Experiential Beauty
Blue Ridge Mountains (Photo by Justice Ajogbor)
In Islam, there is an intrinsic relationship between the spiritual world and the physical creation of God. In John Renard seven doors to islam reading for week 3, he quotes Dust Muhammad ” If a form is not worthy of astonishment, it is not worth the touch of the brush” (Renard, pp 268). God shows himself to us through his creation. My creative piece for this blog is a picture that i took over spring break of a section of the Blue Ridge Mountain range. Standing there and looking at the collection of mountains it looked like a painting to me. Indeed it was a form worthy of the God’s brush. This creative piece also drew me back to the idea of how Gods creation worships God through their beauty and the ability of nature to draw humans closer to the Devine. There is also the natural sounds from being in nature that is in it own form an Adhan (call to prayer). The unity between the physical and spiritual world goes back to a theme in class about how we can see gods beauty by looking at God’s creation. The Quran was given to Prophet Mohammad in the form of recitation, and the codification of the text did not happen for a long time after. So in this sense, poetry is a language of God, and the Adhan shows how Muslims view this. The lecture reading for this week talked about how recitation changes the experience of the Quran in traditionally Islamic countries from the West. The Adhan especially becomes a representation of Islamic identity, when you hear it, it immediately signals that there is a mosque near by. The ecstasy we experience from witnessing God’s beauty through our environment and sound becomes a way of creating a spiritual experience for all Muslims.