Beauty in Islam

 

The word beauty (jamal) occurs only once in the Qur’an (16:5-6). The context is the divine creation of nature, and the word beauty refers to cattle and their usefulness. Jamil, usually translated as “beautiful,” means “praiseworthy” in the Qur’an, in the sense of morally right—a feature of many of its cognates as well.

The Qur’an refers to itself on many occasions as beautiful not just because of the matter of the doctrine it presents but also in the way in which it is presented. The point of such a presentation is to impress and indeed amaze the listener, and as a result, invite his or her adherence to Islam. The meaning of the words “the fairest discourse” (39:23) (ahsan al-hadith) includes the aesthetic, the good, and the morally uplifting. Some passages are clearly designed to delight, in particular ahsan al-qasas 12:3, “the fairest of stories,” the Qur’an’s account of Joseph and his brothers. This story is often illustrated in Islamic art in delightful and rather erotic ways. There are also many passages that are supposed to impress by virtue of their warnings, since they portray graphically the fate of sinners and give everyone the opportunity to consider the goals of their actions.

The recitation of the Qur’an, which represents how it is really supposed to be received, may be done in a very beautiful way, although not musically. The text itself is also regarded as beautiful, albeit not poetry. These claims are designed to establish for the text a uniqueness and distinctiveness that makes it one of the proofs of the divine origins of the Qur’an and incapable of having been composed by human beings. From the early years of Islam, numerous stories exist of Arabs hearing the Qur’an recited and immediately prostrating themselves, even though they were not yet Muslims. The beauty of the text is intimately linked to what makes it religiously powerful and persuasive.

Islam often sees beauty as an essential aspect of the truth in a world designed by God to both instruct and delight. The idea of a distinction between the good and the beautiful is difficult to understand, since in Arabic virtue and beauty are both called husn. Beauty is often seen as a vital sign of the inner truth from the reciting of the Qur’an to calligraphy, design, and architecture, all of which are representations in the everyday world of God. There is a long debate on the acceptability of some art forms such as music and representative art, with some arguing that these distract the believer from the principles of Islam, while others suggest the contrary—that they connect him or her more closely with the essence of divine unity.

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