Week 2 Day 1

I am meditating on the Bismillah – Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim. This week I want to reflect on the phrase ir-Rahman. Both rahman and rahim are derived from the Semitic root rhm which ‘indicates something of the utmost tenderness and kindness which provides protection and nourishment’ from which the creation is brought into being. The root rhm has meanings of womb, nourishing-tenderness, loving-kindness. According to Ibn Qayyum (1350 AD), rahman describes the quality of limitless grace with which God embraces the whole of the world and all of those who dwell in it.
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Week 2 Day 2

In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II wrote, the God of the Quran is ‘ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us.’(his emphasis) But basing their understanding of ir-Rahman being derived from rhm, some Muslim theologians have referred to ‘the whole of nature – that is, the universe in its entirety – as the divine womb’. Thus they would suggest the Quran affirms what it says in Acts: ‘in him we live and breathe and have our being.’ No wonder ‘many verses say things like, “He is with you wherever you are”.’ (57:4) [2]

Week 2 Day 3

Jesus talks of God as ‘Abba’ or ‘Papa’. Speaking of God as ‘Abba’ is Jesus’ unique contribution to revelation. To paraphrase Jesus, ‘no-one comes to God-as-Abba except through me’. Some of us may have been abused by an earthly ‘Papa’ and may find it easier to relate to God as our heavenly ‘Mama’ rather than our heavenly ‘Papa’. But whatever our term of endearment might be, Jesus invites us to relate to God, not as an apathetic deity but as a sympathetic parent, passionately committed to the welfare of the human family, protective, supportive and compassionate.

Week 2 Day 4

Maulana Whiduddin Khan says ‘God has the same compassionate relationship with every man as a father has with all his children. Therefore it is alien to the divine scheme of creation that this earthly plane should be marred by hatred and violence. It is God’s most cherished desire that love should be returned for hatred and violence should be met with peace. According to the Quran, paradise is God’s neighbourhood and in this neighbourhood only those who have compassion – living in a way that (their) actions are of benefit to others – will find acceptance’. [3]

Week 2 Day 5

Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, ‘God’s dream is that all of us will realize we are family – we are made for togetherness. In God’s family, there are no outsiders. Black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, Jew and Arab, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Buddhist – all belong’. Now, more than ever, we need to remember that ‘God’s love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion. People are shocked when I say that George Bush and Saddam Hussein are brothers – but God says, “All are my children.” It is shocking. But it is true.’[4]

Week 2 Day 6

‘While human love can never bear the weight of our need for divine love, it can teach us about divine love. Human love can communicate divine love. Experiences of human love make the idea of God’s love believable. The relative constancy of the love of family and friends makes the absolute faithfulness of divine love at least conceivable.’ But David Benner says there is ‘no substitute for learning what love really is by coming back to the source. God’s love is the original that shows up the limitations of all copies. Only God’s love is capable of making us into great lovers’.[5]

Week 2 Day 7

Psychotherapist, Wayne Muller, says ‘it is not the fact of being loved that is life changing. It is the experience of allowing (ourselves) to be loved’.[6]This experiential knowing of ourselves, through prayer, as deeply loved by God, deepens our thoughts with new data about our world, and deepens our feelings with new attitudes towards our world. In the light of our knowledge of God’s love we can trust God, take risks and embrace the world that we live in more courageously and compassionately.