Arts and Maqāṣid

Summary

This important lecture addresses a fundamental and critical contemporary topic, namely the “alternative arts”. These are described as alternative because the underlying intention is to establish arts based on an Islamic frame of reference, through competence and integrity, a comprehensive concept, genuine resolution, and insightful authority. The goal is to benefit people, revive aesthetics, and exercise creativity, while appropriately considering the context, but without excluding other arts. Furthermore, alternative arts are founded on noble values, diverse forms of expression, human dimensions, functional goals, and interconnected knowledge domains.
Islamic law texts (nuṣūṣ) and objectives (maqāṣid) are the foundation of these alternative arts, within an inclusive theoretical reading, and a framework of application of rulings (aḥkām) with their associated Islamic textual basis and objectives. Such rulings are deployed to reality, using a measured approach that premeditates the consequences of actions, determining the effective cause, acting within the realm of what is possible, and securing people’s interests.