Decolonization is not a matter of liberating peoples only politically but also intellectually and artistically (among yet other ways), and towards its realization the diversity and profundity of Islamic arts and sciences need to be understood in light of each other given their interconnectedness in their own contexts. Using theories of epistemic decolonization and of aesthetics, Oludamini Ogunnaike, a contemporary scholar of Sufism, African thought, and Islamic art, highlights the metaphysical and cosmological rigor and profundity exhibited in much of Islamic art, as well as draws attention to a need in the humanities for moving beyond Western axioms and frameworks in postcolonial education. (Ogunnaike, Of Cannons; The Silent Theology) Combining both of these aspects of Ogunnaike’s epistemological theory—that is, (a) the embeddedness of Islamic doctrine in Islamic art and the pedagogical use of Islamic art, and (b) the dependence of the humanities on our moving beyond modern Western educational frameworks—I consult here the metaphysical and cosmological dimensions of two Persian Sufis (Rūzbihān Baqlī (d. 606/1209) and Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672/1273)) whose teachings expound foundational principles of a Sufi theory of beauty implied by their works, and helpful for contemplating beauty and art independently of modern Western axioms. The theory is that beauty is a theocentric reality that exists independently of the human appreciation of it.
Cosmological teachings of both Rūmī and Baqlī, as well as countless other Sufis, include exposition of the Sufi doctrine of tajallī (manifestation), that is, that all things are manifestations of God. In the theocentric world of both Rūmī and Baqlī, all positive qualities in creation are borrowed from God and are even the Divine’s manifestations into the created order. Concerning Baqlī’s teachings on beauty, Kazuyo Murata writes: “The story of beauty is the story of the unfolding of divine beauty through its two mirrors, the universe (the macrocosm) and the human being (the microcosm).” (Murata, 4) Just as a reflective object has no quality of its own on its surface (e.g. a mirror not having its own color), which enables it to reflect whatever image that is before it, the nothingness of this world enables its reflection of Divine Names and Qualities. The still pond reflecting the landscape and sky above is a symbol of cosmic and human reflections of God as facilitated by creation’s ontological nothingness before Divine Fullness (Mathnawī 6:3172-83). Rūmī explains:
“What is the mirror of Being? Not-being. Bring not-being (as your gift) [i.e., be humble and recognize your nothingness before God], if you are not a fool. Being can be seen (only) in not-being: the rich bestow generosity on the poor.” (Mathnawī, 1:3201-2)
In Islamic philosophical and Sufi expositions, God is often described as being Absolute (muṭlaq). In Sufi expositions on beauty, exemplified perhaps by Baqlī’s, not only is God’s Being (wujūd) absolute, but so too is His Beauty (ḥusn) absolute. (Murata, 44) In other words, Divine Nature is real unto Itself. Although the application of Divine Qualities can take place in response to human thought and action—God responding with the mercy of drawing closer to a person or with the wrath of drawing farther away, for example—the Divine Names and Qualities do not in and of themselves change with the opinions of people. There is an objective and independent reality to the Divine Names and Qualities. The moon—symbolizing in its literary polyvalence the Divine—shines and moves independently of the howling of dogs. (Mathnawī, 4:1464) Furthermore, a ḥadīth teaches that “God is Beautiful, and He loves beauty.” Beauty in creation, therefore, is that which is God-like (signifying Divine immanence) as well as that which is loved by God, making it an objective quality.
Cosmic beauty does not itself lessen nor increase with the subjective human appreciation of it, since its source is not the human mind but God. Moreover, in Murata’s translation of Baqlī’s teachings on being and beauty into philosophical language, absolute ugliness (that is, the absolute privation of beauty) is non-existent; in other words, wherever there is being there is beauty. (Murata, 44-45) Therefore, beauty exists in and of itself in every thing, and it is itself independently of human opinion. This, however, is not to deny the privation of beauty in the created order. Beauty in its absoluteness belongs to God; creatures, which are not God, are necessarily not as beautiful as God. Manifestation implies distance from the Divine. But manifestation also implies continuity, and it is by virtue of this continuity that things are beautiful. (Murata, 40-47) Albeit in a different context, Carl Ernst explains that for Baqlī there exists a constant interplay between Divine transcendence and the manifestations of God. (Ernst, 40)
What then do we make of the human assessment of the apparent beauty of things (or the apparent lack thereof)? Baqlī offers the term mustaqbaḥ, which means that one considers something ugly but not that something is actually ugly. (Murata, 40) Ultimately, the theory that beauty is in the nature of things necessitates distinction between the subjective nature of attraction and the objective nature of beauty. In the Sufi doctrines of Rūmī and Baqlī, beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, but in the nature of things.
Bibliography
Balkhī, Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Mathnawī-i ma‘nawī, 6 vols. Edited by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson. Tehran: Fararoy, 2011.
———. The Mathnawí of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí, 3 vols. Edited and translated by Reynold A. Nicholson. Cambridge: The E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2015. Note: Translations modified slightly.
———. Masnavi. Edited by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, “Muhammad”, and Ibrahim Gammard. masnavi.net. Last accessed: March 10th, 2025.
Ernst, Carl W. Ruzbihan Baqli: Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Mysticism. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Murata, Kazuyo. Beauty in Sufism: The Teachings of Rūzbihān Baqlī. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017.
Ogunnaike, Oludamini. “Of Cannons and Canons: The Promise and Perils of Postcolonial Education.” Renovatio 2, no. 2 (Fall 2018): 25-39.
————. “The Silent Theology of Islamic Art.” Renovatio 1, no. 2 (Fall 2017): 16-30.
Towards a decolonization of the theory of Islamic art, this paper consults doctrines of the Persian Sufis Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672/1273) and Rūzbihān Baqlī (d. 606/1209) as they bear upon a Sufi understanding of beauty. Their teachings on the Sufi doctrine of tajallī (manifestation), that is, that all things are manifestations of God, imply that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder but is in the nature of things. Given that the Divine is Absolute (muṭlaq), as exemplified by the Divine Name the Truth / the Real (al-Ḥaqq), beauty can be described metaphysically as an objective reality that exists in the true nature of all manifest beings. Ultimately, this theory necessitates that a distinction be made between the subjective nature of attraction and the objective nature of beauty, as well as offers decolonial support through insight into traditional intellectual principles that inform Islamic aesthetics.