Monday 

Five Signs of God

Glasgow is well known for its city-life and industry, but it also has more parks than almost anywhere else in Europe. We like our greenery, and that seemed like a good place for an audience of non-believers to start looking for God.

Wherever we go in life we are surrounded by signs to help us. You don't have to go into a building to recognise it as a library, a bank, or a certain kind of shop. You recognise it by the sign above the door. Qur'an describes many things as Signs of God, indicating the existence of the Creator, and certainly in a garden the Signs of God surround us on all sides.

At this time of year especially, my garden just goes crazy. It's almost as though you can see the plants growing bigger as you look. From a few tiny seeds, an extraordinary assortment of plant forms emerges. Flowers and foliage of a wild variety of colours, plain and patterned, spotted and striped, are bursting out everywhere. Fruits and vegetables of all shapes and sizes, are swelling underground and sweetening in the sun.

As a muslim I know that the provision of our food from the earth, and the wondrous variety of forms life takes, are described as Signs of God in the Qur'an, so it's not in the mosque, but in my garden that I look for my Maker.