Islam as a Path to be Walked
by David R. Coolidge
In the Name of God, The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer
“Qur’anic Naturalism: Personal Theology Part 2”
In my first exposition of my personal theology, I spoke about how experiencing the Qur’an is the closest thing I know to the Creator of the Universe talking to me directly. But it is important to qualify that with the recognition that I felt the Universe talking to me before I had ever read the Qur’an. Starting when I was about 10 years old, I spent almost every summer in Vermont at a camp that specialized in canoeing and hiking trips. By the time I was 17, I had reached a level where I did a 5 week trip in the wilderness of Quebec with a Cree Indian guide. Traveling around the woods of Quebec, Vermont, upstate New York and Maine was truly a spiritual experience for me. But I didn’t have the words to express it…until the Qur’an.
In the summer between freshman and sophomore year in college, I returned to the camp as part of the staff. Myself and another guy led 2 trips for 14-16 year old boys, one in upstate NY and the other in Quebec. I brought my translation of the Qur’an with me on those trips, tightly double wrapped in plastic bags to avoid getting wet (see first comment). The Qur’an explained to me what was going on in the natural world, and still does. Take this passage for example:
“O humanity! If you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then ˹know that˺ We did create you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then ˹developed you into˺ a clinging clot ˹of blood˺, then a lump of flesh—fully formed or unformed—in order to demonstrate ˹Our power˺ to you. ˹Then˺ We settle whatever ˹embryo˺ We will in the womb for an appointed term, then bring you forth as infants, so that you may reach your prime. Some of you ˹may˺ die ˹young˺, while others are left to reach the most feeble stage of life so that they may know nothing after having known much. And you see the earth lifeless, but as soon as We send down rain upon it, it begins to stir ˹to life˺ and swell, producing every type of pleasant plant.” [22.5, Khattab trans.]
The Qur’an does not just declare that the resurrection of the body is orthodoxy, it shows it. It says, “Hey you, you were once a drop of sperm, and now look at you, all growns up and reading My words. I HAVE ALREADY SHOWN YOU HOW YOU COME FROM NOTHINGNESS INTO SOMETHINGNESS!!! Therefore it is completely rational that it can happen again.” It tells us to look out into the natural world and see how birth/growth/decay/death/rebirth is all around us, and so the “metaphysical” claim of resurrection is actually rooted in naturalistic analysis. When I was young, Bruce Willis was the epitome of American manhood, especially in the Die Hard movies. But he was once just a baby, and now he is man who cannot speak and is unaware of much of what is going on. But that is okay, because one day Bruce Willis will again be given the ability to speak, because speaking, hearing, thinking, etc. are nothing but gifts from the All-Hearing, All-Seeing, All-Knowing. May he experience Divine Mercy on that Day, āmīn.
“Did man not see that We have created him from a drop of semen? Then suddenly he stood as an open adversary (to Us). He has set up an argument about Us and forgot his creation. He said, ‘Who will give life to the bones when they are decayed?’ Say, ‘These will be revived by the same One who had created them for the first time, and who is fully aware of every creation, the One who created for you fire from the green tree, and in no time you kindle from it.’ Is it that the One who has created the heavens and the earth has no power to create ones like them? Why not? He is the Supreme Creator, the All- Knowing.” [36.77-81, Usmani trans.]
In addition, it draws attention to our appreciation of the beauty of the natural world in its seemingly infinite variety, or what Richard Dawkins calls “The Greatest Show on Earth”:
“To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and Allah has power over all things. Indeed in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for those who possess intellects. Those who remember Allah standing, sitting, and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth [and say], ‘Our Lord, You have not created this in vain! Immaculate are You! Save us from the punishment of the Fire!” [3.189-191]
“Do you not see that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth, as well as the sun and the moon, and the stars and the mountains, and the trees and the beasts and many human beings all submit to God? But there are many who have become deserving of punishment. Whoever God disgraces, will have no one to honour him. Surely, God does what He wills” [22.18, Wahiddudin Khan trans.]
I vividly remember reading the Qur’an in the middle of nowhere Quebec, next to a lake with a line of pine trees on the other side, and the stars over head. I felt like the Author of the Arabic text and the visual symphony that I was witnessing were One.
To this day, that is when I feel my faith at the deepest level. Yes, I love making ṭawāf around the Kaʿba and visiting the Awliyāʾ Allāh where they are buried, at the head of whom is the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و آل وسلم in Madinah, but there is a connection that I have with the natural world, particularly the temperate forests of the Northern Hemisphere, which is so deep that there is nothing quite like it. Except my relationship with the Qur’an.
That is why my first book, which is meant to introduce Islam from my vantage point (see second comment), does not have an “Islamic” picture on it, but just a pine tree in the mist on the side of a hill. I worship the Lord of that tree, because that tree has beautifully surrendered to its Lord, as I try to do every day.
One of my favorite poems, which my grandmother wrote out by hand in calligraphy, is the following one by Joyce Kilmer:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
“The Beautiful Surrender” is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Surrender…/dp/1720792763
