Natural Islam

" .. Being close to nature, respecting what it is, and observing and meditating on what it shows us, offers us, or takes [back] from us requirements of a faith that, in its quest, attempts to feed, deepen and renew itself. Nature is the primary guide and intimate companion of faith. Thus, God decided to expose His Prophet, from his earliest childhood, to the natural lessons of creation, concieved as a school where the mind gradually apprehends signs and meanings. Far removed from the formalism of soulless religious rituals, this sort of education, in and through its closeness to nature, fosters a relationship to the divine based on contemplation adn depth that will later make it possible, in a second phase of spiritual education, to understand the meaning, form and objectives of religious ritual. Cut of from nature in our towns and cities, we nowadays seem to have forgotten the meaning of this message to such an extent that we dangerously invert the order of requirements and believe that leaning about the techniques and forms of religion is sufficient to grasp and understand their meaning and objectives, This delusion has serious consequences, since it leads to draininng religious teaching if its spiritual substance, which actually ought to be its heart. . . "

The Messenger
The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad
Tariq Ramadhan