Download Nature and Love

Nature and Love
I am not here on earth for conflict,
Love is the mission of my life.
Yunus Emre
The best way to know God is to love many things.
Van Gogh
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
Materialistic View of nature
Islam’s View of Nature
Love of God
Approaches of Some Islamic Scholars
Qur’an and Nature (Reflection on that)
Conclusion
Materialistic View of Nature
• Nature is a machine, has no value and expresses no sense of
purpose.
• Nature is a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colorless: merely
the hurrying of matter, endlessly, meaninglessly.
• A tree, for example, gains most of its obvious value through
human intervention. So that it’s potential to become a chair, a
table or other piece of furniture is its principal source of value.
• The only value that nature can have is instrumental value.
• Scientific things have no cultural and spiritual value. (In the
traditional formulation of scientific laws ,they are designed to be
free of cultural bias or spiritual import.)
The Islamic View of Nature /cont.
Qur’an sees the natural world as a realm of
“signs” (ayah pl. ayat) , a locus of
significant:
– disclosing a divine glory
– requiring an attention at once deep and
intimate.
• The purpose of the Qur’an, is “to
awaken in man the higher
consciousness of his manifold
relations with God and universe”.
(M. Iqbal)
The Islamic View of Nature /cont.2
• Any attentive readers of the Qur’an will
be arrested by phenomena that are a
manifestation of Lord.
• Muslim responded to the invitation of
the Qur’an and see everything as a sign
of Divine.
“there is not a thing
but celebrates His praise”.
(Qur'an 17:44)
Everything celebrates His praise…..
The seven heavens and the earth,
and all beings therein,
declare His glory;
there is not a thing but celebrates His praise;
and yet you understand not
how they declare His glory!
Everything celebrates His praise..
the best way to know God
• The best way to know God is to love many things.
• Whosoever loves much performs much, and can
accomplish much, and what is done in love is well
done.
• One must always try to know deeper, better and
more.
• That leads to God—that leads to unwavering faith.
Van Gogh
“Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives”.
The Qur’anic Bases
"We are nearer to him than his/her jugular vein."
(Qur'an 50:16)
"To God belongs the East and the West: wherever
you turn, there is the Face of God.“
(Qur'an 2:115)
I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to be known;
therefore I created the creation in order that I
might be known."
Hadith Qudsi
Islam on Environment
Rumi ( 1207-1271)
Yunus Emre (d.1321)
Said Nursi (1877-1960)
Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273)
• He is the greatest mystical poet of Islam.
• Attracted spiritual seekers from almost every religion in
the world
• Even in his day, Rumi was sought out by merchants and
kings, devout worshippers and rebellious seekers, famous
scholars and common peasants, men and women.
• At his funeral, Muslims, Christians, Jews from Arabs,
Persians, Turks and Romans honored him.
• Listen to his call for seekers of truth:
Rumi: The Poet of Love..
Come, come, whoever
you are.
Wanderer, worshipper,
lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan
of despair.
Come, even if you
have broken your
vow a hundred
times.
Come, yet again,
come, come.
God and Creation
In Rumi’s understanding, everything is alive.
God creates everything with a specific order,
duty, purpose, and meaning.
There is nothing like lifeless matter in his system.
A tree opening its hand in prayer just
like as a believer
A Muslim Praying
Yunus Emre
• He was a thirteenth century dervish from Anatolia.
• He played an outstanding role in Turkish culture, literature and
philosophy.
• Some writers regard him as the most important poet in Turkish
history; his poetry, language and philosophy shaped Turkish
culture and still do so.
• He believed that every particle in the world, animate and
inanimate was manifesting the beauty and greatness of God.
Love and creation
O man of love, open your eyes; look
at the face of earth.
See how these lovely flowers,
bedecking themselves, came [and
then] passed on.
Every flower, with thousand
coquettish air, praise God with
supplications.
These birds with pleasant voices
recite litanies of the King.
Yunus joins to the universal prayer of
creation to God
With the mountains and
rocks
I call you out, my God;
With the birds as day breaks
I call you out, my God.
With Jesus in the sky,
Moses on Mount Sinai,
Raising my scepter high,
I call you out, my God.
Universal Love
– He believed that every
particle in the world, animate
and inanimate was
manifesting the beauty and
greatness of God.
– Come here, let's make peace,
let's not be strangers to one
another.
“We love all creatures for
the sake of their Creator”!
Let us all be friends
Come, let us all be
friends for once,
Let us make life easy on
us,
Let us be lovers and
loved ones,
The earth shall be left to
no one.
Said Nursi
• Said Nursi was born in 1877 in eastern Turkey
and died in 1960.
• Nursi was a religious scholar of the highest
standing.
• He devoted his life to the revival of the traditional
Islamic understanding of universe and its moral
implications.
• In his emphasis on the spiritual aspects of Islam,
Nursi is regarded as a modern representative of
the Islamic Sufi legacy.
Said Nursi
• He had close ties with all the creatures
around him and called them as “my
brethren”.
• He would give the cats and pigeons
that came to him part of his own food.
• He rebuked one of his students who
killed a lizard, saying, "Did you create
it?"
• While in prison, he was most upset
when the flies were killed by spraying,
and wrote a short piece called The
Treatise on Flies.
• When going for excursions in the
countryside, Nursi would study ‘the
Great Book of the Universe’, and urge
his disciples to read it.
the mighty Qur'an of the universe
• “everything, from the heavens to the earth, from the
stars to flies, from angels to fishes, and from planets
to particles, prostrates, worships, praises and
glorifies Almighty God.
• Their worship varies according to their capacities and
the Divine Names that they manifest; it is all
different."
• There is no contradiction between the teachings of
the Qur’an and the book of nature.
Qur’an and Nature
• In the creation of the heavens and the earth,
• in the alternation of night and day,
• in the ships sailing through the ocean for the benefit
of mankind,
• in the water which God sends down from the sky and
with which He revives the earth after its death,
• dispersing over it all kinds of beasts,
• in the ordinance of the winds and clouds subjugated
between the earth and sky:
• [There] are signs for people who reason. (2:164)
order and balance in the universe
• There is an order and balance in the universe
which is created by God.
• no wastefulness, futility, and absence of benefits
in the nature of things.
• The Qur’an also says: “Eat and drink, but waste
not in excess." (7:31).
• So, the humanity should take lessons from ecosystems and lead a wise and frugal life.
Cat's Eye Nebula
taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope
If the ocean were ink..
The Qur’an says:
“If the ocean were ink for the words of
my Lord, assuredly the ocean would
be used up before the words of my
Lord were finished,
even if We brought another (ocean)
like it, for its aid.” (18:109)
Conclusion
• God has created this world and
entrusted it to human beings alone,
• They are not the owners and masters
of the natural environment.
• They are only trustees, stewardships
on earth.