A grove of towering eucalyptus trees stands at the University of California, Berkeley. In one experiment, people spent a single minute looking up at it. Afterwards, when a researcher 'accidentally' dropped a handful of pens, they picked up more of them than people who had stared at a plain building.
Majesty, it seems, makes us generous. Dhū l-Jalāl wa l-Ikrām, the Lord of Majesty and Generosity, holds both in one Name: majesty that does not crush, generosity that does not run out.
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
Psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt described awe in 2003 as the feeling we get before something vast that our minds struggle to take in. In 2015 Paul Piff and colleagues published the eucalyptus experiment in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, finding that awe makes people feel smaller and act more kindly. Majesty and generosity, in us, go together. But the effect is brief. The awe fades within minutes, and so, often, does the kindness. Our sense of majesty is a passing visit, and our generosity runs out with it.
Episode 2
In nature
The Sun is the most majestic thing most of us will ever see, and the most generous. In about an hour, the sunlight reaching Earth's surface carries roughly as much energy as the whole of humanity uses in a year. It feeds every plant, warms every sea and drives every wind, and asks nothing back. But NASA explains that in around five billion years the Sun will run low on hydrogen, swell into a red giant and finally shrink to a white dwarf. Everything majestic in creation ends, and so does its giving.
Episode 3
At our best
Since 1 December 2001 the UK's national museums, such as the British Museum and the Natural History Museum, have been free to enter. Anyone can walk off the street into vast halls of treasures from every civilisation and stand under a blue whale's skeleton, without paying a penny. Visits rose sharply after the charges went. It is one of the finest examples of public majesty joined to public generosity. But the buildings need funding, repairs and staff, and their opening hours end. Our best generosity has limits we cannot remove.
Episode 4
The Break
Awe fades, fuel runs out, places close and everything costs. Every majesty we know eventually ends, and every generosity eventually empties. Dhū l-Jalāl wa l-Ikrām is majesty that is never diminished and generosity that is never exhausted, and the two are not in tension. The Qur'an says it after describing the passing of everything. “Everyone that is thereon will pass away; There remaineth but the Countenance of thy Lord of Might and Glory.” (Qur'an 55:26-27, Pickthall).
The Companion Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh remembered a day when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him) came out to his companions. He recited Sūrat al-Raḥmān, “The Most Merciful”, to them from beginning to end. It is a chapter full of the wonders of creation: the Sun and Moon in their courses, the stars and trees bowing, two seas meeting, pearls and coral. Again and again, thirty-one times, comes the same refrain: “Which, then, of your Lord's favours will you deny?”
The companions listened in silence.
When he finished, the Prophet told them: I recited this to the jinn on the night they came to listen, and they answered better than you did. Each time I reached the words “Which, then, of your Lord's favours will you deny?”, they said: we deny none of Your favours, our Lord; to You belongs all praise. (Tirmidhi 3291, graded ḥasan)
The sūra is where this Name appears, twice: in the middle (55:27) and as the very last words (55:78). Muslims often say the jinn's reply when they hear the refrain. And after every prayer, the Prophet would say: “Blessed are You, O Lord of Majesty and Generosity” (Muslim 591).
What each faith says
Read:
Judaism
“Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with glory and majesty.”
Psalm 104 opens: “Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with glory and majesty.” The rest of the psalm is a portrait of generosity. There are springs for wild animals, grass for cattle, bread and wine for people.
The prayer of King David in 1 Chronicles 29 joins the two in one breath: “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory... Both riches and honour come of Thee.”
David's prayer is said every morning in the synagogue service, and its words “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness” are sung as the Torah scroll is carried round the congregation. The twentieth-century rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called the right response to such a world “radical amazement”.
Christianity
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Christians often end prayers with a doxology praising God's majesty, such as Paul's: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Christian worship also celebrates God's generosity as grace, an undeserved gift, which Christians believe is supremely given in Christ.
Few hymns are sung louder in British churches, from Welsh chapels to Pentecostal congregations, than “How Great Thou Art”, first written in Swedish by Carl Boberg in 1885.
Islam
“Blessed be the name of thy Lord, Mighty and glorious!”
The Name appears twice in Sūrat al-Raḥmān (55:27; 55:78). Jalāl is awe-inspiring majesty; ikrām is honour and generosity: God is honoured, and He honours His creation. The Prophet said: “Hold fast to ‘O Lord of Majesty and Generosity’” (Tirmidhi 3525).
Scholars noted that 'the Face' (wajh) in 55:27 is understood in different ways by different schools; all agree it must not be pictured.
Same and different
Psalm 104, Paul's doxology and Sūrat al-Raḥmān all praise God's majesty and His generous care for creation in the same breath. All three use prayer to respond. Christians focus God's generosity especially on grace in Christ; Jews and Muslims see it in creation, guidance and mercy. Islam gives it a refrain of its own: “Which, then, of your Lord's favours will you deny?”, repeated 31 times in Sūrat al-Raḥmān.
A moment to reflect
When did you last feel awe? Did it change how you treated anyone?
Can something be great and gentle at the same time?
Which of the 'favours' in your own life do you most often forget?
Watch
The extended trailer for Seven Worlds, One Planet: an awe reel of the living world.
NASA eClips on the life cycle of a star, from birth to its end.
Do it together
families / neighboursAwe walk
Walk somewhere with big trees or a wide view and spend a full minute looking up in silence. Afterwards, plan one generous act together for someone nearby.
faith groups / schoolsWhich favours?
Listen to a recitation of Sūrat al-Raḥmān with an English translation, and read Psalm 104. After each section, pause and name one gift in your own lives.
faith groups / neighbours / familiesSing it big
Go to a church's Songs of Praise evening or a community hymn-sing and join in “How Great Thou Art”. Then listen to a recording of Sūrat al-Raḥmān and to “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness” sung in a synagogue, and talk about how each tradition makes majesty audible.
Episode 1
