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Chapter 1

The Wider Picture: Creation from a Muslim Perspective

Chapter Summary

God is one – creator – sustainer – creation is in harmony through obeying God's will – the natural God-given way of life – freewill – we are the servants of God and the stewards of creation – guidance – accountability – revelation sent in Books and in creation – a chain of Prophets from Adam onward – all guidance essentially the same – Qur'an is the criterion – role of Prophets – a code by which to live – a sense of the closeness of God – the practices of Islam

Muslim faith and Muslim theology begins with God. The fundamental Islamic understanding is that God is one and unlike any created thing or being (Q. 112:1–4). God "pre-exists" creation and exists outside of time. God does not need anything else but chose to create by a free act of the will. God cannot be divided up into parts. Islam holds to a very strict monotheism. The Arabic word for God is Allah, and this word is used by Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians as well as by Muslims worldwide. In Arabic, Allah simply means: "The one and only God."

God is perfect and a perfect being cannot create imperfection; therefore the whole of creation was created in a state of perfection. God is the sustainer of the whole universe (Q. 11:6). God did not create the word and then cease to be involved. Without the sustaining presence and interest of God, the whole of creation would cease to be. Nothing can exist without being in some kind of relationship with the creator (Q. 2:255).

As in Jewish and Christian Scripture, the Qur'an speaks of Adam and Eve as the first two human beings and tells of their error in that led to them being cast out from Paradise. In the Qur'an, Adam and Eve repent and are reconciled with God. Christians maintain that the Fall shattered the perfection of creation in a way that could not be fully repaired. From the Muslim perspective, God's absolute power means God can restore creation to its original state of perfection. When Adam and Eve repented and sought God's mercy, they were forgiven and returned to a state of harmony with God (Q. 2:30-39).

This idea of fundamental harmony with God and within the creation is contained in the word islam. Arabic and other Semitic languages are built on three-letter roots. Words are made by adding to these three letters. Every word built on the same root is part of a family and shares a set of common meanings. From the Arabic root S L M, we can make three words all belonging to the same family: islam, muslim, and salam. The word islam means the state of perfect harmony that exists between God and the whole of creation. It also contains the idea of submission, because absolute peace can come about only when creatures submit to the will of God. The word muslim describes something in the state of islam. God created everything muslim, including planets and stars, mountains and rivers, trees and flowers, birds and fish. Every human being is created muslim and we are most completely at peace when we submit to the will of God in all things (Q. 57:1, 64:1).

The primary difference between human beings and the rest of creation is that we have received the revelation from God in the form of Books of guidance. We have been called to live an ethical life following the revealed will of God. Two important Islamic concepts describe the human role in creation. The first term— 'abd — means both slave and loving servant of God. The servant is the one who obeys the master's will and lives it in practice. The second concept— khalifa — says that humans are God's regents on earth (Q. 2:30). A regent is given power and authority in the absence of a ruler. The Qur'an tells us that God created human beings for the sole purpose of worshiping God (Q. 51:56). Even though God created a good world, it needs to be tended to develop its full potential. For Muslims, humans have a very dynamic role in creation.

God will hold human beings accountable for the way they discharge their duty as regents (Q. 2:48, 6:21-31, 22:17, 99:7-8). Sending a servant without guidance and then holding that person accountable would be unjust. So God sends guidance to the earth in various forms of revelation. In an Islamic understanding, God sends guidance in two forms: in Books (or Scriptures), and in the form of the creation itself. Both the revealed Books and the created order have their origins in a single source: God. Ultimately Books and creation must agree; so in Islam there is no tension between religion and science. If it appears that science and religion disagree, we either are not understanding our Books properly or have more scientific work to do to understand creation better. Reason then is a gift from God, provided for understanding the world around us "in which there are signs from God" (Q. 6:98-99,105).

God is the source of all revelation and without it we would not be able to know and obey God's will. Adam was the first human being to receive revelation from God, thus becoming the first Prophet of the islamic way of life. But guidance is needed by every human being, so God sends a revelation to every people on earth (Q. 25:51, 35:24). Every revelation explains how to live and is in essence the same (Q. 6:92, 17:107-109). The Qur'an serves as the criterion by which all earlier revelations and prophets are judged (Q. 25:11, 86:13). Whatever disagrees with the Qur'an and is contrary to the example of Muhammad is not from God.

Of the twenty-five Prophets named in the Qur'an, twenty-one are biblical figures. A Muslim is required to believe that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, among others, were Prophets sent by God to teach essentially the same message as Muhammad and the Qur'an. Islam never sees itself as a new religion revealed to Muhammad in the Qur'an in the seventh century C.E.. Islam is part of the ongoing revelation from God and goes back to Adam and Eve. In Islamic usage, Prophets have three functions: to receive revelation from God and articulate it in their own society; perfectly to exemplify that revelation in their own lives and teachings; to lead a community of people to live according to that message. Muhammad was the perfect example of these three functions, and his life and teachings are the primary source for living a Muslim way of life. This way of life, based on the Qur'an and the Hadith, gradually was drawn up into the Shari'a, the complete Islamic code for living according to God's guidance.

Every human being is called to be the regent of God, and each must answer directly to God for the way in which they have fulfilled their duty (Q. 6.94). This profound sense of the presence of God is summed up in the Islamic term taqwa, often translated as "God-consciousness." The principal practices, or "pillars," of Islam lead Muslims into a deeper sense of taqwa because they deal with every element of life. The first of these pillars is shahada — the principal statement of belief in Islam—which reads: "I bear witness that there is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God." The second pillar is salat, or formal, liturgical prayer. Zakat is the third pillar and is the basis of Islamic social and economic systems. The fourth pillar sawm, fasting during the month of Ramadan. The final pillar of Islam is the hajj, or annual pilgrimage to Makka.

Key Names, Terms, and Concepts

Questions for Discussion and Reflection

  1. What is the root concept of the word "Islam"?
  2. How does the author describe the idea of "fundamental harmony with God"?
  3. How might Christians and Muslims differ on how they describe "monotheism"?
  4. Name and describe briefly the three functions of a prophet in Islam.
  5. It can be challenging to engage a theological system different from your own. What commitments and perspectives do you bring to this study of Islam?
  6. Islam asserts that every human being lives as a "regent of God on earth." What implications might this view have for how Muslims engage the world?

For Further Reading

Books

Web sites

Websites with related visuals

Allah (Arabic script): http://www.seekersdigest.org/wp-content/images/Allah.jpg