-->

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

13. Al-Musawwir, The Bestower of Forms

I tried to use people who are such public figures that they wouldn't mind the use of their images.
Al-Musawwir, the Bestower of forms (and some say colors), the Shaper.  When I thought about this name, the image that first came to my mind was diatoms, the miniscule organisms whose skeletons make the diatomaceous earth that is white dust in swimming pool filters:
Picture courtesy of Wikicommons
Don't they look like buttons or beads?  I love the amazing variety.  God is an awesome designer.

The connotations of the root of this word:  s - w - r  ض و ر according to the Wahiduddin Web are

to make something incline, lean or bend towards
to form, fashion, sculpt, imagine or picture something
to have an inclination or desire towards something
This is supposed to be the most specific of the three names that have to do with God as creator, and as I thought about that I found myself thinking  particularly about the way God has made each and every person unique.  Of course, this applies not just to our bodies but also to our hearts and minds and spirits. And of course, Allah has shaped many many things other than people.  Lots of things to celebrate.

Al-Musawwir

Al-Musawwir
You give the shape to everything that's shaped
And everything is shaped
Al-Musawwir.

Every little snowflake that drifts from the sky
Has a form and fashion that you did supply.

Every person's body and each person's face,
Bears a special signature that You stamped in place.

The path of every river that flows
The shape of every flower that grows
Fancy guppy tails and the swirling shells of snails
The track of every planet spinning out in space
Each bump and every wrinkle on each rhino's face
Are crafted by the Great Engineer
Al-Musawwir


Saturday, August 27, 2011

12. Al-Baari, The Shaper

Using colors that are meant to be reminiscent of clay.

This name is found once in the Qur'an (59:24), which is a list of names, and there I find it variously translated as the Evolver, the Shaper out of naught, the Inventor of all things, the Maker, the Originator, The Initiator.
One website tells me that the difference between three of the names that talk about Allah as creator is as follows.
Some scholars differentiated between al-Khaaliq (the Creator), al-Baari’ (the Maker) and al-Musawwir (the Bestower of forms) as follows:
Al-Khaaliq (the Creator) is the One Who created from nothing all creatures that exist, according to their decreed qualities.
Al-Baari’ is the One Who made man from al-baraa, i.e., clay.
Al-Musawwir is the One Who creates various forms and shapes.

But Haj Ali Dirani says that some say it is this name which refers to bringing things into existence from nothing.   Others say it is creation without a model (thus I presume, "the Inventor" and "the Originator").
Apparently the root can also mean cutting or separating something as in cutting a twig, or a woman separating from her husband, or a business partnership being severed.  Finally, it can mean to cure.  Some of the prayers addressed to Al-Baari are clearly based on this last meaning.meaning.

So where do I go to think about this name, with all these bits and pieces of insight, some of which contradict each other?  I ended up writing a poem.  My apologies to any Muslim readers, but for me to pray this one with integrity, I need to be more explicit about Jesus than I usually am in these posts.

Al-Baari

Lord, you spoke the universe into being from nothing.
One step at a time, but stuff out of no-stuff and your word.

Lord, you drew Adam into being, bringing mankind
out of mud.

Lord, you drew me into being
From a tiny speck within my mother's womb
To a squalling baby in my mother's arms.

Lord, you still draw me into being
From nothing to something
From dark to light

Through the curtain of Christ's death
You draw me into the inheritance of the saints in light.

Lord, You are the one who keeps drawing forth
Who keeps shaping something out of nothing.


Monday, August 15, 2011

11. Al-Khaliq


The background for this image was found on this website as a free download.  I am grateful.

This nasheed is attributed on Youtube in different places to both David Wharnsby Ali and Yusuf Israel.  It's popular in a version sung by children, but I don't like that as much, so I'll share this one.  I'm not sure who wrote it originally, but I am sure this is David Wharnsby Ali singing it. Not embedded because they disabled that option.

"So God is the Creator.  Big deal, I already knew that, tell me something I didn't know." I'll admit that this has been my attitude some of the time.    Muslims teach it to their children in songs like the one above. We teach it to little children in Sunday School.  It makes an easy lesson. We hear it so much and say it so much that I think we sometimes lose track of how awesome this is.  That is, when we aren't getting sidetracked into fruitless arguments about exactly what God's creation process looked like, fighting for or against a literal interpretation of Genesis 1.  I believe Genesis 1 contains a true picture of creation.  I am not at all convinced that it is meant to be a detailed scientific description of how the world was created.  God certainly has the power to have created the world in anyway he chose, and taking any amount of time that he chose.  But I do not think that a belief that the book of Genesis is inspired by God requires us to come to conclusions about this.  

Before I was a Christian, I didn't much care who or what, if anything, created the world.  It didn't happen one of the questions that captured my imagination.  When I became a Christian, it was part of the package. "I believe in God, the Father, maker of heaven and earth and of all things seen and unseen..."

But I think perhaps we get a glimpse of the power of this aspect of God's nature when we see it play out in a situation where the people were not monotheists.  When Jonah was running from God, he told the people that he was running away from YHWH.  When a storm arises, they woke him up to come and pray. (I think their reasoning was that they should call on as many gods as possible--perhaps one of them would answer.).  But then they cast lots to decide that Jonah was the reason for their problems.  That's when he told them that the God he worshiped was the creator: "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."  When they realize with which god he has tangled with, from which god he is running, they are terrified.  And rightly so.  This is no little, local "god."  This is God.

And as I ponder the vastness of what it is that God has created, as I begin to unpack that simple statement that God created the universe, I find myself drawn into worship.  Like staring into different levels of a Mandelbrot set, the world is stunningly beautiful and complex at both the macrocosmic and microcosmic levels.  (By the way, this wonderful created universe includes the Mandelbrot set, the mathematics that makes it possible, and the imaginations that figured out how to display it in all its dizzying beauty.)

Al-Khaliq

You spoke the world into being
Creatures both seen and unseen
Spirit and flesh came to life at your touch
My mind can't imagine how you did so much

Every star and every planet
Each electron spinning so fast
Every galaxy whirling so slowly
In the dizzying cosmic dance

Each blade of grass and every kitten
Each grain of sand and each fish in the sea
Thunder and lightning, sparrows and chickens
You made it all; You caused it to be.
You made the whole world 
And you made me.

My Creator created the world--
Fire and water and vacuum and dust
Unthinkable vastness
And hearts that can trust.
My Creator created the world.


Monday, August 8, 2011

10. Al-Mutakabbir, The Supreme, The Majestic


O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! Psalm 8:1

This is a name that the commentators have some difficulty with because the word would convey pride and arrogance if applied to a person, but of course, this is God, which changes things.  The Wahiduddin website says
Mutakabbir is an empathic [sic -- I think they mean emphatic] form of the root k-b-r which denotes actively using rights, privileges and attributes that are above and beyond the rights of everyone else. In mankind, this would be called pride or arrogance, but for the One this is simply the truth.
The root k-b-r (ك ب ر) is related to being great in size, dignity, age, majesty, knowledge and rights.

From what I have read, the key thought here is not just that God is great and majestic, but that God, in some sense, claims that majesty and displays it.  I liked the interpretation given on this website that Al-Mukatabir is "He Who Reveals His Greatness in Everything".

From time to time, I have spoken with skeptics who complained about a notion of a God who would require worship.  "What kind of a God worthy of the title would care about people bowing and scraping to them, would need to hear their praises constantly being sung?" they ask.  And it's a fair question in one sense--I do not believe that God needs this. And yet, God does claim it, and God, and only God, has a right to do so.  That is at least part of what is expressed in the name Al-Mutakabbir.  God does not need our worship to remind Him of His greatness.  However, as we worship God, we sometimes get a glimpse of that greatness and majesty.

In thinking about this, and in writing the song that follows, I have been informed by a number of passages of biblical passages.  I haven't followed any of them exactly, but many of the images were brought out by reading and thinking about Job 26:7-14Ezekiel 1:4-28, Isaiah 6:1-5, Revelation 7:9-12, Psalm 93:1-4 and Psalm 104:1.

Al-Mutakabbir

You hung the earth in space
Put the stars in place
You stir up the waves
That crash upon the sand
These are just the outer fringes
Of how glorious You are
Our minds can’t understand

Rainbows and lightning 
And a throne set on high
Where angels forever
Make their “holy, holy” cry
All this is just a likeness,
just a shadow of what’s real
Our minds can’t take it in

Al-Mutakabbir, Al-Mutakabbir
Robed in majesty and splendor
Angels, jinn and people bow down
Al-Mutakabbir, Al-Mutakabbir

We just can’t know how majestic You are
Our best language falters and fails
We have the vision of the prophets
And your glory written on the world
But our words turn to stammers
And our hearts are undone
When a touch of Your greatness assails.

Al-Mutakabbir, Al-Mutakabbir
Robed in majesty and splendor
Angels, jinn and people bow down
Al-Mutakabbir, Al-Mutakabbir[/align]








Thursday, August 4, 2011

9. Al-Jabbar, The Compeller


This is another of the names of Allah that is used only once in the Qur'an and not used in a way that helps in determining the exact meaning of the name.  The citation is Surah 59:23.  The reference establishes the name, it simply does not explain it.

The stem can mean someone who forces their way on others (which is acceptable when the one doing the forcing is God, but negative when the one doing the forcing is a person.  The 9 times in the Qur'an where this word is used of people rather than of Allah, it is primarily a negative word speaking of tyrants.

So the primary meaning is someone who forces submission.  I have read that according to al Khattaabi, it means: “He is the One who forces His creation upon what He commands and upon what He has forbidden. In other words, whatever Allah wills, His will is executed.”

This can get us into all kinds of issues about free will and predestination.  Christians debate the issue.  There are places in the New Testament where the same writer seems to be on both sides of the issue within the same letter (I feel like this is the case in Ephesians, for instance). My personal conclusion is that this issue is more complicated than it seems, and that somehow free will and predestination are in fact compatible, though I do not know how to reconcile them philosophically. Nor do I feel a great need to do so.  Is everything that we do completely predetermined by God, so that he moves us like a puppet master?  I have no doubt that God could do so if he wished.  The issue is not God's ability and power.  But even if that is the case, it remains true at the same time that we are required to live our lives as if we had free will and are making choices about what to do.  So, for me, the issue of God as compeller is something that applies to those times when we feel as though God were forcing us to do something.

And those times do come.  I suspect that the overwhelming majority of the time, God's compelling is more like the compelling of a compelling argument.  God's ways are extremely gentle. Sometimes they can seem too gentle to us. John Donne complained that he wished God would come and be more forceful with him.

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
But there are times when we resist the gentle leadings, and discover that God does have more forceful ways of leading us.

The stem ج ا ب ر  (j-a-b-r) has other meanings as well.  It can mean tall, and lofty, when it describes a palm tree, and perhaps even when it describes people, as in the Qur'an 5:22, where the people are described with this word, by the men complaining to Moses that they are reluctant to enter the land.   It gets translated as "powerful" and "tyrannical", but I am reminded of the Old Testament passage describing this incident (Numbers 13:32-33) in which the complaint is both that the people of the land are too powerful and that they are too tall.  "We became like grasshoppers in our own sight and so we were in their sight."  This does not get us too far in considering God, except that it can translate into lofty, or exalted, and indeed it has been said that this name means the same thing as Al-Mutakabbir.  Perhaps this is so, but then little is gained from this name in terms of a unique consideration.

This same stem can also mean to repair the broken, reform, restore.  Algebra comes from this meaning, and the word for a splint for a broken bone is based on this stem.  Jinan Bastaki says that some of the great scholars prayed, " 'Ya Jaabir kul kaseer' when they were faced with overwhelming difficulty, meaning 'Oh You who mends everything that is broken.'"

Amatullah says that when you make up something that is deficient this is jabr, and suggests that the implication for understanding the term Al-Jabbar is that,
When we find our resources to be incomplete, Allah (swt) completes them. When we are unable to reach our goals, Allah (swt) assists us. He is the One who amends the affairs of His creation. It means if a slave is unable to reach His goal, Al-Jabbaar will enable Him and provide Him with the sources to reach this goal.

Of course, for a Christian this notion of God as a repairer and restorer who enables us to reach a goal we cannot reach on our own resonates strongly with our understanding that God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself.  What we are unable to do (live a sinless life) was accomplished through Jesus' life and death on the cross, and is transferred to us through faith.  I understand that the idea that this was Jesus' mission is foreign to Islam, but it is central to Christianity, and it inevitably comes to mind as I meditate upon God as restorer.

Scholars warn translators about something called ITT: Illegitimate Totality Transfer.  The problem is that one word can have many meanings, but it does not have all of those many meanings at the same time.  In English, when we say, "John had a ball," it can mean, "John had a round object which is used for playing," or "John had a great time," or "John hosted a party which involved dancing."  But it does not mean, "John had a great time at a party that involved dancing and round objects."  That example sounds silly, but when novice translators begin working with translations of religious works, the temptation to jam several unrelated meanings together becomes greater, because one tends to find things that sound like they have great mystical significance.  For this reason, I am skeptical of a translation or explanation of this name as "The one who forces the world to be restored."

However, when we work with a name, especially a name for God that describes his attributes, I am also not entirely convinced, despite the concern about ITT, that one name cannot carry two different meanings.  Certainly, Muslim scholars have worked with both in conjunction with this one word.  And I find that both are aspects of God's nature that ring true to my understanding, and so I have ventured to address both in one song.

Al-Jabbar

Al-Jabbar, the One who can force me
Al-Jabbar, the One who compels
Al-Jabbar, the One who can force me
Al-Jabbar, the One who compels

God, I don't want to feel your compelling
That is not my idea of fun
But I want to say now you have my consent
To do what must be done

Al-Jabbar, the One who can force me
Al-Jabbar, the One who compels
Al-Jabbar, the One who can force me
Al-Jabbar, the One who compels

Well, sometimes my heart is like a stubborn child
Or like a mule that needs a good kick
I would rather be guided by your gentleness 
But if you must, then bring the stick.

Al-Jabbar, Al-Jabbar, Al-Jabbar

Al-Jabbar, the One who restores me
Al-Jabbar, the One who repairs
Al-Jabbar, the One who completes me
The One who carried the burden that we could not bear.

Al-Jabbar



I want to make it clear that this song is not about the proper treatment of mules, about which I know nothing.  Perhaps there is no such thing as a mule that needs a good kick.  But Proverbs 26:3 suggests to me  that there may be times when I need a stick, at least a metaphorical one for my heart.  I find encouragement that this is a sign of God's love in Hebrews 12:3-11

Here are three websites that helped me a great deal as I considered the meanings of this name:

Relationships with the Divine: Al-Jabbar the Compeller
Al-Jabbar: Healing the Broken Heart
Asma Al-Husna:  Al-Jabbar

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

8. Al-Aziz, The All-Mighty

Perhaps not the ideal metaphor, but I intended the grey text here be reminiscent of steel. 
When skeptics and atheists talk to people who believe in a God who is active in the universe, one of the questions that comes up a great deal of the time is, "Do you believe that God is all-powerful? If you do, do you believe he can make a stone so strong that he can't move it?" The more sophisticated version of this question is, "If God is all-powerful and all-loving, then why does he let bad things happen?"

Without any attempt to give a sophisticated answer to this question (there is a whole branch of theology called theodicy which does nothing but study aspects of this), I was delighted to learn that in the Qur'an many of the references to God as Al-Aziz are coupled with the idea that God is all-wise and all-knowing. He has the ability to do all things (except logical impossibilities), but he does not choose to do foolish things, and we in our limitations, frequently don't have a full understanding of what that entails.

I am reminded of a snatch of a song a friend of mine, Joel Davis, once sang, giving words speaking as if from God, to a young woman who was going through the normal difficulties of adolescence. This is the half remembered form of the song that has stuck with me through the years:

I could make you all big and grown-up
With all the wisdom that a grown-up ought to have
And I could make you never feel any pain--
I could make the rivers turn to sand
And I could make the flowers never bloom again.
I could easily do all these things,
But I would not deprive you.

Listen to this fragment of a song.

Other aspects of this name of God include the idea that God cannot be conquered; God is the one who conquers all, and God is also the one who is the most worthy of honor.

As I pondered this name, this is the song that came:


Al-Aziz

Al-Aziz, Al-Aziz
All Mighty, All Powerful
All Mighty All Powerful
There is nothing You can't do
No one wins when they fight against you
All Mighty, All Powerful
All Mighty, All Powerful
I bow before You,
Al-Aziz

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

7. Al-Muhaymin, The Guardian

These feathers don't look much like wings, but I hoped with the blue they might make one think of the wings of heaven.

Al-Muhaymim is another one of the names that is mentioned in the Qur'an only in a verse that is a listing of Allah's names (59:23).  So a study of the Qur'an itself will not help with understanding it.  It is related to the same root as Al-Mumin, but most commentators seem to focus on the aspect of protection and watchfulness.  I chose feathers for the backdrop of my title for this name because muhaymin is a description for a bird that protects its young by gathering them under its wings. That image, of course, instantly brings to my mind Jesus' lament over Jerusalem: "“Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34). But it also reminds me of several passages in the Psalms that speak of God's protective love in terms of the metaphor of being under His wings:

"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge." Psalm 91:4
"How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings."  Psalm 36:7
"Keep me as the apple of your eye.  Hide me under the shadow of Your wings." Psalm 17:8

This aspect of God makes me think of what Jesus said when he was teaching his followers not to be scared.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

A lot of the commentary on this name talks about the watchfulness of God--particularly in the sense that God is always watching and keeping track of what we do.  I am reminded of the song that Christians sometimes teach their children to sing, called "Oh be careful" that reminds children in the chorus "For the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful...(what you do, say, think, etc)".



This song has never been a favorite of mine, because it gives an impression of God as someone who sits up in heaven and peers down, and also because there is a bit of a "Big Brother is watching" feel to it that I don't much care for.  But, in truth, I have to concede there is an aspect of God's watchful care over us that is meant to remind us that there is never a moment when God is looking the other way, so that we can "get away" with whatever it is that we would like to get away with.  His mercy is new every morning and endures forever, but his mercy is not a mercy that is unaware of the things that we do.

In the awareness that God is Al-Muhaymin, I want to commit my ways to the one who, as Jude says, "is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy" (Jude 1:24).

Al-Muhaymin

Al-Muhaymin, You are always watching
Al-Muhaymin, You are always there
Al-Muhaymin, You are always watching
And You always care.

You watch over all of creation
You see every sparrow that falls
Every hair on my head you have numbered
And you hear me when I call.

You never sleep and you never slumber
You watch peasants as you watch kings
As a mother hen gathers her children
You long to bring us under your wings

Every move that I make you are watching
Every step that I take you can see
You long to welcome me into Your presence
Completely whole, completely free

Al-Muhaymin, You are always watching
Al-Muhaymin, You are always there
Al-Muhaymin, You are always watching
And You always care.