Article appeared Friday, February 8th, 2013 in The News Today, Bangladesh

The Revelation (265)

yousuf mahbubul Islam, PhD

Do we appreciate beauty? Before looking at what we individually appreciate, let us look at the definition of beauty given in the dictionary. The meanings include, the qualities that give pleasure to the senses and an outstanding example of its kind. So anything that gives pleasure to our senses or is an outstanding example can be classified as beautiful. Let us now study an example and consider how our senses derive pleasure. For example, is there beauty in instrumental music? There are people who like instrumental music playing softly in the background while working. The music gives pleasure, helps relax the nerves and thereby supports concentration of such people. To allow our senses to get this pleasure what is required? Is there a system or a chain of things/events, all of which must fit together? What are these? There are a huge variety of musical instruments and craftsmanship, musical notes and chords, musicians and their skills, musical composition and musical grammar, recording and reproduction technology, our listening ability and above all the ability to sense and appreciate the pleasure of music, i.e. a very detailed and intricate system is in place to finally allow human beings to enjoy the pleasure or beauty of music. Starting from the knowledge of how to craft musical instruments to our ability to appreciate and derive pleasure how does such a system happen to be in place? We could formulate a variety of questions to help discover how. For example, where did the knowledge of musical instruments come from? What differentiates different musical notes from noise? Where did the seven repeating musical notes doh-rey-mefaa-so-la-ti-DOH or sa-re-gaa-ma-pa-dha-ni-SA come from? How do such notes happen to agree with our senses to give pleasure? When we start to answer these and other possible questions, we would discover that the whole system or chain fits together with an engineering precision. Matching each part of the chain to the next requires a high degree of planning and intelligence for the entire system to work together in unison. If we think about this deeply, we will find the Creators Hand in designing and creating this system exclusively for human beings. So from the Creators point-of-view, He has not only designed a system of beauty that gives us pleasure, He has also created the ability to appreciate the beauty! How beautiful must the Creator be to not only create the system of beauty but also to give humans the ability to appreciate beauty! The most recent Revelation, the Quran accordingly informs mankind that the Creator possesses the most beautiful attributes or qualities: Say: "Call upon Allah or call upon Rahman: by whatever name you call upon Him (it is well): for to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names" [17.110] The name Allah simply means the Supreme God {1} or Creator. The name Rahman is an attribute or a beautiful quality of the Creator meaning The Beneficent, The Most Merciful in Essence, The Compassionate {2}. As created beings it is only possible to know our Creator through His Attributes or beautiful qualities that relate to us. As the system of observing through our eyes has also been created we therefore cannot directly see the Creator with our eyes. No vision can grasp Him but His Grasp is over all vision: He is above all comprehension yet is acquainted with all things. [6.103] The system of observing things using light and vision together with the ability to interpret what we see is also a beautiful system. How is it that we happen to appreciate, understand and derive pleasure when we see something visually? If we accept that this beautiful image recognition process and other things of beauty have been organized by the Creator for us, the question is why. Why has the Creator arranged things for us to enjoy and derive pleasure?

The answer is in the phrase call upon Him given in Verse 17.110 above. The answer is simply that we use our intelligence to appreciate the gifts granted by the Creator and consequently approach Him with awe and gratitude in our hearts. Having given us an opportunity to exist intelligently as well as enjoy beauty engineered by the Creator, it is His right to be adored and appropriately thanked this is the religion of righteousness. O you people! Adore your Guardian-Lord who created you and those who came before you that you may have the chance to learn righteousness. [2.21] Can one divert from the straight path of the religion of right? What kind of belief would one demonstrate by also adoring lucky charms, stones, the stars (astrology), by imagining that the Creator has sons or daughters, by practicing the occult or by creating self-imposed prohibitions and by believing in superstitions? All such attributions only serve to add imaginary gods and divide the religion into factions or sects.

6.159 As for those who divide their religion and break it up into sects take no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah: He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did.
Any division diverts from true belief and is therefore evil.

6.160 He that does good shall have ten times as much to his credit: he that does evil shall only be recompensed according to his evil. No wrong shall be done to (any of) them. 6.161 Say: "Verily my Lord has guided me to a way that is straight a religion of right the path (trod) by Abraham the true in faith and he (certainly) joined not gods with Allah."
Abraham questioned and discarded all additions to the religion of right. After discarding other imaginary gods Abraham established appropriate protocols and prayers.

6.162 Say: "Truly my prayer and my service of sacrifice my life and my death are (all) for Allah the Cherisher of the Worlds: 6.163 No partner has He: this am I commanded and I am the first of those who bow to His Will.
All things other than the Creator are created. Nothing other than the Creator has any power. For anything we need or want we should therefore address our Creator directly and not feel that other things, e.g. lucky charms have any power. Feeling that other things have power is demonstration of disbelief and therefore evil.

6.164 Say: "Shall I seek for (my) Cherisher other than Allah when He is the Cherisher of all things (that exist)?" Every soul draws the meed of its acts on none but itself: no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another. Your goal in the end is toward Allah: He will tell you the truth of the things where you disputed. 6.165 It is He who has made you (His) agents inheritors of the earth: He has raised you in ranks some above others: that He may try you in the gifts He has given you: for your Lord is quick in punishment: yet He is indeed Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.
-------{Notes}: {1} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allah {2} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahman_%28name%29