Ideja lijepog u izvorima islama
The tdea of tihe beautiful in the sources of Islam

Summary/Abstract: The theoretical discussion on whether or not there exists in Islam as a theological and philosophical doctrine the concept of the beautiful in the esthetic sense or whether or not Islam has an attitude toward art and what that attitude is, has long been carried on. The author has undertaken to consider that question directly in the Koran and Mohamed's tradition (hadis); he has deliberately taken these sources only in order to elucidate the idea of the beautiful in Islam in the very beginning, apart from the attitudes expressed in the latter Islamic literature. The author has reached these conclusions: In pre-Renaissance civilizations, inlcludi!llg Islam and the Islamic world as well, the idea expressed in modern times by the term. art was expressed by the terms beauty and beautiful. The connection between the terms beauty and art harving been established in this way makes it possible for us to see an entire little world in tihe quoted sources of Islam, where we encounter not only the concept of the beautiful and beauty, but also a representation of the object of beauty and even judgments of these objects as true !beMers of the idea of the beautiful. Both the Koran and the hadis communicate in the language which is understood by the common man. Having this in view and as both the Koran and the hadis contain a large number of examples of esthetic evaluation (understanding, valorization), it means accordinigly that the pre-Islamic Arab society Hijaz, in which the Koran and the hadis appeared, had a certain cultural and philosophical foundation which made it possible for the idea of the beautiful to be received and comprehended. Several pieces of evidence concerning this have been quoted. A terminology of esthetic nations taiken directly from the texts of the Koran and the hadis has also been provided, The author qootes the hadis: »Allah is beautiful and loves beauty« (Allahu gamil wa yuhibbu-l-gamal) and other examples and concludes that according to basic principles of Islam beauty is a divine capacity. He also states that according to these same sources the idea of the beautiful exists both in things which are the product of human hands and in things produced .by nature itself (pineapple fruit, shell of a snail, honeycomb; etc.). The last chapter deals with the worlds of the beautiful according to the principal quoted sources of Islam: the author concludes, quoting texts from the Koran and the hadis, that Islam sees beauty, and also art, in the unity of the cosmos, in nature, in the proportions of the human organism, and in that which is the product of human hands. He finds evidence of the positive attitude of Islam toward the beauty of nature in the descriptions of paradise, which greatly emphasize the beauty of the vegetation, water and landscape.

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