Renovatio 13: Signs for Our Times

Spring 2025

The Qur’an states, “I will deflect from My signs those who are unjustly overbearing on earth. Even if they saw every sign, they would not believe in them. And even if they saw the right way they would not take to it, while if they saw the path of error they would take to it. This is because they have repudiated Our signs and been heedless of them.” In this issue, our writers reflect on the wondrous signs that pervade the cosmos and ourselves. Their essays clarify how the revelations of empirical science, far from opposing intelligent design, affirm its subtle grandeur and purposeful order and remind us how everything we experience ultimately points towards our Creator.

Contents
States of Need are Gift-Laden Carpets / Michael Sugich
Reason and Belief in an Age of Empirical Science / Muhammad U. Faruque
Art to What End? Bob Dylan and Jacques Maritain on Artistic Integrity / Thomas Hibbs
Science Shows Nature Is Too Complex to Originate through Chance / Asad Islam
The Power of Beauty in Dark Places / Angel Adams Parham
What Darwin Believed—and Why It Matters / Oubai Elkerdi
The Purpose of Pain—and Pleasure / Nasrin Rouzati, Hamza Yusuf, and Aisha Subhani
The Readiness of the Soul: Reflections on a Sonnet by Martin Lings / Emilio Alzueta
Is Naturalism Ideology? How an Anti-Religious Philosophy Impedes Scientific Progress / Joshua Lee Harris
Salient Features of an Islamic Framework for Environmental Sustainability / Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Munjed M. Murad