"And how many a sign in the heavens and the earth which they pass by, yet they turn aside from it." (12/105)
Have they not considered how Allah begins creation and then repeats it? Indeed that, for Allah , is easy. Say: Travel in the earth and see how He makes the first creation, then Allah creates the latter creation; surely Allah has power over all things. (29/19-20)
And indeed, We have made constellations in the heaven and We beautified it for the beholders.(15/16)
"Do you not see that Allah sends down water from the cloud, then We bring forth therewith fruits of various colors; and in the mountains are streaks, white and red, of various hues and (others) intensely black? He has also created people, beasts, and cattle of various colors. Only God's knowledgeable servants fear Him. God is Majestic and All-pardoning." (35/27-28)
Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding.Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and lying on their sides and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Lord, you have not created all this without reason. Glory be to you. Lord, save us from the torment of the fire". (3/190-191)
If you have children that are fighting, put a movie in front of them and see the magic of "amazement". Suddenly the fights come to an end, the children who were fighting a few minutes ago have embarked on dreams in which they jointly build-modify-destroy things. You see them melted into a single spirit. The same effect is present among those who share a similar sense of awe beholding a magic or a rare beauty of nature. They feel lifted above their individual identities, united as a single entity sharing the moment of joy. You can observe a similar situation among the students who are listening to a lesson that truly and deeply moves their minds and hearts.
As these examples tell, the feeling of awe has the power to unite us. It also triggers us to explore more. It functions as a vehicle towards an ecstasy, by which our minds and hearts dance in unison so that we rejoice both individually and communally. This fine state of the human soul is also essential for the burgeoning and development of faith, because a thinking heart (7/179, 22/46) is at the core of everything.
Today, nature has been mostly reduced to a picnic area or to a material for documentaries, whereas The Creator wants us to read the nature and universe as a book and reflect upon them. He is inviting us to His guest room, i.e. the nature, to meet with Him, where we can ponder over His words and make sense of our lives (e.g. 50/6-11). The key in all these and other realizations through a reunion with nature is the feelings of awe and serenity that energize our thinking hearts.
As everything with the humans, if you use a faculty, it develops; and if you don't use it, you say goodbye to it. It is the same for our thinking hearts as well. We are more easily moved when we are children, but as we grow older, our hearts are buried deep under a mountain of daily routines, worries and news, where thinking is simply too much of a luxury. Our cities are also contributing to the machine-like life drowning our hearts. But let's remember that what makes us human is our ability to think and use our free will. A person who is not thinking and not acting upon their free will but is living simply according to the social conditioning is alarmingly far from being a real human. Be aware that the first prerequisite of faith is not testifying to certain truths! It is having free will and sound reason!
So, for a free will and sound reason, you need a thinking heart. And for a healthy thinking heart, you need to be in nature. That's why we see countless references to the creation in the book of God. Aside from the verses in this regard, you can also look at the names of the chapters in the Quran: Cow, Women, Feast Table, Cattle, Heights, Thunder, Rocky Tract, Bees, Night Journey, Cave, Light, Ants, Spider, Gold Adornment, Smoke, Curved Sand-hills, Wind that Scatters, Mountain, Star, Moon, Iron, Pen, Ways of Ascent, Human, Constellations, Comer-by-Night, Dawn, Sun, Night, Forenoon, Fig, Clot, Time, Elephant, Daybreak. Reading these names, one feels a compulsion inside to get out and observe the existence.
In short, the Quran repeatedly instructs people to contemplate over the creation, instead of constantly worrying about things over which they have little or no control (34/39). We are called to feel that awe in the face of the creation and make a "reasonable leap of faith" (59/21). Then, what is necessary for a renaissance of faith is a reunion with the nature, being alone with our Lord and thinking (34/46), and submitting to His love (2/131).
As these examples tell, the feeling of awe has the power to unite us. It also triggers us to explore more. It functions as a vehicle towards an ecstasy, by which our minds and hearts dance in unison so that we rejoice both individually and communally. This fine state of the human soul is also essential for the burgeoning and development of faith, because a thinking heart (7/179, 22/46) is at the core of everything.
Today, nature has been mostly reduced to a picnic area or to a material for documentaries, whereas The Creator wants us to read the nature and universe as a book and reflect upon them. He is inviting us to His guest room, i.e. the nature, to meet with Him, where we can ponder over His words and make sense of our lives (e.g. 50/6-11). The key in all these and other realizations through a reunion with nature is the feelings of awe and serenity that energize our thinking hearts.
As everything with the humans, if you use a faculty, it develops; and if you don't use it, you say goodbye to it. It is the same for our thinking hearts as well. We are more easily moved when we are children, but as we grow older, our hearts are buried deep under a mountain of daily routines, worries and news, where thinking is simply too much of a luxury. Our cities are also contributing to the machine-like life drowning our hearts. But let's remember that what makes us human is our ability to think and use our free will. A person who is not thinking and not acting upon their free will but is living simply according to the social conditioning is alarmingly far from being a real human. Be aware that the first prerequisite of faith is not testifying to certain truths! It is having free will and sound reason!
So, for a free will and sound reason, you need a thinking heart. And for a healthy thinking heart, you need to be in nature. That's why we see countless references to the creation in the book of God. Aside from the verses in this regard, you can also look at the names of the chapters in the Quran: Cow, Women, Feast Table, Cattle, Heights, Thunder, Rocky Tract, Bees, Night Journey, Cave, Light, Ants, Spider, Gold Adornment, Smoke, Curved Sand-hills, Wind that Scatters, Mountain, Star, Moon, Iron, Pen, Ways of Ascent, Human, Constellations, Comer-by-Night, Dawn, Sun, Night, Forenoon, Fig, Clot, Time, Elephant, Daybreak. Reading these names, one feels a compulsion inside to get out and observe the existence.
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