A perhaps surprising little excursion by Daniel Gullotta today but, as always, fascinating both from the point of view of the content and also being able to read these ideas through the eyes of a young theology student who is self-evidently enthusiastic about things religious and spiritual. Enjoy this excursion having a look at the Islamic perspective on God.

The Essence of the Qur'an...

In the name of the merciful and compassionate God.
1 Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds,
2 he the merciful, the compassionate,
3 he, the ruler of the Day of Judgment!
4 Thee we serve and Thee we ask for aid.
5 Guide us in the right path,
6 the path of those Thou art gracious to;
7 not of those Thou art wroth with; nor of those who err.
Qur'an – Surah 1:1-7

While memorization of this holy book is expected, no passage is better known to the faithful Muslim then the opening seven verses. Muslims around the globe refer to them as 'the Essence of the Book', that book being the Qur'an.[1] The Qur'an is the verbatim revelation of the Word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is important to understand that unlike the Jewish and Christian scriptures, or those of any other religion, the text of the Qur'an is not the 'divine reflection' of human minds, nor the result of periods of interruption and editing, but is understood by the faithful Muslim as the actual word-for-word revelation of Allah.

The complete Surah Al-Ekhlas written in Thuluth Script means: 1- Say (O Muhammad (peace be upon him)) "He is Allah, (the) One. 2- "Allah-us-Samad (allah The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, (He neither eats nor drinks). 3- "He begets not, nor was He begotten. 4- "And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him." From calligrapher.deviantart.com

The Qur'an is the centre of Islamic life, the source of all of Islamic doctrine, ethics, sacred history and prayer and the embodiment of all that is Islam.[2] Frithjof Schuon describes the Qur'an as being "like the world, at the same time one and multiple. The world is multiplicity which disperses and divides; the Qur'an is a multiplicity which draws together draws to Unity. The multiplicity of the holy Book – the diversity of its words, sentences, pictures and stories – fills the soul and thus absorbs it, and imperceptibly transposes it into the climate of serenity and immutability by a sort of divine 'cunning' … The Qur'an is like a picture of everything the human brain can think and feel, and it is by this means that God exhausts human disquiet, infusing into the believer silence, serenity and peace."[3]

Allah Who?

If one were to ask a Muslim "who is this Allah of which you speak" it would be these verses that laid down the foundation of their explanation. Of the 'Ninety-Nine Most Beautiful Names of God', the two by far most commonly invoked are "gracious or compassionate" and "merciful". All but one of the Qur'an's 114 surahs begins with the phrase, "In the name of the Merciful and Compassionate God". [4] It is interesting to note that compassion and mercy receive the most use within Islam in describing Allah, and also receives an empathic second mention in the opening verses. In addition to this, the very being of God is revealed. God rules the "two worlds", denoting the seen and unseen, the physical and the spiritual, the natural and the supernatural. Nothing is out of God's dominion nor his rulership. He is also the One, who takes account at the Judgement.[5] He offers his aid and his grace to those who ask, and grows angry and wrathful to those who show arrogant independence from the origin of all things.[6]

At the centre of the prayer, the Muslim asks for guidance on the Straight Path, a path marked as the way of divine graciousness.

It seems that this passage is the skeleton of the Qur'an's grand design. Opening a page at random, one will come across texts about Allah's kinship within the universe, his lordship over mankind, his control over all things and his power within creation. Or one might set their eyes on passages of an eschatological nature, speaking of Allah as judge on "The Last Day", detailing the afterlife of the good and just as well as the wicked and evil. Other texts speak of his love, mercy and compassion, describing them with various metaphors and symbols. Yet the Qur'an is the tool of the Straight Path, and to set one's eyes on its text is to invoke the mercy or wrath of Allah, the path he or she wishes to follow, being the straight or the twisted.[7]

The Centre of the Book...

It is in and around these verses the whole of the Qur'an comes to life in the heart, mind, body, sound and very being of the Muslim.

While found at the beginning of the Qur'an, it best understood not as the beginning verses, nor as selected opening to the Qur'an but rather as the centre of it. It is in and around these verses the whole of the Qur'an comes to life in the heart, mind, body, sound and very being of the Muslim. The text above comes from the Qur'an's first surah and it is the only surah to contain an act of prayer of worship and around these verses the Muslim is expected to construct the framework of their spiritual life. Every action should begin "in the Name of God most Merciful, Most Compassionate", and end every action with "praise be to God". It is in these verses that the straight path can be found.[8]

The children of Abraham...

I have always been fond of the Judeo-Christian faith, seeing the similarities between the two, however when it comes to Islam, I have always been hesitant, for reasons unknown. I have always seen our religions are opposite sides of the spectrum, sharing only perhaps our belief in monotheism. In studying Islam and the Qur'an, particularly the text above, it has been surprising for me to discover how much our images of God bear great likeness to each other. All Jews and Christians would almost instinctually describe their god as loving, forgiving, patient and powerful, as well as thirsty for justice, righteous, mercy and equality. Interesting enough, the same goes for Muslims. In studying this passage, I think I have missed for many years why exactly Judaism, Christianity and Islam are called, "the Abrahamic Faiths".

It is not always simply a case of 'us' and 'them', but rather, there are indeed times, numerous times, where we can say 'we'.

We confess, believe and declare there is only one true god. We share a prophetic tradition of men, sometimes even women, who receive a vocation by God to be his voice in the world. Our faith was not formed by philosophical speculation or ethical reflection but rather by divine revelation. All our origins are Semitic and much of Semitic culture, language, theology and practice is tied up in our religion's ethos. We share stories of figures in our holy texts about Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses. We share a belief in the after life. We share a common goal in ethics and morality. We share a linear concept of history, beginning with Creation and ending with the Eschaton as well as the conviction that God works through history. We are all called "the children of Abraham".

FOOTNOTES:
[1] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Spirituality: Foundations (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Co., 1987), 3.
[2] Ibid., 6.
[3] Frithjof Schuon, Understanding Islam (London: World Wisdom, 1998), 50.
[4] John Renard, Understanding the Islamic Experience (New Jersey: The Paulist Press, 1992), 19-20.
[5] Andrew Rippin, The Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 228.
[6] Renard, Understanding the Islamic Experience, 20.
[7] Maulana Muhammad Ali, The Religion of Islam (Ohio: Book Crafters, 1951), 35-36.
[8] Nasr, Islamic Spirituality, 4.

IMAGE CREDITS:
The Qur'an image title used in the headline graphic was sourced from an audio version of the Qur'an gateofknowledge.googlepages.com. Clicking on the other images will take you to the original source.

©2009 Daniel Gullotta

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