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Answer
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Name
Mohammed
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Profession
Question
assalamu alaykum Fouzia,
How does sharing of artistic traditions lead to true mutual understanding when the 'other' only wants to accept the aspects of our tradition that do not clash with their own ethics? When it comes to e.g. the legal part of our tradition the misunderstanding will remain.
Answer
Salaam Mohammed,
First of all thank you for your interesting question.
Personally I am of the opinion that where politics end, art and culture begins. This is why I never speak of ‘the other’, because we are in fact concerned with an inner world in this case; the communal desire for or inclination towards beauty and wisdom. Refinement of personality and the lifting up of character are in my eyes universal; this is where our emphasis should be.
Name
Tariq
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Profession
Sahafi
Question
Assalamu Alaykum. Do you find that Muslims, to begin with, do not pay enough attention to art in general. As a prerequisite for that, how do you deal with that? What part of rich textual and artsitic hertiage do you seek? Thank you.
Answer
Assalamu Alaykum Tariq,
Thank you for your question.
When I look around me it strikes me that we have reduced Islam to ‘halal’ and ‘haram’. My dream is that a day will come that we Muslims realize how great the responsibility we bear actually is en become aware of the value of the ‘trinity’: colour, sounds and words. There is too much emphasis put on the force of words, which is indeed important. However, to tell a story much more is required. Painting, music, literature, film, etc. Our ancestors have preceded us in this matter. The comprehensiveness of Islam should be brought to the fore. We want to be heard, but unfortunately we are bad storytellers.
I hope that I have answered your question sufficiently.
Name
Sarah
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Profession
Question
As you are working among women, what do you think about the new generation young Muslim, especially in facing cultural challenges as a minority?
Answer
Sarah, thank you for your beautiful question. To me all questions about women are beautiful, but that aside.
Muslim women are part of their environment, a product of the way they have been raised, their education and other factors. When I look around I find that the youth of today is caught up in a wave of indifference, or perhaps fear, to be confronted with the inner world. Fear to doubt themselves, fear to know. Knowing means realizing that the ‘other’ is an equal and also has a story to tell. What we strive for is for our horizons to merge, to show the willingness to listen, but also to understand, to grow, and to enter into a dialogue. Art, in my opinion, is moving your inner boundaries, culture is refining ones taste. Together we try to achieve that and come away from the MacDonalidization of life.
Name
hasana
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Profession
/
Question
Salam, how can we use the Internet to understand the culture of others and how can others understand our culture? thank you
Answer
Assalamu Alaykum Hasana, I miss Morocco very much.
Thank you for your globalizing question. Dear Hasana, the use of the Internet is, just like all other tools, dependent on the user. In spite of perhaps the many downsides of the Internet this tool opens up a great gate towards others. It is important that we use this means in a conscious and beneficial way: search for quality and offer quality. It can be an ideal means to achieve the merging of our horizons.
I hope that this is what you meant by your question.
Name
Ruheena
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Profession
Question
Salams,
What do you think is more important, for us to showcase our traditional arts or for Muslims to actively take part in the existing modern arts?
Thank you.
Answer
Ruheena, Salams, what a beautiful name.
Dear Ruheena, one thing doesn’t exclude the other. Allah has graced us with many capacities and abilities. Out of gratefulness for this we should learn to use these gifts. It is also very important that we learn to share this beauty. Art is creativity, creativity comes from Love, in the first place love for our Creator. So, we should firstly develop good taste while at the same time lifting ourselves up to become creative ourselves.
Name
Louise
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Profession
Question
Do you think that art as da`wah will appeal to many Muslims, considering the pervasive misconception among Muslims that art cannot be 'Islamic', what do you think?
Answer
Dear Louise, thank your for this very interesting question.
In my eyes art does not know religion. The best among us are those with piety, says Allah in the Qur’an. Thus, Allah did not refer to pious in terms of religion. For me it is the same with Art; it cannot be designated as either Islamic or not Islamic, but it can be seen as respectful or not, valuable or not, of good quality or not. It is in the end about beauty, and everything that raises our character to the level of the Angels. ‘Allah is Beautiful and He loves beauty’. This of course is no more than my humble opinion. Our scholars have dedicated many works to this. Thanks again.
Name
Soha
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Profession
Question
Why did you choose the Andalusia experience to approach the non-Muslims and what did you think of the results?
Answer
Dear Soha,
Thank you for this delicate question.
Andalusia is in our eyes the embodiment of a phase in which there was a lot of inter-cultural exchange. Andalusians from different religious and cultural backgrounds lyricized their love for Andalusia in poetry. The language was Arabic, the place was cosmopolitan, inhabited by cosmopolitan people; the Netherlands is in many ways comparable to Andalusia.
Our objective was to show that we, as our ancestors, are open to come to a state of cultural cross-fertilization, not through politics but through what binds and divides us: art. Goethe wrote a diwan about the East and in response to that came the famous verses of Sir Muhammed Iqbal. Faith from the East and science from the West. So, away with the clash of civilizations, and forward towards a meeting of civilizations on an equal footing! To build a civilization is the task of all of humanity en not of a single religious group. Results are a matter of persistence.
The variety of cultural backgrounds in the audience of our event was very promising.
Name
Mohammed Jahangir
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Profession
Secretary
Question
Painting is an art. Is painting forbidden in Islam?
Thanks
Answer
Dear Mohammed,
Thank you for your question.
I have to admit that I am not able to answer questions that require a legal opinion. IslamOnline.net has a Fatwa Bank where scholars with the required knowledge can answer your question. My apologies for the inconvenience.
Name
Hamid
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Profession
editor, publisher
Question
This is a very idealistic vision of art. Art does not start where politics ends. A work of art, as a social product, is mixed with, and reflects, the social mores and political values of the society from which it emerges.
Hamid
Answer
Dear Hamid,
I partly agree with you. Art as a means to spread one’s own message is also something I endorse completely; wrapping your story in different ways (see my earlier answer to Tariq's question). But politics in the sense of fighting for legitimacy is in my eyes something very different from art, in which the artists exposes and unveils his own world. Our opinions can differ here, and that is another meaning of art: merging our horizons and having the courage to listen to one another.
Thank you for your critical mind.
Name
Salma
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Profession
Question
Many may see the dialogue should not work except between two equal sides , the weakness of the Muslim side for example is an obstacle against the dialogue between Islam & the West , what do you think?
Answer
Selma, you put your finger on a sore spot, but Allah gives us the cure. Even a smile is a type of charity. Dialogue need not necessarily take place in an ivory tower. “Starting with yourself” is the remedy. Be yourself the embodiment and representation of the beauty of Islam. Be inviting. Have the courage to leave, to leave the womb, to come away from that warm nest to have a bigger chance of life and a deepening of your insights. When we will listen to others, on the micro-level, they will surely listen to us. Small creatures can make a big difference. It starts with our attitude towards the other: unconditional and unprejudiced, without expecting anything in return is the remedy.
Maybe this is not the answer you wanted. I hope for your forgiveness
