Art is the eighth of the attributes of the inheritors of the Earth.¹⁾

“Could an absolute, perfect beauty not will to present itself through one who will demonstrate and display it? Could a perfectly beautiful artistry not will to make itself known through one who will draw our attention to it?”²⁾

“Human beings have been created of the best stature as the perfect pattern of creation, and given a comprehensive potential. They have been sent to the world as miracles of power, the ultimate pinnacle of creation, and wonders of art.”³⁾

“… the perfect art and orderliness in everything’s essence and existence, as well as its attributes and functions, show that everything is made to exist in accordance with the laws of an effective, all-penetrating Will and the principles of a perfect, absolute Power.”⁴⁾

“… among Divine works of art life is both the most hidden and the most apparent, and the most valuable and the most inexpensive, and it is the purest, most shining, and most meaningful embroidery of the Lord’s Art.”⁵⁾

“In every created thing one sees such delicate artistry, subtle wisdom, lofty adornment, compassionate arrangement, and sweet composure that it is clear as daylight that, behind the veil of the unseen, there is an Artist who wishes conscious beings to notice His work and admire it. By displaying many skills and perfections in every piece, He seeks to make Himself loved and to win praise and acclaim.”⁶⁾

“Nature has two facets: one outward, which the heedless and misguided mistake for reality; the other inward, which is the Divine artistry and the merciful imprint (sibghat ar-Rahman).”⁷⁾

“Art is the soul of progress and one of the most important ways of developing the senses. Unlucky talents that miss the chance to travel this path live all their lives with a part of themselves as if paralyzed.

Art is like a magic key that discovers and opens hidden treasures. Behind the doors it opens, ideas don the raiment of form and fantasies almost take on flesh.

If there is a wing of thought that lets people roam the depths of the seas and the heights of the skies, that wing is art. Thanks to art, a person hoists sail to the vastness of earth and heaven and reaches perceptions beyond time and space.

Among the forces that preserve human feeling and at every moment point those feelings toward the highest goals—driving sensitive souls ever deeper—art stands first. Without art we would see none of the beauties that now exist in the world of human intervention and invention, and those fiery artist-souls would have been buried with all their plans, designs, and imaginings.

The foremost tablet that portrays humanity’s inner depths is art. Yes—through art the deepest feelings and thoughts, the most striking observations, the most heartfelt longings have been recorded, almost immortalized, as though etched onto a disk.

Was it not through the companionship of art with faith that this magnificent world became a gallery of beauty—its soaring mosques, minarets pointing beyond like index fingers of testimony; the blessed patterns and motifs on the foreheads of marble, the varied calligraphies, shining illuminations, enduring embroideries, and patterns as lovely as butterfly wings?

True knowledge reveals itself through art; one who has produced no work of art cannot be said to know very much.

The vitality of human faculties is closely tied to the spirit of art; a person without art may not be dead, but he can hardly be called fully alive.

All artistic efforts that carry no weight with souls of true artistry arise from a failure to distinguish form from spirit. Esteem and interest shown to any work of art is due not so much to its substance as to the artistry and skill within its spirit.

It is art that makes iron more valuable than gold, copper more precious than bronze. By art even the cheapest metals become worth more than gold, silver, or diamond.

All the fine arts along our line of thought are immortal gifts that blessed artistic spirits have bestowed on humanity. And every means that contributes to our comfort and welfare—from the clock that tells us the time to the glasses that strengthen our eyes; from the wireless and telephones that bring distant places near to the televisions that relay sounds and images from every corner of the earth; from trains, buses, and airplanes to shuttles and spacecraft—are likewise the works of these refined spirits open to art.

Souls closed to art are merely part of the crowd: their being or not being is the same; they are of no use to themselves, their families, or their nation—and may even be harmful.”⁸⁾

“For an alert soul, all of nature, all existence, and everything altogether is a pavilion of beauties, a gallery of art and marvels, a promenade of delight and joy.”⁹⁾

“Reflections that revolve around ego and self-importance are negative feelings that can affect people in almost every field of life, not just in the world of art. Yet, by the nature of his work, an artist must present his art to the public eye and favor; therefore one may say that the artist’s test with such human weaknesses and gaps is greater and harder. If he wishes to practice his art on the horizon of lofty, exalted values, he must be more careful, more cautious, pay the due of his will, and strive to stand on firmer ground.”¹⁰⁾

“One must not forget that the human being is himself a Divine work of art, and such a monument and its endowment deserve respect. Respect for man is, in one aspect, respect for the One who created him.”¹¹⁾

“Art is not for art’s sake. Art is for a cause, for an ideal, for a thought. Beyond all these—and together with them—art is only for God.”¹²⁾

“Art is one of the ways in which a person expresses his feelings and thoughts. While presenting those feelings and thoughts to society, the artist tries to express them through art—he wants to embody a beauty he has conceived or captured in things, or to offer it to others within an abstract frame. Yet he is not always successful: often art does not run parallel to the realities and beauties of society. Moreover, the concreteness of art can sometimes lead to idolatry and totemism, contrary to a society’s character and morality.

Art—especially in its concrete form—is a style, a depiction; but when compared with the Qur’an’s style and depiction, it is lame and far behind. For it treats things one-dimensionally and reflects them as such; in it one cannot speak of beauties that unfold in life, movement, and constant variety. The Qur’an, however, gives this perfectly: in every parable it relates, the qualities it wishes to convey shimmer with full vitality, and those expressions are not blunted or faded within the single-dimensioned limits of time and place.”¹³⁾

“Faith produces in spirits open to beauty a sense of art so deep that a believing artist, without effort, reaches the abstract essence of existence in the prism of infinity with a few strokes and motifs on his canvas, and dyes his art with such a hue of eternity that every time one views that work he feels confronted with a tiny miniature of all being. In the picturing—through the language of art—of reflections of divine unity and transcendence, he attains the pleasure of beholding the limitless in limited forms, the ocean in a drop, the universe in an atom, within the enchanted world of lines.”¹⁴⁾

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