|
"Allah is Beautiful and He
cares for beauty"
Because we have little interest in all the beauty which
Allah has created everywhere in nature, we are led
inexorably to destroy life on earth. We destroy all the
living creatures which the earth shelters, and we spoil what
Allah has created by turning all natural splendours into
man-made uggliness.
Yet, ultimately, the perpetrator of such destructive actions
will suffer the consequences; he will find himself among the
victims, for Allah has created the earth for the benefit of
all, and not for a few individuals only, or part of mankind,
to benefit alone from its ressources.
AESTHETIC EDUCATION AND ITS
REPERCUSSIONS ON
THE PRESERVATION OF NATURE
Dr.
Ahmad Ar-Raissouni
Professor at the Department of Islamic studies, Faculty of
Letters, Mohammed V University, Rabat.
By "aesthetic education", I mean the whole education of the
mind, its predisposition, its gift for contemplation, all
that which makes man's attention be attracted to everything
beautiful in life and in nature, which allows him to
experience emotions and a sense of respect on seeing beauty,
to enjoy it and benefit from it while watching over its
preservation and its blossoming. In the Quran as well as in
the Sunna, Islam stresses the importance of that aspect of
education, the noblest of all, and it aims at instilling it
in human nature by promoting the nobility of heart and soul,
the sharpness of mind and feeling, of the senses of hearing,
sight, smell, and taste.
The following examples, taken first from the Quran(1)
, then from the Sunna attest to it.
In the holy Quran
It is said that the kind of beauty which man must admire,
contemplate, and preserve first and foremost is that of the
human species itself.
Allah the Glorious has said in this respect: "O man! What
evil has enticed you from your gracious Lord, Who created
and proportioned you, and moulded your body to His will?" (surat
"Al Infitar," ["The Cataclysm,"] verses 6-8.)
These verses clearly emphasize the evolutionary aspect of
beauty and embellishment in the creation of the human being:
"He created you and proportioned you."
In another surat (surat "At-tin" ["The
Fig,"] verse 4,) Allah said: "We moulded man into a most
noble image." This very same divine power is expressed in
many other verses that speak of the creation of man himself,
of his remarkable sensitivity, his eloquence and his
perfection. However, Allah the Almighty and the Magnanimous
talks here about human creation of a special kind: it is
that which manifests itself through kindness, virtue, and
beauty ("We moulded man into a most noble image.") In his
prayers, the Prophet (Peace and Grace of Allah Upon Him)
used to say: "O Allah, May You take care over my morals the
same way You took care over my birth...." By this, the
Prophet draws our attention to the essential point which is
that, whenever a man looks at himself in a mirror, or at
anybody else, he must never lose sight of the principles of
virtue and self-improvement ("the same way You took care
over my birth,"), but he must keep praying and yearning for
more embetterment, for more beauty of another kind: that of
his moral standards for which he must strive. Allah has
endowed us with every possible means to improve our physical
condition, and it is up to us to preserve those means while
keeping up the pursuit of another kind of improvement, of
beauty: that of our morals.
1. The Quran stresses the manifestations of beauty in
nature and in all creatures:
After dealing with man, the Quran then proceeds to discuss
various aspects of the universe whose beauty Allah urges us
to admire. The verses that talk about the universe and all
creatures are numerous. The ones in which I am particularly
interested here are those which put forth the idea that we
have to appreciate and to enjoy beauty, but we must also
always respect it. Along the same lines, surat Qaf, verses
6-10, reads: "Have they never observed the sky above them
and marked how We built it up?" then "and furnished it with
ornaments." It does not just say "how We built it up;" it
says "how We built it up and furnished it with ornaments."
This statement is something more than the mere assertion
that something good and solid has been created. As a matter
of fact, Allah draws our attention to something else too,
when He adds about the sky: "We built it up and furnished it
with ornaments, leaving no crack in its expanse." The fact
that the sky has no cracks, no holes, no openings, and no
clefts is one manifestation, among others, of its beauty.
"We spread out the earth and set mountains upon it. And in
it We created fruitful unions to bring forth all kinds of
delectable plants." (Anything that fills the perceptive
observer with cheerfulness and hope is delectable). "And in
it We created fruitful unions to bring forth all kinds of
delectable plants. A lesson and a reminder for penitent men.
We send down blessed water from the sky with which We bring
forth gardens." The effect of the image of the earthly
gardens, described as heavenly, is to draw our attention to
their beauty since gardens are, in general, symbolic of
beauty, and the beauty of nature and gardens itself evokes
Paradise. "We bring forth gardens and the harvest grain, and
tall date palm-trees laden with clusters of dates."
Obviously, these aesthetic descriptions have a highly
symbolic value (everybody knows that date palm-trees are
tall and have clusters of dates.) We are not dealing here
with a lesson on dates, on all the food, the drinks and
other goods that can be derived from the date palm-tree;
what we have here is a description that puts forth the
aesthetic qualities of the date palm-tree. From surat
"Sheba", verse 15, we learn that: "The natives of Sheba had
two gardens in their dwelling-places." Allah (the Almighty
and the Glorious) emphasizes the beauty and the magnificence
that characterized those gardens, to the extent that they
are compared to earthly paradises in the dwelling-places of
the Sheba inhabitants. Those gardens are compared to
paradises as a way to make the importance of their
luxuriousness stand out --a luxuriousness for which we have
to thank Allah, for those who are not thankful to Him will
suffer the same fate as the natives of Sheba.
Surat "An-naml" ("The Ant"), verse 60, talks about: "He Who
made the heavens and the earth and, for you, sends down
water from the sky, bringing forth gardens of delight."
Therefore, those gardens do not yield only fruits, but also
another kind of "bounty" onto which the Quran calls our
attention: it is the atmosphere of heavenliness which those
gardens emanate to the delight of the strollers and the
contemplators. Indeed, an important lesson to bear in mind
is that we should not consider those gardens merely as
sources of profits and food, but also as sources of delight:
"Try as you may, you cannot cause such trees to grow.
Another god besides Allah? Yet, they set up equals with
Him!"
Verse 5 of surat "Al Hadj" ("Pilgrimage") reads: "You
sometimes see the earth dry and barren: but no sooner do We
send down rain upon it than it begins to stir and swell,
putting forth every kind of radiant bloom." This is one more
instance of the Quran celebrating the cheerfulness stemming
from the beauty of nature, of all those trees, those dates
and those plants.
In surat "An-nahl" ("The Bee"), one finds many such verses
of celebration. This surat reminds us of the necessity to
contemplate Allah's creatures and their beauty. In it,
Allah (the Mighty and the Majestic) says: "He created the
beasts which provide you with warm clothing, food, and other
goods. They look beautiful to you." Thus, Allah mentions
the beauty of those animals, and does not reduce their worth
to the food and the transportation with which they provide
us. Allah then adds: "How beautiful they look to you when
you bring them back to rest in the evening, or when you take
them out to graze in the morning. They carry you and your
burdens to far-off lands, which you could not otherwise
reach except with painful toil if Allah the Compassionate
and the Merciful had not given you horses, mules, and
donkeys which you may ride or use as ornaments." Beauty is
therefore embodied even in horses, mules, and donkeys, and
we have to contemplate it, appreciate it, and admire it in
those animals instead of considering them simply as mounts,
as means of transportation for us and our luggage.
"It is Allah Who has created the sea so that you may eat of
its fresh fish and bring up from it ornaments with which to
adorn your persons." So, we derive from the sea ornaments,
that is, means of embellishment, of increasing beauty. Like
everything else which Allah has created, the sea is
therefore more than a source of fresh fish: it is a source
of beauty and adornment. Such is the other angle from which
Allah wants us to look at the sea.
"And in cattle too, we give you to drink of that which is in
their bellies, between their bowels and their blood-streams:
good nourishing milk."
To state the obvious, one could say that milk is a healthy
food that appeases our hunger and strengthens our bodies.
However, Allah has endowed it with yet another important
quality: that of being good, that is, of tasting good --for
Allah Almighty could have created food that is nourishing
for our bodies, but tasteless. So, flavour makes the beauty
of food; it is on this particular point that Allah draws our
attention when He speaks of "good nourishing milk." A
food's nutritional value does not lie in its flavour; a food
may have the sustenance needed for our survival, and yet be
tasteless and difficult to digest. Therefore, Allah urges us
fully to enjoy our food to which we do not pay the attention
it deserves since we usually think only of satisfying our
hunger and ensuring our survival, without attaching much
importance to the foods' flavour and delight.
2. Aesthetic education in the Sunna
Deep interest for particulars and for the ordinary run of
things has always characterized the Sunna. It is from it
that we have taken the following enlightening accounts which
initiate us into the aesthetic experience and the art of
building up a harmonious lifestyle.
According to the account of Ibn Messaoud, Allah Bless him,
the Prophet (PBBUH) said: "He who harbours in his heart even
the slightest feeling of superiority will not enter
Paradise." A man remarked that: "Humans like to wear
beautiful clothes and shoes." To which the Prophet (PBBUH)
replied: "Allah is Beautiful and He cares for beauty."(2)
As to that feeling of superiority, it is but falsehood and
delusion.
"Allah is Beautiful and He cares for beauty": indeed, here
is an absolute truth. It is a truth of cardinal importance
for it implies that wearing beautiful shoes and beautiful
clothes, and being neat-looking does not at all partake of
that feeling of superiority against which the Prophet has
warned us. On the contrary, it is something which Allah
appreciates. However, as it is said in the account, the
slightest feeling of superiority causes one to be denied
access to Paradise. Therefore, that humans strongly long to
create beauty, in a very natural and innate manner in most
cases, does not mean that they have delusions of grandeur;
it is something which Allah appreciates because Allah
Almighty Himself is beautiful and cares for beauty. In his
accounts, Malik attributes the following words to Omar Ibn
Al Khattab (ABH): "I like to see the reader wearing
spotlessly white clothes."(3)
According to Ibn Abdelbar, "in this context, the 'reader'
means the 'ascetic,' the one who renounces worldly pleasures
and devotes himself to the worship of Allah; the readers
include Allah's servants and the theologists...." Ibn
Abdelbar adds: "The words of Omar, the Prophet's companion (ABH),
quoted in this account clearly point out that one should not
practice asceticism and worship Allah in gross and dirty
clothes for Allah Almighty is Beautiful and He cares for
beauty. The dressing style of Allah's Messenger is a model
to follow."(4)
On the other hand, according to the account of Abu Horayra (ABH),
the Prophet (PBBUH) said: "Fear the two cursed ones," that
is, those that have provoked Allah into cursing them. "What
are those two cursed ones, O Allah's Messenger?" somebody
asked him. "He who pollutes people's ways and shelters," who
relieves himself at their expense. That one runs the risk of
being cursed, and Allah's curse is most feared by the
Prophet warns.
Choukani explains that: "The purpose of this hadith is to
prevent people from creating disorder and thus harming other
Muslims."(5)
These various examples clearly illustrate the degradation of
beauty and, consequently, the environment in which we live.
As Choukani points out, such cursed behaviour is harmful to
man's senses of sight, hearing, smelling --in short, to all
his senses.
In another hadith, related by Abu Dawud and Ibn Maja, in
addition to the examples of the way and the shelter, we find
that of the water troughs, the pollution of which is
condemned because we are dealing here with vital routes for
water.
According to Abi Horayra (ABH), the Prophet (PBBUH) said:
"There are about sixty or seventy articles of faith. The
most important one is the statement 'There is no other god
but Allah,' and the least important one is the commitment to
keep public spaces in a good state of cleanliness for a good
social behaviour is part and parcel of one's faith."(6)
The key idea in this hadith is that preserving the
cleanliness of public places is one of the articles of
faith. The purpose is, obviously, to make us keep our
environment and our roads clean and beautiful, to make us
protect them from the filth and the contaminants that
degrade them and make them ugly.
And according to Anass, Allah's Messenger (PBBUH) said:
"Spitting in a mosque is a sin, and the only way to atone
for it is to bury the spittle".(7) This way, we
can preserve the beauty, the purity and the cleanliness of
the mosques; once adopted by all, such a behaviour will hold
inside as well as outside the mosques.
Most of the accounts referred to so far give examples that
are shocking to the eye ; but there are also texts that
focus on the sense of hearing as yet another sense which
partakes of the beautiful, and which we must protect by
reducing the noises in our environment.
Numerous hadiths about the positive effects of Quran
chanting on one's voice have come into being. They are
therefore an incentive for us to improve our voices, and the
evidence that vocal beauty has value and benefit.
Regarding the repelling effect of unpleasant voices,
Almighty Allah said: "Let your voice low: the harshest of
voices is the braying of the ass" (surat "Luqman," verse
19.)
In an authenticated hadith, the Prophet (PBBUH) said:
"Whenever you hear an ass braying,you will understand that
it has probably seen a bad djinn and you will implore
Allah's help."
Thus, the hadith disapproves of unpleasant and irritating
voices, and it gives us some practical advice on how to
avoid letting our voices become so. It tells us that praying
accustoms us to speaking in a quiet and beautiful voice. As
a matter of fact, it is quite obvious that one of the
consequences of the pollution of the environment is the
weakening of our hearing capacity due to all kinds of noises
and to the fact that we have lost the habit of speaking in a
soft and quiet voice.
Regarding the texts that deal with the necessity to keep our
smelling sense and the pleasures we derive from it intact,
we can mention the accounts of Abu Horayra (ABH) according
to which the Prophet (PBBUH) said: "Whoever is offered a
mild and sweet fragrance should take it." Thereby, the
Prophet stresses the advantages of acquiring and using a
fragrance, and he invites people to seek sweet scents.
Nowadays, bad odours and vile smell are manifest signs of
the degradation of the environment.
In his account, Abi Khodri (ABH) reports the following words
spoken by the Prophet (PBBUH): "It is an obligation for
every nubile person to take a bath on Friday, to use some
siwak, and also to put on a reasonable amount of fragrance."
People who put on some perfume emanate a smell that is
pleasant both for themselves and for the others, thereby
covering up whatever stenches may be coming out from their
bodies or their surroundings.
From Choukani, we learn that there exist many sources
pointing to the fact that Allah the Mighty cares for sweet
scents. Attirmidi quoted Ibn Al Moussayab saying: "Allah
the Majestic is Kind and He cares for kindness; He is Clean
and He cares for cleanliness; He is Generous and He cares
for generosity; He is Benevolent and He cares for
benevolence. Lest you should become like the Jews, you must
clean up your dirt."(8)
In addition to the hadiths that encourage us to stimulate
our smelling sense, to get it used to appreciating and
demanding sweat smells, there are many other hadiths that
reprove vile smell. Among such hadiths, one in particular
has caught our attention: it recommends that we not enter a
mosque after eating garlic and onion, not until their smell
has dissipated .
What relation is there between these various examples and
recommendations to which the Quran and the Sunna draw our
attention, and the protection of the environment?
The experts in Islamic law put all the hadiths and the
quranic verses that urge us to pay heed to the
manifestations of beauty and to take care of it by
developing an appropriate behaviour in the "need for
aesthetic improvement" category. Based on the issues they
deal with, the hadiths and the quranic verses are divided
into three categories, which are well-known among the
experts and quite used in everyday language, namely the
category of the essentials of life, the category of nature's
needs, and the category of the need for aesthetic
improvement. All the various points discussed in the above
mentioned accounts belong in the need for aesthetic
improvement category. If the law urges us to make
improvements in such an ordinary field of life as that of
pure beauty, the kind of beauty which we must acknowledge at
once as being pure without endowing it with any other a
priori value, well, if the law insists on that point, then,
one can safely assert that he who makes improvement in this
field will aim at elevation in a very natural manner. Imam
Achatibi defines the need for improvement, more often than
not referred to in relation to the aesthetic field and to
the issue of taste, in the following words: "To improve
oneself is to take what is best in one's customs, and to
avoid indulging in those immoral behaviours that are typical
of frivolous minds." Then, he proceeds to give us a few
examples to follow, based on what is required by prayers and
customs.
- prayers: personal hygiene and, more generally speaking,
all forms of purification, decent clothing, offering, for
example, giving alms, giving to charities, and the like ;
- customs: compliance with the dietary code which commands
that we eat and drink in a civilized manner, and that we
avoid the foods and the drinks prohibited by religion, as
well as wasting and miserliness in our dealings that may
lead us to commit illicit acts such as selling goods unfit
for human consumption."(9)
Most of these recommendations aim first and foremost at
educating people and getting them used to taking care of the
entire Creation. Since the law attaches great importance to
the preservation of that aspect of our life, then, the
preservation of even more lofty things will become like an
instinct, and we will see to it spontaneously and without
warning. Obviously, working towards improving the aesthetic
quality of life is the starting point of a process that will
lead us towards much higher goals. That is why we can
consider that the aesthetic education which Islam gives us
aims essentially at protecting and preserving the
environment as much as possible. We urge people not to be
destructive; we urge them to protect the beauty of things
and not only to ensure their availability as usefulness.
Indeed, one must stress the necessity to preserve the beauty
of things because it represents the climax of man's efforts
to protect the environment, and also because this
recommendation reflects the truly deep level of
understanding of human needs which characterizes Islam
--Islam that urges the human being to preserve things not
just in order for him to meet the necessities of life and to
satisfy nature's needs, but also to benefit from their
aesthetic value. That is man's effort to protect the
environment and all nature's goods at its most elevated
state, at its noblest. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the
Worlds.
|
