toward his loved ones and the believers. The prayer mentioned below is one that epitomizes the request of all believers for mercy and it is recited by Muslims throughout the world. It reads, My Lord! On the day of reckoning forgive me, my mother and father and the believers (Ibrahim 14:41). Its presence in the Qur’an as one of Abraham’s prayers is monumental proof witnessing his compassion and not a mere coincidence. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who took pride in identifying himself with Abraham’s Hanif religion, would say to those who asked him to curse the pagans (even though they did terrible things to him): —I was sent as a mercy, not as one to make curses.—³⁷ Even to those who oppressed him most he would avoid any thought of revenge and would say, —My Lord! Forgive my tribe because they don’t yet know the truth— and —Maybe some will come from this generation who worship God.—³⁸ Knowing this, it is easy to appreciate the significance of the verse: We have not sent you, but as a Mercy to the worlds (Anbiya 21:107). He duly received the praise of the Malak al-Jibal (angel of the mountains): —You are Benign (and) Merciful as your Lord made you known.—³⁹ In fact, God’s Messenger was not only compassionate to the Muslims: —Whoever oppresses a dhimmi (non-Muslim living in a Muslim country), I am his mortal enemy, and I will settle accounts with my enemies on Judgment Day.—⁴⁰ In similar statements, it is seen that he had been commanded to do good and show mercy and compassion to non-Muslims and, in fact, every creature —fresh (plants),— or —carrying a liver (animals).—⁴¹ He is rightfully called the Mercy to the Worlds, (Anbiya 21:107) and we say, —This is the way to follow Abraham’s path and be worthy of him.— In essence, apart from the tawhid, Abraham professed many other vital aspects of Islam. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the last prophet of the Almighty, is said to have perfected this message.

Extensiveness of Abraham’s compassion

The degree of Abraham’s mercy is evident from the Qur’an which details his argument with the angels who were sent to punish Lot’s tribe. The Qur’an does not delve into the specifics, but it is obvious that the reason for Abraham’s argument with the angels, despite the tribe being rebellious and sinful, was in fact that in his heart he did not want them to be annihilated. When Abraham saw that the guests did not reach for the food he had offered them, he became afraid. Even after the angels had introduced themselves and said that they had been sent down to punish Lot’s tribe and, moreover, to give him the good news about his child, he continues arguing with them by saying, —Lot is there, too.— When fear had passed from (the mind of) Abraham and the glad tidings had reached him, he began to plead with Us for Lot’s people (Hud 11:74). It is indicated in the next verse that the angels understood that Abraham was without doubt, forbearing (of faults), compassionate, and that he had objected to them for these very reasons. After this had transpired, the angels adopted a sharper tone and said, —Well do we know who is there,— and they indicated that they would save Lot’s family except his wife. (Ankabut 29:32). In spite of this, Abraham, whose feelings of compassion had by then reached a crescendo, must have continued the argument because the angels concluded the matter by saying, —O Abraham! Seek not this. The decree of your Lord has gone forth: for them there comes a penalty— (Hud 11:76).

Concern for the welfare of the Abrahamic lineage

The Qur’an mentions Abraham’s concern over his family’s welfare in several verses. In response to this genuine interest, God bestowed the Abrahamic dynasty with a blessing and providence that no other dynasty has received so far. A clear example to illustrate this fact is a part of the Muslims’ prayer which asks for mercy from God for Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his family at each of the five daily ritual prayers. Included in this is also recourse to God’s mercy toward Abraham and his family: O Lord! Have mercy on Muhammad and his family just as you show mercy to Abraham and his family! What an honor and unbounded exaltation it is for Abraham and his dynasty for this plea to receive an allotted space in the ritual prayer, which is the greatest act of worship for Muslims. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi explains this request for mercy in the prayer by the fact that prophets have in fact descended from Abraham’s lineage: —His family are prophets; Prophet Muhammad’s family are saints. A saint cannot measure up to a prophet.—⁴² Such a chain of light formed by prophets is the direct result and blessings of Abraham’s prayer. The acceptance of this prayer in God’s presence is the direct consequence of the fact that Abraham was Khalilullah (the friend of God).⁴³ When this exalted station of friend to the Lord of the Worlds was conferred upon Abraham as a result of his service and the purity of his tawhid, at every opportunity he persistently used his special position in favor of his family and lineage. It was as a result of this that he procured until Doomsday, the station of physical and spiritual imam for the beneficial people of his lineage and, from divine mercy, the good will and affection that people feel toward them. However, it is necessary to understand that the interest that people feel toward Abraham’s descendants is not a feeling that in any way can be associated with tribalism and ethnocentrism in the sense that people understand it today. It has more to do with a feeling of grace toward human unity. Abraham’s interest and concern for his family and dynasty are a natural consequence of his immaculate planning and foresight. It is evident from the Qur’an that Abraham developed a regime for the family that reinforced God’s commands with the strict adherence to virtues. This system took into consideration the family’s geographical, socio-economic and even environmental conditions giving precedence to ritual prayer directed toward the Almighty.⁴⁴

Other Abrahamic Virtues

A few other salient virtues that demand a mention are those of unconditional submission to God’s commands⁴⁵; thankfulness for blessings⁴⁶; acts of cleanliness like the circumcision of children, washing the mouth and nose, cleaning the teeth, cutting nails, shaving private parts and under-arms, and washing the front and back private organs with water after using the toilet⁴⁷; strength in worship, intuition in religion⁴⁸; good-temperedness; acknowledgement of one’s mistakes and repentance; taking refuge in God⁴⁹; possessing a peaceful heart⁵⁰; treating one and all with respect and dignity⁵¹; being uncompromising in struggle⁵²; migrating for God’s sake⁵³; etc. As an exemplar of these attributes, Abraham had almost become a community in himself in God’s view: Abraham was indeed a [community] model, devoutly obedient to God, (and) true in faith, and he joined not gods with God (Nahl 16:120). In conclusion, it must be noted that Abraham is assigned a special place by members of the three monotheistic religions. The many human values identified with his personality are values with which all of humankind can concur, without any discordance. If these values are practiced and upheld, it will contribute to the birth of the much awaited universal peace. A re-configuration of identities in which communities of different colors, languages and cultures begin to see themselves as being connected to Abraham in one way or another is an invaluable proposition, the importance of which cannot be overestimated. Until almost the beginning of the last century, the perception of Muslims as being from —Abraham’s nation— contributed greatly to their living together in unity with members of other religions. This is also true for many Christian peoples who lived for long centuries in peace and contentment under Muslim rule. This is especially true of the ruling Ottomans, for whom this feeling was very pronounced, because the Islamic sharia offered a special place to the Ahl al-Kitab (people of the book) as it referred to the followers of Abraham, guaranteeing their property, lives and honor as well as recognizing their freedom of religion. Universal peace can be realized upon the edifice of these aforementioned arguments with the alliance of the three great world religious communities of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This can be achieved by the inculcation of an all-encompassing attitude, of perceiving ourselves as belonging to the community of Abraham. It is possible to dream of hope once again, hope for peace and happiness through the conscious understanding and practice of Abrahamic tawhid. It is therefore the duty of those who desire peace, to put into action Abraham’s messages of universal unity and brotherhood.

Footnotes

1. Baqara 2:130, 135; Al Imran 3:95; Anbiya 21:125; An’am 6:161; Hajj 22:78; Nahl 16:123.
2. All the verses regarding Abraham and their analysis can be found in Hz. brahim’in Mesajı (The message of the prophet Abraham), Canan, I., Sule Publications, Istanbul: 1998.
3. 39th article in the Mecelle-i Ahkam-¦ Adliye (Journal of Judicial Provisions), Dersaadet, Istanbul: 1322 (AD 1904), p. 27.
4. See Zukhruf 43:22-23; Baqara 2:170; Maida 5:104; A’raf 7:28; Yunus 10:78; Anbiya 21:53; Shu’ara 26:74; Luqman 31:21; Hud 11:62, 87.
5. Bukhari, Anbiya, 11; Tafsir, Baqara 2:46; Muslim, Iman, 238.
6. Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari bi-Sharh al-Bukhari, Egypt: 1959, 7, 223.
7. See Baqara 2:131.
8. Baqara 2:135; Al Imran 3:67, 95; An’am 6:161; Nahl 16: 123.
9. Hakim, Abu Abdillah an-Naysaburi, al-Mustadrak Haydarabad-Deken. 1335 (AD 1917), 2, 291.
10. Ibn Maja, Sunan, Zuhd 8, (4135, 4136 HI.); Tirmidhi, Sunan, Matbaat al-Andulus, Humus: 1966, Zuhd 42.
11. Ibn Maja, Fitan 16; Tirmidhi, Nuzur, 9; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 4, 126.
12. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, Cairo: 1313 (AD 1895) 2, 60.
13. Tirmidhi, Seerah, 46.
14. Abu Dawud, Sunan, Humus: 1969, Tib 17; Ibn Maja, Tib, 39.
15. Razi, Tafsir, 20, 135.
16. Mumtahana, 60: 4.
17. Ibn al-Asir, an-Nihaya, Cairo: 1963, 1, 451.
18. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 6, 116, 233; 5, 266.
19. Ibn Hajar, al-Matalib al-Aliya, Kuwait: 1973, 3, 30.
20. Bukhari, Imam, 29; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 1, 236.
21. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 4, 338.
22. Bukhari, Iman, 29; Nasai, Iman, 28; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 69.
23. Bukhari, Manaqib 27; Adab 80; Muslim, Fadhail, 77, 78; Abu Dawud, Adab, 4; Malik Ibn Anas, Al-Muwatta, Egypt: 1951, Husn al-Khulk 2; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 6, 85.
24. Bukhari, Iman, 29: Nasai, Iman, 28: Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 4:422; 5:350, 351.
25. See Baqara 2:125-128.
26. Bukhari, Jihad, 71; Muslim, Hajj, 458-472; Abu Dawud, Manasik, 96, Balazuri, Futuh al-Buldan, Beirut: 1958, 1, 16-17; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 58, Ibn al-Asir, Usd al-Gaba, Cairo: 1970, 6, 388. For more information on this subject see my book Cevre Ahlak (Environmental Ethics), Nesil. Istanbul: 1995, pp. 72-81.
27. Bayzawi, Anwar al-Tanzil (Tafsir), Egypt: 1955, 1, 35; Tabari, Tarih al-Muluk val-Umam, Beirut: 1967, 1, 279.
28. Ahzab 33:35; Tawba 9:112; Muminun 23:1-11; Maarij 70:22-35.
29. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir 6, 69, Beirut: 1966; Ibn Sa’d, at-Tabakat al-Kubra, Beirut: 1960, 1, 47.
30. Dhariyat 51:25-30; Hud 11:69.
31. See Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, 7, 196; Elmal¦l¦ Hamdi Yaz¦r, Hak Dini Kur’an Dili, Istanbul: 1960, 1, 491.
32. Suyuti, al-Durr al-Mansur, 3, 24.
33. This subject was mentioned previously.
34. Anbiya 21:68.
35. Maryam 19:46.
36. Waqidi, al-Maghazi, Oxford: 1966, 1,109.
37. Muslim, Birr, 87.
38. Halabi, al-Sirat al-Halabiyya, 1,357; 2,256.
39. Halabi, ibid., 1, 357. Although the revelation praising the Prophet as —Benign— and —Mercy— came much later, the Malak al-Jibal said this before his prophecy. Zurkani explains this by saying, —It is possible that the angel knew of these attributes,— and he says that there’s nothing strange about it. (Sharh al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya, Beirut: 1973, 1, 298). Note: The Malak al-Jibal said this when the Prophet was leaving Taif, where he had gone for calling people to Islam.
40. Suyuti, al-Fath al-Kabir, 3, 144.
41. Bukhari, Mazalim, 23; Muslim, Salam, 153.
42. Nursi, S., Sualar, Sozler Publications, Istanbul: 1992, p. 81.
43. Nisa 4:125.
44. I prepared and presented a paper on this subject entitled Hz. Ibrahim’de Aile Terbiyesi (Abraham’s Family Training) at a symposium related to Abraham, which was organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation and held on April 20-22, 2000 in Urfa, Turkey.
45. Baqara 2:131.
46. Nahl 16:120-121.
47. Muslim, Tahara, 56; Abu Dawud, Tahara, 29, Tirmidhi, Adab, 14; Nasai, Tahara, 1; Ibn Maja, Tahara, 8.
48. Sad 38:45-46.
49. Hud 11:75.
50. Saffat 37:84.
51. Suyuti, al-Jami al-Saghir (Fayz al-Qadir commentary) 3, 71.
52. Mumtahana 60:4.
53. Saffat 37:99.

Vegetables or plants serve as seeds for Earth, and animals are fruits of the world. A seed is a miniature tree, and its fruit is its miniature index. Whatever is manifested in a tree is manifested in the seed and the fruit. The purpose for existence and life is to receive and reflect the manifestations of the Names of the All-Majestic and Beautiful One of absolute Perfection. Divine Favoring manifests itself through the elaboration and reproduction of plants and animals, especially with their most delicate parts and individual members. This is most suitable to the eternal Wisdom.

It is narrated that Prophet Moses complained to God about the abundance of gnats attacking him and asked: ‘What is the wisdom of creating so many of them?’ God revealed that: ‘The gnat asks: ‘Why have you created human beings, who are so large? They are unaware and heedless of You. If you had made their heads of gnats, [in return for each,] You would have had tens of thousands of those praising, mentioning, and glorifying You, and displaying Your Names’ manifestations and Your art’s embroideries through their tongues and disposition.’ ‘ True! While the invisible Qur’an inscribed in the ink of stars on the sheets of the heavens shows you the signs of creation’s grandeur and splendor, the Qur’an inscribed in the ink of subatomic particles or the atoms in your eye reads the signs of Knowledge and Wisdom.

The former says: ‘Glory be to Him. How splendid are His Essential Qualities,’ while the latter says: ‘Glory be to Him. How delicate is His Wisdom, how subtle His art.’ Although both Qur’ans have the same value and significance, since observers and watchers derive no benefit from multiplying the large one, multiplying the small one is of great importance to those numberless angels and jinn, people and others who study it and reflect on it. When it is multiplied, it will not remain the same, single book; rather, it will be a book of endless variations containing different uses and meanings, one that has increased greatly in beauty and purity of expression. Furthermore, when many chapters of the small Qur’an and its copies are inserted in some of the letters of the large one, the small Qur’an excels the large one to the degree of its smallness.

Another wise purpose for creating many animals and plants is that the most perfect Divine manifestation is that God manifests Himself with all His Names focused on a single being. Art becomes most perfect when the greatest thing, with all of its embroideries, is inserted in the smallest. The seed and fruit with respect to the tree, the plant and animal with respect to Earth, humanity and the Prophet with respect to the universe, and the heart and innermost human sense or faculty with respect to humanity-these are essential, compact samples receiving and reflecting all of the Names manifested on the originals growing from them.

For example a fruit, part of the tree (which represents the whole) points to Unity-the manifestation of Divine Names on all fruits and trees. However, being a sample of the tree (containing whatever is in the tree) and the tree representing the total growing from it and resulting in it, a fruit indicates Divine Oneness-the manifestation of Divine Names as focused on the fruit.

For example, the sunlight illuminating the world in daytime is a manifestation of Unity, while the sun’s image reflected in each transparent object is an example or analogy for the manifestation of Oneness.

When you see the sun in your mirror as having taken on the mirror’s color and attributes and then see it in other mirrors, you understand and witness what Oneness or Unity means. It is the same (and only) sun manifested in all mirrors that announces: ‘We speak in different tongues, but Your Beauty is one and the same.’

Whatever exists points to that Beauty. We understand from this that the All-Wise Creator, with glorified Wisdom and delicate art, turns with His subtle Power, complete Favoring, perfect Mercy, and sensitive Wisdom from creation to Earth, and then, in succession, to living beings, humanity, and one’s heart; from humanity to its heart; and finally to the heart of creation and its seed from which the universe, as well as its illustrious fruit, the final purpose for its creation, and the embodiment of the Creator’s Love and Mercy, was created. That exalted, noblest, pure, unblemished heart is Muhammad, our master and the master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings to the number of the Tree of Creation’s fruits.

Know, O one who thinks that some creatures exist in nature overabundantly and in vain. Creation’s perfect order and balance refute this, for the order is a design interwoven by the raison d’etre of all parts, particulars or individuals, and details in creation. One cannot observe the purposes of all details of a palace, nor neglect the main purpose of why it was built. Since the main purpose is considered while building it with all its parts, the secondary purposes expected of the details are thus observed, for there are subtle purposes behind everything related with the All-Living, Self-Subsistent Owner in proportion to His Ownership and disposal, and the extent of His Names’ manifestation on that thing. The purposes related to the thing itself are also in proportion to its life and existence.

Everything has been entrusted with a goal in life, which is studied by intelligent beings. If one cannot discern it, others can. Each thing contains numerous benefits. God has uncountable hosts. None knows the hosts of your Lord but He (74:31). Innumerable beings focus their attentive gaze on all things that exist. Among them are angels glorifying and exalting God, jinn observing creation in amazement and reflecting on it, and spirit beings extolling God and proclaiming His Unity, for Whom the solidity of things does not conceal what is in them and Who can observe many things at once. Above all, the Maker of all things looks on the works of His art. Many awake and enlightened believers, as well as many animals moved by their perceptions, also look on God’s works of art.

Question: The signs in the Book of the Universe point to the existence of non-human creatures who gaze on and study them in amazement and reflection and then glorify God. Which line indicates this?

Answer: The order on the line of balance in the page of wisdom indicates it. When you enter a theater where a play is being performed, you see many marvels that amaze the audience, as well as pleasing melodies and many types of charms in which minds and imaginations take pleasure. There are also many other things that give pleasure to your innumerable faculties, feelings, and senses. Then you look at the spectators’ hall and see a few paralyzed, deaf, and blind children. You will conclude that behind the veils hanging in front of the walls are various intelligent beings with different tastes and temperaments who have come for innocent amusement and are pleased with and want to see every novelty in the play. They see you and the play from where you cannot see them.

If you understand this comparison, look at those creatures and their world. You see ‘carpets’ spread, ‘couches’ raised, ‘raiments’ worn, and ‘sheets’ unrolled. There are flowers and fresh fruits inviting living, needy beings to themselves with their color, taste and smell, and appealing to those who understand such things with their design, decoration, and art. Plants climb straight up their stalks to fulfill their duty of creation, and animals stand on their legs to do their duty of worship. Most of these creatures are not conscious of the astonishing, pure beauty and excellent faculties lodged in their creation, for they are for other creatures who can see and hear.

Despite this attractive majesty, charming adornment, kinds of favoring, things and events arousing curiosity to know and feelings of love for the One behind them; despite all undertakings, intentions and decisions, self-ornamentation, smiles, beckonings, and flirtations; and despite many similar attractions and charms that almost start to talk and tell their meanings, it appears that only two kinds of intelligent, living beings of understanding can appreciate all of this: humanity and jinn. However, most of them are heedless and are like deaf and blind children with paralyzed minds in the darkness of materialism and naturalism. This shows that apart from humanity and jinn, the universe is full of beings with spirit who reflect on existence and glorify God: The seven heavens and Earth, and whoever is in them, glorify Him; there is nothing that does glorify Him with praise but you do not understand their glorification (17:44).

* Adapted from Bediuzzaman’s Epitomes of Light (Mathnawi al-Nuriya)

A point of Divine Unity*

In His Name, be He glorified.

There is nothing but it glorifies

Him with praise.

My dear and faithful brothers and sisters! While reflecting on air during a mental journey, a subtle point related to Divine Unity suddenly became clear to me in the word He in There is no deity but He and Say: He is God. I observed that the way of belief is so easy as to be necessary, and that the way of misguidance and associating partners with God is so difficult as to be inconceivable. I shall explain this comprehensive matter briefly.

A handful of soil serves as a flowerbed for hundreds of flowers. If this process is attributed to nature or causality, each handful must contain hundreds of minute machines or factories [to produce the flowers] and an immaterial factory [to determine and govern their lives in place of the Divine Knowledge and Destiny]. Or, each particle must know how to make each flowers different characteristics and living elements. In other words, each particle would possess infinite knowledge and power, both of which are unique to God.

Each air molecule (a conductor of Divine Will and Command) in each gust, each shift of air making the sound He, must have minute centers, exchanges, receivers, and transmitters of all human means of communication so that each air molecule could perform those countless acts simultaneously. Or, each particle or molecule must control all relevant faculties (of mind, spirit, personality, etc.) of all means ofcommunication, know their users languages, and transmit them to the other particles simultaneously. Unbelievers, naturalists, and materialists ask us to believe this impossibility.

(If attributed to the Majestic Maker, however, all air particles become soldiers under His Command. Through their Creators permission and Power, their connection to and reliance on Him, and the manifestation of their Makers Power, they perform their innumerable universal duties as easily as if they were one particle with only one duty.)

Their duties are performed instantly, and with the ease of uttering He and the movement of air. And so air becomes a page for the Pen of Powers endless, wonderful, orderly inscriptions. Its particles become the Pens ribs, and the particles duties become the points inscribed by the Pen. All of this is done with the same ease as it takes to move one particle.

While observing and studying the world of air, I saw this truth clearly and in detail. I realized with a certainty based on knowledge that this is so because the actual word He and its utterance are both brilliant proofs and gleams of Divine Unity. I understood that its meaning and resonances contain a radiant manifestation of Divine Oneness and strong proof of Divine Unity. Moreover, that proof contains an indication to the identity of the One to Whom the indefinite, third-person, singular pronoun He refers. I came to know that both the Quran of Miraculous Expression and those who constantly recite the Divine Names frequently repeat this sacred word to express Divine Unity.

If several points are jumbled around one, it is almost impossible to distinguish that point. If you do several jobs simultaneously, you will be confused. If a living creature is loaded with many burdens at once, it will be crushed. If you listen to or say many words simultaneously, they become confused and muddled.

However, I saw with a certainty based on clear observation that although thousands of points,letters, and words are deposited in each air molecule ” even in each particle ” they are conveyed without confusion or irregularity. Also, the air performs its duties simultaneously and without confusion. Each air molecule or particle bears heavy burdens without lagging behind or displaying any weakness. Also, I witnessed countless words enter ears and leave mouths with perfect order.

(By carrying out all of its extraordinary duties, each particle and air molecule proclaims in the tongue of its being and functioning, in ecstasy and perfect freedom, and through its testimony: There is no deity but He and Say: He is God, the One. All of them travel among air-clashing waves like lightning and thunderstorms in perfect order and harmony.)

Given this, can we assert seriously that each particle or air molecule necessarily has infinite wisdom, knowledge, will, power, and all qualities needed to dominate all other particles so that it can perform those functions? Or, from a position of certainty based on knowledge, clear observation, and personal experience, can we assert logically that air functions here as a changing page for the Pen of Power and Destiny, used by the All-Majestic One with infinite knowledge and wisdom, and as a signboard (the Tablet of Abrogation and Confirmation) reflecting a changeable copy of the Divine decrees preserved on the Supreme Preserved Tablet?

Air shows the above-mentioned wonders and manifestation of Divine Oneness by transmitting sound, and shows the impossibility of what the misguided assert. In the same way, it performs other duties (e.g., transmitting such subtle forces as electricity and light, attraction and repulsion) while simultaneously transmitting sound. It also carries out duties essential for plant and animal life (e.g., respiration and pollination) with perfect order and without confusion.

Air is a very important means of conveying the Divine Will and Command. It performs its duties without any real or imagined interference from random chance, blind force, deaf nature, confused and aimless causality, or powerless, lifeless, and unknowing matter. I also understood that each particle and air molecule proclaims in the tongue of its being and functioning: There is no deity but God and Say: He is God, the One. Just as I witnessed these wonders in the physical aspect of air with the key of He, so air itself became a key, like He, to the World of Symbols or Ideas and the World of Meaning.

Peace be upon everybody!

* Adapted from Bediuzzamans Thirteenth Word.