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In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful
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In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful
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Allah is Beautiful & Loves Beauty
Ibnul-Qayyim (d.751H) - may Allah bless him- said,
commenting upon this hadeeth: ''The phrase 'Allaah
is beautiful and loves beauty,' includes the beautiful clothing which was asked
about in the same hadeeth. It is included by way of generalization, meaning that
beauty in all things is what is meant here. In Saheeh Muslim, it says: "Allaah
is good and only accepts that which is good." [2]
In Sunanut-Tirmidhee it says: "Allaah loves to see
the effects of His blessing on His slave.'' [3] It
was reported that Abul-Ahwas al-Jashamee said: The Prophet
(sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) saw me wearing old, tattered clothes, and asked
me, "Do you have any wealth?"
I said, "Yes." He said, "What kind of wealth?" I said, "All that Allah has given me of camels and sheep."
He said, "Then show the generous blessings that He
has given you." [4] Allah, may He be glorified,
loves the effects of His blessings to His slave to be made manifest, for this is
part of the beauty that He loves, and that is part of the gratitude for His
blessings which forms an inner beauty (beauty of character). Allah loves to see
the external beauty of His slaves which reflects His blessings on them, and the
inner beauty of their gratitude to Him for those blessings. Because He loves
beauty, He sends down on His slaves clothes and adornments with which they may
make their outward appearance beautiful and He gives them taqwaa which makes
their inner characters beautiful. Allah says:
"O Children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to
cover yourselves (screen your private parts, etc.) and as an adornment, and the
raiment of righteousness, that is better." [Suratul-A'raaf
7:26]
And He says, speaking of the people of Paradise:
".and He gave them Nadrataan
(a light of beauty) and joy. And their recompense shall be Paradise and silken
garments, because they were patient." [Suratul-Insaan 76:11-12]
Their faces will be made beautiful with the nadrah (light
of beauty), their innermost being with joy and their bodies with silken
garments. Just as Allah loves beauty in words, deeds, garments and outward
appearance, so He hates ugliness in words, deeds, garments and outward
appearance. He hates ugliness and its people, and loves beauty and its people.
But two groups are misguided with regard to this issue: a group who say that
everything that He has created is beautiful, so He loves all that He has created
and we should love all that He has created and not hate anything. They say:
whoever realizes that all that exists comes from Him will see that it is
beautiful. these people have no sense of jealousy for the sake of Allah or
hatred and enmity for the sake of Allah, or denouncing what is evil (munkar), or
jihad (struggle) for the sake of Allah, or adhering His limits. They regard the
beauty of images, male or female, as being part of the beauty that Allah loves,
and seek to worship Allah through immoral acts. Some of them may even go so far
as to claim that the One Whom they worship is manifested or incarnated in those
images.
The second group, on the other hand, say that Allah condemns the beauty of
images, forms and outward appearances. Allah says about the munaafiqoon
(hypocrites):
"And when you look at them, their bodies please you." [Suratul-Munaafiqoon 63:4]
"And how many a generation have We destroyed before them.
Who were better in wealth, goods and outward appearance?" [Surah Maryam 19:54]
In Saheeh Muslim it is reported that the Prophet (sallallaahu
'alayhi wa sallam) said: "Allaah does not look at
your outward appearance and your wealth, rather He looks at your hearts and
deeds." [5]
According to another hadeeth: "Shabbiness
is part of faith."
[6] Allah condemns those who are
extravagant, which applies to extravagance in clothing as well as in food and
drink.
In order to settle this dispute, we may say that beauty in
clothing and outward appearance is of three types, one of which is commendable,
one is blameworthy and one of which is neither. The kind of beauty which is to
be commended is that which is done for the sake of Allah, to help one to obey
Allah and fulfill His commands, such as when the Prophet
(sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) made himself look beautiful (i.e. handsome) when
meeting the delegations that came to him. This is like wearing armor or
battle-dress when fighting, or wearing silk and showing off (in front of the
enemy). This is commendable because it is done to make the word of Allah supreme
and to support His religion and annoy His enemies. The blameworthy kind of
beauty is that which is done for the sake of this world, for reasons of power,
false pride and showing off, or to fulfill some (selfish) desires. This also
includes cases where beauty is an end in itself for a person and is all he cares
about. Many people have no other concern in life. As for the kind of beauty
which is neither commendable nor blameworthy, it is that which has nothing to do
with either of the two purposes mentioned above (i.e., it is neither for the
sake of Allah nor for the sake of worldly purposes).
The hadeeth under discussion refers to two important principles, knowledge and
behavior. Allah is to be acknowledged for beauty that bears no resemblance to
anything else, and He is to be worshipped by means of the beauty which He loves
in words, deeds and attitudes. He loves His slaves to beautify their tongues
with the truth, to beautify their hearts with sincere devotion (ikhlaas), love,
repentance and trust in Him, to beautify their faculties with obedience, and to
beautify their bodies by showing His blessings upon them in their clothing and
by keeping them pure and free of any filth, dirt or impurity, by removing the
hairs which should be removed, by circumcision, and by clipping the nails. Thus
they recognize Allah through these qualities of beauty and seek to draw close to
Him through beautiful words, deeds and attitudes. They acknowledge Him for the
beauty which is His attribute and they worship Him through the beauty which He
has prescribed and His religion. The hadeeth combines these two principles of
knowledge and behavior.'' [7]
Footnotes:
[1] Related by Muslim (no. 131)
[2] Related by Muslim (no. 1686)
[3] Hasan Saheeh: Related by at-Tirmidhee (no. 2963), who said it was hasan
saheeh.
[4] Saheeh: Related by Ahmad (no. 15323), at-Tirmidhee (no. 1929) and an-Nisaa'ee
(no. 5128)
[5] Related by Muslim (no. 1356)
[6] Saheeh: Related by Ibn Maajah (no. 4108), Aboo Dawood (no. 3630)
[7] al-Fawaa'id (1/185) By the Exemplary Scholar, Ibnul-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
(d.751H)
