The Originator who brings creatures into being, distinct and free of flaw (al-Bāriʾ)

Start with what we know

Start with something we know. Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us: it is the Name.

Episode 1

In us

Parents bring a child into being, but only by passing on what they were given: about three billion letters of DNA, copied, not written.

Episode 2

In nature

New species arise, slowly, from existing ones. Nature makes the new out of the old.

Episode 3

At our best

Physicists have made the heaviest elements, a few atoms at a time, by smashing existing nuclei together. They vanish in fractions of a second.

Episode 4

The Break

Take away the parent, the raw material, the earlier form. Al-Bāriʾ is not a better copier, but the One who brings into being what was not, each creature distinct and whole (Qur'an 59:24).

Read: Q 59:24 (al-Bāriʾ); 2:54 (Bāriʾikum)

From the tradition: al-Ghazālī: al-Bāriʾ is the One who originates and brings into existence (mukhtariʿ, mūjid) what was determined; in his building analogy, the builder who follows the architect. Jewish blessing formula 'Borei pri…' uses the same root

Watch and listen

Films, documentaries and voices that reach towards this Name. Each links out to where you can watch it.

subscriptionfilmThe Tree of LifeOpens with Job (peace be upon him)'s question, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?", then shows creation itself.2011 · 139 · Terrence Malick (dir.) · Widely available to stream or buy

Trailer ▶F-ILM

subscriptionfilmSoulWhere does a soul come from, and what is a life for? Pixar asks it beautifully.2020 · 101 · Pete Docter (dir.); Pixar · Widely available to stream or buy

Trailer ▶F-ILM

FreedocuseriesSeven Worlds, One PlanetOne episode per continent: seven worlds, each with its own creatures, all on one planet.2019 · 7 x 58 min · BBC Natural History Unit; narr. David Attenborou · BBC iPlayer, UKTV Play (free); Sky Go

F-ILM

FreeYouTube videoسورة الحشر حفص عن عاصم | الشيخ مشاري راشد العفاسي | Surah Al-Hashr English SUBSurah al-Hashr with English subtitles, ending on the verses that name God over and over.12:01 · Alafasy (Mishary Rashid Alafasy, official)

On screen

The Reality Stone warps what already exists. Al-Bāriʾ is why there is anything to warp.

Where it shows up

In scripture: Q 59:24; 2:54; 57:22. Genesis 1:1
The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture: Genesis 1:1 bara; 'When God began to create (bara) heaven and earth'; 'Borei' blessings
In the universe: NASA/ESA/CSA Webb 'Pillars of Creation': newly formed stars in the Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light-years away (science.nasa.gov)
In nature: 'DNA replication 3D' (yourgenome, Wellcome)
In people: A scribe and a calligrapher writing bara and bāriʾ
In science: Astronomy: stars form from collapsing gas clouds (Pillars); chemistry: elements heavier than iron made in rare stellar events

Living it

Bring good into existence; begin things well

Its kind

Act: something done: mercy shown, provision given, a prayer answered.

In the Qur'an: 59:24; 2:54

The calf of gold

Moses (peace be upon him) had led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and now he had gone up the mountain to receive the Law. He was gone for forty days. Below, the people grew afraid that he was not coming back.

They gathered their gold earrings and jewellery, melted them down and cast a calf. The Torah tells the story in Exodus 32, and the Qur'an tells it in several places (2:51-54; 7:148-153; 20:83-97). The Qur'an adds a detail that stays with you: the calf made a lowing sound, yet “And the folk of Moses, after (he left them), chose a calf (for worship), (made) out of their ornaments, of saffron hue, which gave a lowing sound. Saw they not that it spake not unto them nor guided them to any way? They chose it, and became wrong-doers.” (7:148, Pickthall).

Here is the heart of it. The people had taken things that already existed, given them a shape, and then bowed to what their own hands had made. When Moses came down, the Qur'an has him say: “turn in repentance to your Bāriʾ”, to your Maker, the One who brought you into being (2:54).

The story is not only about ancient people. Every generation is tempted to worship what it has made: money, status, a screen. Al-Bāriʾ reverses the direction. We do not make Him; He made us, and the gold, and the hands that melted it.

What each faith says

Read:

Judaism

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1 · JPS 1917

The Hebrew Bible's first verse uses bara for God's creating. The rabbis and later scholars noticed that, in this form, the verb only ever has God as its subject: people make (asah) and form (yatsar), but only God creates (bara).

The same root fills ordinary Jewish life. Before eating an apple, Jews say: “Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, borei pri ha-etz, who creates the fruit of the tree.” There are blessings for bread, vegetables and wine. At the end of the Sabbath there is a blessing over fire, to the One “who creates the lights of fire”.

Christianity

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honour, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created.”
Revelation 4:11 · WEB

Christians confess God in the Creed as “maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen”. From the early centuries, Christian teachers held that God created out of nothing, ex nihilo. God did not shape something that was already there, but brought everything there is into being.

In the book of Revelation, the worship of heaven is a song of thanks for exactly this.

Islam

“He is Allah, the Creator, the Shaper out of naught, the Fashioner. His are the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifieth Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.”
Qur'an 59:24 · Pickthall (1930)

Al-Bāriʾ appears in a famous trio of creation Names. Al-Ghazālī compared them to building a house. Al-Khāliq, the Creator, plans and measures, as an architect does. Al-Bāriʾ brings it into existence, as a builder does. Al-Muṣawwir, the Shaper, gives it its form and beauty, as a craftsman finishes it. In God, all three are one act.

The Qur'an uses the same root for all of creation. Created beings are al-bariyya (98:7), and every event is written “Naught of disaster befalleth in the earth or in yourselves but it is in a Book before we bring it into being - Lo! that is easy for Allah -.” (57:22, Pickthall). Muslims begin almost everything with bismillāh, in the name of God, as a reminder of Who brought it into being.

Same and different

Hebrew bara and Arabic Bāriʾ come from the same root, and all three faiths hold that God alone brings things into being; we only rearrange. All three tell the story of the golden calf as a warning against worshipping what we have made. They differ on whether creation is the work of God as one, as Judaism and Islam teach, or of the Father through the Son and in the Spirit. Christians believe the second. Judaism has its own way of remembering creation: every Friday night the Kiddush blessing over wine calls the Sabbath a memorial of the work of creation. The Christian belief that the Word ‘through whom all things were made’ became flesh is distinctive to Christianity.

A moment to reflect

What is the difference between making something and bringing something into being? Can people ever do the second?
What things that people have made do we sometimes treat as if they were gods?
If you said a short thank-you before eating, who or what would you be thanking?

Watch

The Pillars of Creation in 3D, built from Hubble and Webb images: new stars forming from old gas.

How a star is born, lives and dies, in plain language from NASA.

Nihonium, one of the heaviest elements ever made in a laboratory, a few atoms at a time.

Do it together

families / faith groups / neighboursBefore we eat

Share a bowl of fruit and ask each tradition present to say its short blessing: borei pri ha-etz, a Christian grace, bismillāh. Then talk about what it changes to stop and name the Maker before tasting.

schoolsMade, or brought into being?

Give groups a box of junk (card, string, bottle tops) and ten minutes to make something new. Then ask: did you create anything from nothing? Read Genesis 1:1 and Qur'an 59:24 and discuss the difference.

Go deeper

NASA: Webb's portrait of the Pillars of Creation · article
Qur'an 2:51-54 with translations · scripture
Exodus 32 (JPS 1917) on Sefaria · scripture
Revelation 4 (WEB) on Bible Gateway · scripture

Others say it too

Beyond the Abrahamic family, other traditions reach for something like this. Each in its own words; we connect, never rank.

Sikh

God Himself created the world and Himself gave names to things.

Asa ki Var, pauri 1 · Guru Granth Sahib p. 463 · tr. M. A. Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion (1909), vol. 1

Sources (5)

Pillars of Creation: Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light-years; Webb infrared image 2022: NASA Science, 2022
Hubble's original 1995 image: NASA Hubble, Pillars of Creation
'Turn in repentance to your Bāriʾ': Qur'an 2:54
The calf could neither speak nor guide: Qur'an 7:148
Blessing 'borei pri ha-etz' over fruit: My Jewish Learning, blessings over food

الْمُصَوِّرُ

Up next · Name 13 of 99The Fashioner who gives each thing its formal-Muṣawwir

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