God loves the way things are because “He made beautiful everything He created” (Quran 32:7). All things are lovable because they make his beauty manifest. Each thing plays its own harmonious role in the infinite web of relationships that the Quran calls God’s “signs.” The signs in turn display the characteristics of what it calls God’s “most beautiful names.”
More simply, the world is ugly inasmuch as we perceive it empty of God, the absolute good. It is beautiful inasmuch as we recognize the divine with-ness, the signs of the most beautiful names that fill the universe. Failure to recognize the signs goes back to ignorance—the “root poison,” as Buddhists call it.
“I was a Hidden Treasure, and I loved to be recognized, so I created the creatures to recognize Me.” QURAN
* A bit of reflection on God’s love for beauty leads to the conclusion that he loves himself before all else. God as the one true lover perceives his own true beauty and loves it eternally. As for the universe, God loves it because, by loving himself, he loves everything demanded by his beauty and mercy, and that includes an infinity of creaturely possibilities.