Care for Creation

The Greek Philosopher Plato (428 – 348 BC) wonders over the beauty in nature and dare to ask what is the source of this beauty. Asking this question, his philosophical journey started. Then, he discovered that the source of the beauty we observe in nature is beyond what is visible.Muslim Sufi masters, with the guidance of the Qur’an, see all beauty in heavens and on the earth as a reflection of Divine beauty.Let me remind you how the first chapter of the Qur’an, al-Fatiha (the Opening) presents both Allah and the universe to us: “ALL PRAISE is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all the worlds”. In this instance, the term worlds denotes all categories of existence both in the physical and the spiritual sense.Moreover, the Arabic word rabbī l-’ālamīn — that we can render as Sustainer — embraces a wide complex of meanings not easily expressed by a single term in another language.It comprises the ideas of having a just claim to the possession of anything and, consequently, authority over it, as well as of rearing, sustaining and fostering anything from its inception to its completion.