Islamic Art

According to Islamic and Qur’anic basis, monotheism is the core of Islamic Art and the real art is the one that calls toward spirituality and remembering God in the life and condemns any form of artwork which hinders human being from religiosity and divinity, (Qur’an 31:6). Qur’an from one hand addresses the story of prophet Josef, as the masterpiece of Qur’anic narratives (12:3) but it condemns, from the other hand, using ugly art to show distance human being from Divine beauties, (31:20). The main characteristics of Divine and Islamic Art is that the artist by his or her artwork tries to gain proximity to Allah, the Almighty, the creator of whole universe, and getting away from the worldly desires by observing the universe and the nature by realistic approaches than the eyes of benefit or loss. This perspective is totally different from the ugly or human-centered art which looks at everything by the vision of subjectivity and none or anti-metaphysical perspective looking at world on the basis of worldly benefits, desires, lust, hatred, disparity and animosity. This article intends to survey over several aspects of Islamic Art, from philosophical, spiritual and religious perspective.it will also illustrate some instances from Qur’an or from Hadith (Narration) from the holy prophet of Islam, Muhammad (S) and his Ahlulbayt (A.S). In this article Iranian Shi’a art which is the combination of the art of Iranian culture and also Iranian Shi’ite perspective on religion will also be elaborated on.

Associating certain forms and designs in Islamic Arts with the promised Heaven may be widely observed in the works of many historians and critics of the field. It is believed that Islamic Art has been derived from the imagination of the Paradise as depicted in Holy Quran. To express this meaning in technical words it should be said that the main concept in Islamic Arts has been the gardens of heaven generally described as containing the green trees (the tree of life), colorful flowers, flowing rivers, the ethereal drinks and foods, and even Huries (beautiful young virgins dressing in green fine silk) at the service of those who are permitted to meet God.

Islamic architecture has a fundamental dignity and tries to preserve the spiritual and immortal elements. The most sensible characteristic of this type of art is the compatibility with the nature of Islam; monotheism, which the mosque architecture provides the best bed for such purpose. The main model for constructing mosques, from both outward and internal spiritual truths point of view, is the Kaaba. It is considered as a religious and holly symbol in Muslims’ all issues. Since the Islamic artist in Islamic architecture seeks the means through forms, therefore, in addition to engineering appearance of Kaaba, which is the model of Islamic mosques’ architecture, its innate mysteries are also emanated in this type of art. Quiddity of these mysteries and their advent quality in the architecture of the mosques is the main issue we are confronting with. This research tries to uncover the coded forms of Kaaba and come out of the attaining unique secrets of these forms in the rational and material world and the way of their emanation in the Islamic architecture, which is the main purpose here. Achieving this purpose is due to benefiting from theological sciences, studying Islamic narratives and verses, and also philosophical, theosophical and knowledge studies which are in descriptive and library types. It is possible to reach the depth of existential philosophy of Kaaba under the shadow of these investigations and the basics of the Islamic architecture would be considering in the next phase and that information in literature review, which features the mysteries of Kaaba would be interpreted in this sacred art. These studies clarify that Kaaba is a secret of unique being of God and it is the emanation of his terrestrial form in divine heaven. Thus, mosques’ architecture is an appearance of the divine house trying to create sacred atmosphere, to indicate this eternal truth and capable the human being to connect to his idol and reach to the final destination of the creation, which is knowing the single God.