I came of age during apartheid in the 80s in a Muslim community in a society that was deeply segregated, and so all of those kinds of influences were… - Sa'diyya Shaikh

For justice to ripen into a truly transformative and sustaining force, it must draw back from that deep current of love, and this is where we dive into for respite, rest, rejuvenation, replenishment, and creativity.

Litating the coming into existence of creation. Comprising the vital con-duit for humankind’s existence in relation to the essence, the divine names simultaneously veil us from It. The divine essence is at once a profound and unknowable mystery and that from which all else derives its being. It is en-tirely transcendent, yet nothing in creation is separate from its qualities. It is the pervasive center in which all contradictions are transcended.

While ontology deals with existence in general, its intimate companion, cosmology, provides a map for understanding the universe in its totality—its origin, purpose, and destiny, including the human being’s place within it. Cosmology concerns an understanding of the order and relationships between the various parts of the created universe. Questions that arise in relation to cosmology might include the following: What is the nature of the universe? How was it created? For what purpose and toward what des-tiny was it created? What are a human being’s origin, place, and purpose in this universe? Thus, a cosmological level of inquiry in Islam enables the inquirer to situate notions of human nature and existence within a broader framework of understanding the nature of all creation. In a study of Islamic cosmology, one also finds macrocosmic mappings of gender that resonate in varying ways with understandings of human genderedness.