Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 850 [Read full issue]
Making Beautiful
The Sunnah is emphatic on cleanliness in terms both of personal hygiene and the living environment. The Prophet has thus been quoted to have said that "cleanliness is one half of the faith." [Muslim]
As an integral aspect of beauty (jamal) within and outside the rituals of the faith, the Prophet has also said that "God is beautiful and He loves beauty." [Muslim] Commentators have viewed that the reference here is to one's body, living quarters, and surrounding environment.
The appreciation of beauty is not merely a question of subjective aesthetics; it is also an objective aspect of the function of the intellect. Beauty thus takes one to the heart of ethics. The Arabic ihsan, which is also a recurrent Quranic word, is often translated as "virtue" or "excellence," also means "making beautiful" and means to beautify. Virtue and ihsan can thus be understood as that which makes the soul beautiful. In this light, the relationship among the intellect, ethics, and aesthetics is captured in one of the sayings of Imam Ali: "The excellence of the intellect is in the beauty of things outward and inward." Beauty is comprehensive when the outward beauty of form and action is complemented by inward beauty, that is, beauty of the soul, or virtue.
Compiled From:
"The Middle Path of Moderation in Islam: The Qur'anic Principle of Wasatiyyah" - Hashim Kamali