Shadee Elmasry – Why Islamic Art Is Better Than Western Art Peter Sanders

Let's talk a little bit of philosophy because art is never

separated from thought. And artists are reflections of

essentially philosophers, they are philosophers. The best ones always

have a lot, a lot more under like the iceberg a lot more under the

water than is above we find that wherever to sow wolf has been,

there has been an aesthetic. Is it a coincidence? Or is it

intentional? Or is it a natural byproduct? Like, look at the

Ottomans? How amazing were they even? Let's go way back, the

conception of the Dome of the Rock until today is one of the most

elegant, simple, the color scheme, the geometry right of it. It's one

of the most amazing pieces until today. So wherever Muslims have

gone, and have tapped into their spiritual tradition,

and of course blessed with some wealth, there has been a wonderful

aesthetic. So my first question is going to be is it a link? Or is it

a coincidence? The second follow up question is going to be if it's

actually a link, what are some of the themes that are beliefs in

regarding the cosmos? How do they manifest in our? Yes, that's a

really good question to ask. I just I just been to his Becca

Stan, and I waited to go to his Becca Stan, longer than I waited

to get to China.

But it's really interesting in in Bukhara, there are seven. Now

spending share marks, each one of them was ahead of a guild of one

of the arts. So one was in charge of ceramics. One was embroidery.

And from them, those all those arts flowered incredibly, and

that's why was Becca Stan is so rich today, you know, it's

phenomenal. And I think it's, I don't know, just from a personal

point of view, I think someone that's an an artist is, is tapping

into their creative energy. And it's very important, we need to be

creative people. And it's very easy in modern life to become

negative. But I think, you know, and I don't think everybody should

be an artist, but even if you do something for a hobby, that

enables you to be creative, that's that's a great thing. And it's all

it's all connected to spirituality, because creativity

comes from the Creator, and his, you know, influence. You know, we

have to recognize where it comes from creativity is not from us. It

come through us. So that's a huge philosophical point right there,

that creativity is not something that you that you come up with,

it's actually you position yourself to be able to receive,

it's almost like an ill him in a sense. Yes, you have to get out of

the way almost. You have to get yourself out of the way and you

have to be submitted to the race. And that makes sense. Because when

you look at some of the geometrics of the movies, like that's not

something anyone sat there thought of, there must have been some kind

of, and it for those who are wondering, are you serious? You're

saying the arts have enhanced to them? Yes, there did not the

Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tell the poet has Sam Ben

sabots, recite, in other words to give victory to Allah and his

messenger recite. And you're aided with the Holy Spirit, which is

Djibouti, la Santa Barbara goods. And that's too. So when the

intention is to aggrandized as Allah says, In the Quran,

aggrandized the symbols of Allah, massage it like what are these

artists aggrandizing their aggrandizing massage, they're not

doing this in their homes, their grandmother masajid schools,

books, the illuminations around books. So let me let me ask this

question. Now. That's an amazing, that's an amazing point, that

creativity is from the Creator. And the Muslim artists views

himself as somebody who his purification allows that creative

power from Allah to reflect off of him. He's not the founder of it,

or the inventor of it.

When that actually occurs, there have to be certain actual themes.

One of the themes I noticed in Islamic art is that there's a

centrality to every piece. Whereas when I go to, when you look at

some of the more modern art, when atheism started taking over, you

lose centrality. It's as if they believe they live in a floating

universe that has no central position. And sometimes there's

the intentional opposition to anything such as Dali. Dali is,

he's an artist who, if you look at his stuff, to me, it reflects the

reality of atheism. Well, what do you think of this concept that the

centrality are those some of the themes that you notice that

Islamic art possesses? I think if you think about art, turned in 50

years ago, it was celebrating God

very much in a time where it's all about the ego and the self. It's

all in do celebrating yourself Subhan Allah Subhan Allah, I mean

look at this, this image of Dali here and it's, it really is a

great reflection of nihilism and it makes you a little bit dizzy,

even looking at it like you don't know what you're looking at. When

it comes to Islamic art, what is what is some of your favorite

themes or some of your favorite civilizations?

I think I was very influenced by the