ART AND MORALITY

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

APPENDIX 1

 

ART AND MORALITY 

 

Vulgar aestheticism, with its base in erotic art, forms a very serious obstacle in the way of moral progress. Coming into conflict with the genuinely-moral yearnings, it exerts a profound immoral influence if it is permitted to hold sway, even as it is exerting on a progressively more and more damaging scale among the Westernised human societies—especially in the countries of origin, where vulgar pursuit of aestheticism is assuming alarming proportions day by day leading the affected communities headlong to ultimate spiritual and moral destruction. 

 

Now, while the Holy Qur’an itself affirms the aesthetical value and prescribes aesthetical duties, as we have recorded elsewhere in this book,^[1] it is with the same vehemence opposed to the immoralisation of the aesthetical pursuit. Indeed, it lends the entire weight of its philosophy of life firmly to the principle that the aesthetical value cannot stay pure unless it is wedded to the highest spiritual and moral considerations. It is convinced that aestheticism based on sensuousness is the mother of all moral ills and spiritual perversions. 

 

Behind this attitude of the Qur’an, which has withstood the test of history, there is its scheme of values wherein the gradation is: (1) Religion; (2) Morality; (3) Knowledge; (4) Art.^[2]

 

This gradation of values emerges when we consider, in the first instance, the oft-repeated Qur’anic expression:

“those who possess Faith and practise the Virtues.” (2:25; etc.—mentioned 49 times).

Here ‘religion’ forms the highest value, and next to it stands ‘morality’.

Then, in the following verse, ‘religion’ stands first and ‘knowledge’ stands second:

“… Allah will exalt those of you who possess Faith and those who are endowed with Knowledge …” (58:11). 

 

However, because, according to the Qur’anic philosophy of life, Faith is meaningless without the possession of sound Morality, which makes religion and morality twins, as in  the previously-quoted verse, the gradation finaly deducible from the above verses is: Religion, Morality, Knowledge.

 

As for the pursuit of the Beautiful, the Qur’anic standpoint is:

a.     That pursuit can be undertaken both ways: good and evil; and hence it should always be treated in terms of morality. Thus we are told:

 “Lo! We have made that which is on the earth an ornament (i.e., source of beauty) thereof (i.e., with reference to the life on it, which is related to sensuous pleasure—both refined and vulgar) that We may try them (i.e.,the human beings): which of them is best in conduct (with respect to their aesthetical pursuit wherein the test is whether they indulge in vulgarity and indecency or adopt in that respect the highest moral standards).” (18:7). 

 

b.    All sensuous vulgar pursuit in the aesthetical domain is from the Devil and should, therefore, be avoided:^[3]

“Lo! he (i.e., the Devil) commands indecency and abomination …” (24:21).

 

And the holy Book has reminded us that it is the mission of the Devil to employ beauty for misleading mankind, in as much as he had proclaimed at the dawn of Creation:

“… I verily shall employ Beauty for them (i.e., the human beings) in the earth (i.e., based on the earthly environment, inducing them to the love of sensuous pleasure and to the adoption, for that purpose, of the materialistic and hedonistic approach to Art), and shall mislead them all,—except such as are your perfectly devoted servants.” (15:39-40).

 

Thus, the aesthetical pursuit has, in the very nature of the case, to be subordinated always to the demands of morality, whereby alone the moral tone and social health of the human beings can be ensured.

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[1] Ref : Volume 2, pp. 49-59.

[2] Only such cultures as are pessimistic in outlook and stand consequently in need of dopes, can reasonably idolise Art and give it a status higher than that of Morality or Religion or Knowledge in their gradation of values. Indeed, they are in need of employing momentary ‘contemplation of the beautiful’ as an escape from the sense the of misery and the consequent agony to which the pessimistic outlook on life gives rise. This cannot be possible in the case of the Qur’anic philosophy of life which upholds vigorously an optimistic outlook and regards pessimism as nothing less than Infidelity: Kufr (12:87).

[3] For certain direct commands relating to this problem, refer to 24:31, 60; etc.

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to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times

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