Ar-Rahman, the All Merciful.

From: ON FAITH, Newsweek.

By: Pamela K. Taylor.

Pamela is a co-founder, Muslims for Progressive Values and director of the Islamic Writers Alliance. She is a member of the national board of advisors to the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and served as co-chair of the Progressive Muslim Union for two years. Taylor is a strong supporter of the woman imam movement, which seeks the full participation of Muslim women in every aspect of life, including the pulpit.

Ar-Rahman, the All Merciful

One of my favorite selections from the Qur'an is the chapter called Ar-Rahman, which can be translated as the all-Merciful, the All-Compassionate, the Beneficient. Rahman conveys a sense of overarching love and kindness, of God's attachment and the mercy implicit in the beauty of creation.

It opens with the following words: "The All-Compassionate! He taught the Qur'an. He created mankind and taught him to communicate. The sun and the moon follow their calculated courses. The plants and the trees bow down to His plan. He raised up the sky. And set forth the balance so that you may not exceed due balance, so weigh with justice, and do not fall short in the balance. He spread out the earth for His creatures. It it are fruits and palm trees with sheathed clusters and husked grains and fragrant herbs. Which, then, of your Lord's blessings would you deny?"

This refrain -- which, then, of your lord's blessing would you deny -- is repeated throughout the chapter, after describing the treasures that come from the ocean, and the dangers of sailing upon her, the delights of heaven, and the fearfulness of the end of the world.
For me the chapter sums up many central issues in Islam. God's Mercy and love for mankind is paramount, as it in throughout the Qur'an, expressed through natural beauty, through the beauty of the words, and through human goodness and balance. The chapter not only expresses this beauty and the compassion of God, but uses it to provoke the reader into thoughtfulness -- again a technique that abounds in the Qur'an. We are not simply to receive the delights of life and the natural world and accept them, but should ponder the blessings we daily receive, and whether we are grateful in our lives -- a gratitude expressed not only in prayer, but also through serving others and living a life of righteousness and balance.

This sense of God's mercy expressed through creation, and the sparking of reflection and gratitude as a result, resonates deeply with me. When I look around at the natural world, I see God's love and goodness as though it were written on a piece of paper. And that goodness and beauty inspires me to love God, and to spread goodness and beauty where I can.
Another issue that the chapter highlights is the fundamental unity of all creation. The descriptions of the world and the connections between its various parts, as well as the melding of the spiritual with the worldly, leave a strong impression of unity, both of the created world as a whole, and of the spiritual and the mundane. Humans do not exist in a vacuum, but in a continuum with other races, other species, with rocks and plants, and the oceans, and the heavens. We all stand, quite literally, in the same place vis a vis our Creator.

Similarly, faith is not only about belief, but also about the good actions that one's faith inspires. As one saying of the Prophet goes, "Faith without deeds is hypocritical, deeds without faith are empty." The two are melded, seamlessly, as in this chapter.

The injunctions to balance preclude extremism, as well as injustice in the name of greed, miserliness, or lust for power. It reminds us of our place in the greater world, and the importance of living life according to fundamental principles of moderation in all things. This too is another hallmark of Islam that appeals to me -- that there is a balance in all things, including formal prayer and other religious rituals. There is a time for this and a time for that. We should neither be totally consumed with one single aim, nor so unattached that we have no aims at all.

The final aspect that I really like about this chapter is the simple beauty of the language -- the rhyme, the rhythm, the facile way in which the refrain, "which, then, of the blessings of your Lord would you deny" can be understood as both a provocation to thankfulness and a warning against ingratitude, shadings of the meaning varying from line to line. Scripture, it seems to me, ought to reflect the beauty of God's love and grace as much as nature. For me, the use of language in Surah-ArRahman certainly does.