By Dr. John Andrew Morrow
January 26, 2025
Introduction
Creator, Creation, and Compassion. What a beautiful topic. What an honor to address it. And what an accomplishment it is that the Islamic Social Services Association has organized the First National Muslim-Indigenous Solidarity Conference Program. I have been calling for such efforts for over forty years. This is truly a long-awaited and historic event which, I trust, will continue for decades to come. Since the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him said, “He who does not thank people does not thank God,” let me begin by thanking the organizers of this event, Dr. Shahina Siddiqui, the Executive Board, and everyone from the Islamic Social Services Association; all the conference chairs, all of the participants and speakers, including the Honorable Nahanni Fontaine, Minister of Families, the Honorable Bernadette Smith, Minister of Housing; all of the esteemed speakers, all the panelists, all of the elders in attendance, and all those who have joined us today in peace and solidarity. Greetings of peace to all of you. Je vous souhaite la bienvenue.
Creator
God, First and Foremost. The name of God in Arabic appears nearly 3000 times in the Qur’an. Al-Rabb, or the Lord, shows up over 900 times. Since God is One, the name al-Ahad, surfaces just once. How significant. The Creator, al-Khaliq, appears, in two different forms, on approximately eleven occasions. As we read in the Qur’an, “He is the Creator” (15:86; 36:81); “He is God, the Creator, the Originator, the Fashioner” (59:25); “God is the Creator of all things” (13:16; 39:62); “Truly,” reads the Qur’an, “your Lord is the Creator” (15:86); “God created the heavens and earth” (7:54); “God created the heavens, the earth, and everything in between” (25:59; 32:4); “God created the earth as resting place, the sky as a canopy, and made humans with beautiful shapes” (40:64). As the Qur’an expresses, “That is God, your Lord; there is no deity except Him, the Creator of all who worship Him” (6:102; “That is God, your Lord, the Creator of all things; there is no deity except Him; so how are you deluded” (40:62). In addition to al-Khaliq, the Creator, the Qur’an also describes God as al-Baari’, the Originator, and al-Musawwir, the Fashioner.
The root of the verb, kha-la-qa, appears 261 times in the Qur’an in verbs, and nouns, as well as active and passive participles. Over and over, as we read the Qur’an, we are reminded that God is the Creator, that he creates, that he created us, and that He created all creation. And when the text used the word “He,” it is a pronoun of might and majesty, and a linguistic and cultural convention. In Islamic theology, God is genderless. God is not biologically or ontologically masculine or feminine. Theologians, however, divide God’s names into masculine and feminine attributes, namely, attributes of might and majesty, and attributes of beauty. In addition to being the Creator, and the Most Compassionate and the Most Merciful, God is the Ruler, the Pure, the Witness, the All-Mighty, the Supreme, the Judge, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the Majestic, the Truth, the Strong, the Praiseworthy, the Eternal, the Powerful, the First, the Last, the Light, and much, much more. In fact, according to Muslim theologians and mystics, the names of God are infinite. Everything points to God. Every signifier is a sign of the Signified.
Creation
When we read the Qur’an, the notion that God is one, and that God is the Creator of all things, sinks into our conscience and subconscious. The word “creation” also comes into play. It appears over fifty times. It reads: “Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, and the [great] ships which sail through the sea with that which benefits people, and what God has sent down from the heavens of rain, giving life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness and dispersing therein every [kind of] moving creature, and [His] directing of the winds and the clouds controlled between the heaven and the earth are signs for a people who use reason” (2:164).
In the Qur’an, the Creator calls upon human beings to contemplate creation: “Give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth” (3:191). “Indeed,” reads the Qur’an, “in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding” (3:190); “It is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; all [heavenly bodies] in an orbit are swimming” (21:33); “And We have created above you seven layered heavens, and never have We been of [Our] creation unaware” (23:17).
In the Qur’an, the creation is presented as proof of the Creator. As it reads: “God has created every [living] creature from water. And of them are those that move on their bellies, and of them are those that walk on two legs, and of them are those that walk on four. God creates what He wills. Indeed, God is over all things competent” (24:45). “And of his signs,” says God in the Qur’an, “is the creation of the heavens and earth and what He has dispersed throughout them of creatures” (42:29). “And of His signs,” it asserts, “is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge” (30:22).
In the Qur’an, God states that “I will place a khalifah fi al-ardi” (2:30); in other words, “I will place a steward on earth.” We are therefore the guardians, administrators, and protectors of the Creator’s creation. Unfortunately, some Muslims have understood the term khalifah to mean that the earth belongs to human beings, and they can do what they please with it. Basically, rape Mother Earth. This is not; however, how genuine religious and spiritual authorities have interpreted the term. In fact, the deepest thinkers that Islam has ever produced believed in the unity of existence, namely, that everything is one; everything is interconnected; and that the Creator permeates creation. That is not to be confused with Pantheism, the belief that the universe itself is God, but rather, that all of creation reflects the omnipresent creator.
So, God created creation. God created humanity. And God entrusted humanity with the care of creation. As the Prophet Muhammad is quoted as saying in Tabarani: “Take care of the earth for she is your mother. No one does good or evil on her except that she will speak of it (on the Last Day).” In fact, there are many hadith qudsi, or sacred sayings, in which the Earth speaks to God and God speaks to the Earth. This is not to say that Mother Earth, or the Pachamama, is a Goddess. It means that the Mother Earth was created by God, the Great Spirit, Gichi Manitou, or the Great Mystery, Wakan Tanka. The earth is alive. It is imbued with consciousness. It merits respect and reverence.
But what kind of community did the Creator wish to create? We find the answer in the Qur’an: “We created a community which guides by truth and thereby establishes justice” (7:181). Ah ha. There you have it. The Creator is One. The Creator is Just. And the Creator expects us to be just and implement justice. Justice is so important to some Muslim sects, like the Fivers, the Seveners, the Twelvers, and the Mutazilah, that they include ‘adl or justice immediately after tawhid or divine unity in their respective creeds. So, for them, it is Tawhid: divine unity; and then it is al-‘adl al-ilahi, divine justice. When justice is paramount to your faith, it is truly transformative. It impacts all aspects of human interaction: politics, economics, and so forth. God is One and God is Just. Far from an icy-cold judge, God tempers his Justice with Mercy and Compassion. While he is always Just, He is also forgiving.
Compassion
Although many of the ninety-nine names of God appear only a few to a dozen times each, two of the most invoked attributes are al-Rahman and al-Rahim, namely, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. This formula appears at the head of 113 of the 114 chapters of the Qur’an. It is absent from Surah al-Tawbah or al-Bar’ah. However, it makes an appearance in another verse, making the total 114. That applies only to the expression, “the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.” In fact, and entire chapter of the Qur’an, and one of its most beautiful, from a literary perspective, is titled “The Most Compassionate: al-Rahman / ‘alama al-Qur’an / Khalaqa al-insan / ‘alamahu al-bayan… Fa bi-ayi ala’i rabi-kuma tukadhiban? The Most Compassionate / It is He who has taught the Qur’an / he has created man / He has taught him speech… Then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny? When we survey the Qur’an, we find over two hundred verses that call for compassionate living. If you want to preach an Islam of hate, I can assure you that the pickings are slim, and the verses are decontextualized.
Over and over, we are told that “God is the Most Compassionate and Most Merciful to humankind” (2:143). What is more, the Qur’an gives concrete and tangible examples of compassion: “the truly good are those who … give away some of their wealth, however much they cherish it, to their relatives, to orphans, the needy, travelers and beggars and to liberate those in debt and bondage; those who… pay the prescribed alms; who keep pledges whenever they make them; who are steadfast in misfortune, adversity and times of danger” (2:177-178). As God commands in the Qur’an: “do good; indeed, God loves the doers of good” (2:195); “Indeed, God commands you to uphold justice and to be kind” (16:90); “And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression” (5:2). As the Qur’an explains, “good and evil are not alike. Repel evilwith that which is best” (41:35).
Al-Rahman. Al-Rahim. Most Muslims do not even know what it means. Logically. Etymologically. The root of these adjectives and attributes is R-H-M. Their root means WOMB. Yes, a woman’s womb. Al-Rahman literally means “The Maternally Most Compassionate” and al-Rahim means “The Maternally Most Merciful.” That is lost in all translations. In fact, it is lost in most interpretations and commentaries of the Qur’an. To my knowledge, only one translator has rendered it as such. So, when we say, Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, In the Name of Allah, the Maternally Most Compassionate and the Maternally Most Merciful,” we have a sublime synthesis of the Sacred Masculine and the Sacred Feminine: God and Goddess as One, two sides of the same singular divinity.
Love
Now when we speak of compassion, we need to understand everything that it encompasses. Not only is compassionate synonymous with merciful, but it also conveys the sense of caring, loving, tender, gentle, forbearing, benevolent, pitying, understanding, and indulgent. God is not only al-Rahman and al-Rahim in the Qur’an; most Compassionate and Most Merciful, but He is also al-Salaam, the Giver of Peace; al-Mu’min, the Giver of Security; al-Muhaymin, the Guardian; al-Ghaffar; the Oft-Forgiving; al-Latif; the Most Gentle; al-Halim, the Most Forbearing; al-Ghafur, the Exceedingly Forgiving; al-Shakur; the Most Appreciative; al-Karim; the Most Generous; al-Wali, the Protector; al-‘Afuww, the Pardoner; al-Ra’uf, the Most Kind; al-Sabur, the Most Patient; and, most importantly, al-Wadud; the Most Loving.
Allah, which is simply Arabic for God, the equivalent of Elohim, Adonai, and Jehovah, is Loving. As we read in the Qur’an, “Verily, My Lord is Merciful and Loving” (11:90). And yet again: “And He is the Forgiving and the Loving” (Qur’an 85:14). As Almighty God, glorified and exalted be He, states in a sacred saying: “I was a Hidden Treasure, and I loved to be known. Therefore, I created the creatures so that I might be known” (Ibn ‘Arabi, Ibn al-Khatib, Mulla Sadra).
Love is central in Islam. It is at the heart of the Golden Rule. As the Messenger of God stated: “None of you have faith until you love for your 192 Chapter 18 neighbor what you love for yourself” (Muslim); “Whoever wishes to be delivered from the fire and to enter Paradise… should treat the people as he wishes to be treated” (Muslim); “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself” (Nawawi); “None of you is a believer if he eats his full while his neighbor has nothing” (Ahmad); “Do unto all men as you would wish to have done unto you; and reject for others what you would reject for yourselves” (Abu Dawud); “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you” (Farewell Sermon); and “There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm” (Ibn Majah). The Qur’an goes beyond the Golden Rule by encouraging Muslims to “Return evil with kindness” (13:22, 23:96, 41:34, 28:54, 42:40).
As Almighty God says in a sacred saying transmitted by the Prophet Muhammad: “O son of Adam! Serve Me! Verily, I love those who serve Me” (Shirazi). “O Son of Adam! Behave with the people with good manners until I love you” (Shirazi). As Almighty God says in a sacred saying transmitted by the Prophet Muhammad: “O son of Adam! The more your heart longs for this world, the more My love leaves your heart. Verily, I will not let My love and the love of this world join together in one heart. Devote yourself to My worship. Purify your deeds from showing off until I dress you in the clothing of My love” (Shirazi).
Conclusion
As Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 732), the great, great, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and a celebrated scholar and jurist, stated: “Religion is love and love is religion” (Kulayni). As he asked, hal al-din illa al-hub? / “Is religion anything but love?” Let this be the litmus test of all that is supposedly Islamic. If it is loving, it is Islam. If it is not, then it is not the genuine article. As Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi (d. 1289), the Persian Sufi poet, proclaimed: La ilaha illa Allah / La ilaha illa al-‘ishq / There is no god but God / There is no god but love. On what better note can I close this talk on “Creator, Creation, and Compassion.” Let us not just preach it. Let us embody it. And let us put it into practice by loving the Creator, His creation, and one another.
Activism: Call to Action
If you oppose the attempts of B’nai B’rith to ban this speech, let them know how you feel. Send them a polite, courteous, and respectful message indicating that you object to their attempts to ban Dr. John Andrew Morrow, and object to their allegations that he is an “anti-Semite” and a “Hamas supporter.” And remember no slander, no libel, no defamation, and not threats of harm. After all, we are not like them. Those are their tactics. They can be reached at:
B’nai B’rith International, B’nai B’rith International, 1120 20th St NW, Suite 300N, Washington, D.C. 20036, 202-857-6600, worldcenter@bnaibrith.org
B’nai B’rith Canada, Marty York, Director of Communications, 416-633-6224 ext. 163, (844) 218-2624. Email: media@bnaibrith.ca
B’nai B’rith, 212-490-3290, cca@bnaibrith.org
L’chaim! And shabat shalom!
Dr. John Andrew Morrow 