{"id":129520,"date":"2019-04-30T01:41:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T01:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=129520"},"modified":"2019-04-30T01:41:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T01:41:55","slug":"sustainability-and-piety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=129520","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability and Piety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Spahic Omer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability in architecture is possible only when there is sustainability in values and philosophies that underpin the former, giving it its identity, vigour, and direction. Moreover, sustainability in architecture is possible only when there is sustainability in peoples intellectual, spiritual and moral predilections whereby the philosophies and values of sustainable architecture are one and the same as those personified by people: the conceivers, patrons, creators and users of architecture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is for this reason that Koca Mimar Sinan, the chief architect of the Ottoman golden age, said that architecture is at once an estimable and the most difficult calling, and he who would practise it correctly and justly must, above all things, be pious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muhammad Iqbal on that score while eulogising the Mosque of Cordova in Spain in a masterpiece poem that carries the same name — <\/em>or Masjid-e Qurtaba in Urdu –uses the beauty and glory of one of the most famous architectural masterpieces in Islamic history as a prism through which he analyses the nature and some of the most prominent traits of a true believer. At the end of his poem, after describing the underlining qualities both of the Mosque and true believers, and what type of a spiritual affiliation ought to exist between the two, Muhammad Iqbal calls for revolution and reform across the spectrum of the Muslim cultural and civilisational presence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of reforming and sustaining individuals, traditions, systems and institutions, in the context of reminiscing about the Mosque of Cordova and Islamic civilisations lost repute and luminosity, is readily apparent in the poem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muhammad Iqbal\nproclaims:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0153Your beauty, your\nmajesty, Personify the graces of the man of faith.
\nYou are beautiful and majestic. He too is beautiful and majestic\u00a6\u009d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0153Your edifice unravels\nThe mystery of the faithful;
\nThe fire of his fervent days, The bliss of his tender nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your grandeur calls to\nmind The loftiness of his station,
\nThe sweep of his vision, His rapture, his ardor, his pride, his humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The might of the man of\nfaith is the might of the Almighty:
\nDominant, creative, resourceful, consummate\u00a6\u009d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0153Your equal in beauty,\nIf any under the skies,
\nIs the heart of the Muslim and no one else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Ah, those men of\ntruth, Those proud cavaliers of Arabia;
\nEndowed with a sublime character, Imbued with candour and conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their reign gave the world an unfamiliar concept;
That the authority of the brave and spirited lay in modesty and simplicity, rather than pomp and regality\u00a6\u009d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quality of bona fide sustainability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, powered by the tawhidic<\/em> mettle, Koca Mimar Sinan regarded his enormous talent as a\ngift from God which he strove to perfect for no other reason except to serve\nGod as the final end for all other ends, that is, the end at which all\nfinalistic nexuses aim and come to rest. Sinan erected so many buildings of\ndifferent types only that they be used for glorifying the Holy Being, and that\nthey become a tangible proof of Gods greatness, infinity and permanence, and\nof mans and built environments inconsequentiality, impermanence and\nrelativity. The latter can never assume the quality of bona fide\nsustainability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relative and qualified attribute of sustainability that is normally affixed to the man-made built environment, rather allegorically, is possible only due to the infinite, omnipresent and everlasting nature of the purposes and goals it serves. Sinan thus wrote: \u0153Thanks be to God, to this humble servant it became an art to serve in so many a house of God\u00a6 I looked upon all creation as a lesson, and completely understood it has no permanence. I laid the foundations of many buildings. (Doomed to) annihilation, man does not endure. The pavilion of my body began to crumble. I suffered pain in its fetters. The sorrows of fortune my beard turned grey. My body trembles from fear of God. Think not that my bended form is an arch. It is a bridge of passage to grief and sorrow. Brother, in order to pass to the next world, to this vault of fates pavilion I bowed my head. Thanks be to God that I am a righteous man! In my art, I am upright and firm.\u009d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinan also wrote: \u0153Boundless thanks to that\nArchitect (God) of the palace of nine vaults, who, without measure or plumb\nline, without rule or compass, by His hand of creation, made firm its arched\ncanopy. And endless thanks to that Master of the seven-storied workshop, who,\nwith His hand of power, kneaded the clay of Adam and in him displayed His art\nand novelty. And endless blessings upon that Self-Existent One, whose\nmunificence, like the waves of the sea, brought forth humankind into the plain\nof existence from the hidden world of nonbeing\u00a6\u009d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is on account of those truths that according to the Quranic\ndiscourse as well, Islamic buildings are erected and sustained\nonly upon a foundation of piety to God and His good pleasure, because the lives\nof their benefactors too, are built and sustained on piety and hopes for Gods\npleasure. Whereas the buildings of those who turn away from God are erected\nupon a foundation of suspicion, faithlessness and false hopes and fears, just\nas their lives are built upon the like foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the lives and buildings of believers, in\nspiritual terms, are firm and\nsustainable for the obvious reasons, the lives and buildings of the wicked\nones, for obvious reasons, too, are weak, insecure and shaky. God then asks: \u0153Is\nhe who founded his building upon duty to Allah and His good pleasure better; or\nhe who founded his building on the brink of a crumbling, overhanging precipice\nso that it toppled with him into the fire of hell? Allah guides not wrongdoing\nfolk. The building which they built will never cease to be a misgiving in their\nhearts unless their hearts be torn to pieces. Allah is Knower, Wise\u009d\n(al-Tawbah, 109- 110). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the Hereafter signifies an integral part of lifes reality, yet its climax, sustainable life patterns are only those patterns which ensure success and happiness not only in this world, but also in the Hereafter. Correspondingly, truly sustainable architectural styles and systems are only those architectural systems and styles which typify, aid and promote life ideals and activities that are set to guarantee the true felicity of both worlds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting the best of both<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There can be no rift, nor incongruity, between this world and the Hereafter, and between peoples innate penchants and actual preparations for getting the best of both. This is a powerful message of recurring Quranic accounts concerning the terrestrial aspirations and eventual ends of many individuals and nations, such as Pharaohs, Qarun and the \u02dcAd<\/em> and Thamud<\/em> peoples. They all failed miserably in their enterprises and were duly punished. Fundamental to their ultimate failures were the mentioned spiritual as well as psychological rift and incongruity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is not by chance that the Quran in\nthose narratives draws attention to certain aspects of those peoples built environments\nwhich denote at once a ground and sign of their failures. Their built\nenvironments are occasionally even employed as a means and instrument for\ncarrying out those agonizing downfalls and punishments. Their built\nenvironments were their necropolises. As if the Quran intends to communicate\nthat just as there was nothing sustainable in those peoples life paradigms,\nwhen juxtaposed with the actual purpose and scale of the totality of existence,\nthere was likewise nothing sustainable in their built environments,\nnotwithstanding the class and sway of their physical and artistic dimensions.\nTheir built environment expressions were as hollow and transient as their\nontological appreciations and wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says the Quran, for example, about this: \u0153So\nhow many a town did We destroy while it was unjust, so it was fallen down upon\nits roofs, and (how many a) deserted well and palace raised high. Have they not\ntraveled in the land so that they should have hearts with which to understand,\nor ears with which to hear? For surely it is not the eyes that are blind, but\nblind are the hearts which are in the breasts.\u009d (al-Hajj, 45-46).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0153And how many towns We destroyed,\nwhich exulted in their life (of ease and plenty)! Now those habitations of\ntheirs, after them, are deserted — all but a (miserable) few! And\nWe are their heirs.\u009d (al-Qasas, 58).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0153(Remember also) the \u02dcAd and the\nThamud (people): clearly will appear to you from (the traces) of their\nbuildings (their fate): Satan made their deeds alluring to them, and kept them\nback from the Path, though they were keen-sighted.\u009d  (al-\u02dcAnkabut, 38).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0153Those before them did also plot\n(against Allahs Way): but Allah took their structures from their foundations,\nand the roof fell down on them from above; and the Wrath seized them from\ndirections they did not perceive.\u009d (al-Nahl, 26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, when God instructed\nProphet Ibrahim and his son Ismail, also a prophet, to build the Kabah or\nal-Masjid al-Haram, He commanded them to \u0153\u00a6sanctify (purify) My House for those\nwho compass it round, or use it as a retreat, or bow, or prostrate themselves\n(therein in prayer).\u009d (al-Baqarah, 125); or to \u0153\u00a6associate not anything (in\nworship) with Me; and sanctify (purify) My House for those who compass it\nround, or stand up, or bow, or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer).\u009d\n(al-Hajj, 26). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ibn Kathir reckons in his exegesis or tafsir of the two verses <\/em>that the main message contained therein revolves around the purity, sincerity and sanctity of the motives and goals of Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail in their capacities as the Kabah or al-Masjid al-Haram builders, as well as around the integrity and sanctity of the edifice’s civilizational standing, goals and function. Indeed, the essence of the whole enterprises of building and architecture, and their own integrity and propriety, are implied in those succinct Quranic accounts. Because they are sandwiched between, and greatly influenced by, designers and architects intellectual and spiritual dispositions, and by buildings ultimate performances \u201c something that is clearly alluded to in the stated Quranic verses — actual designing and building processes are thus implicitly connoted as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spiritual importance of sustainability in architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is so by reason of the verity\nthat genuine building and architecture undertakings are complex, demanding and\nrather integrated and organic processes wherein no phase or phases could be\nidentified, separated and regarded in isolation as more important than others.\nFrom the initial phases of making intentions and generating conceptions and\nideas, to the final phases of using, interacting with and developing emotional\nrelationships with buildings, no stage or aspect of the architecture process is\nto be handled or attended to at the expense of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owing to this profound spiritual importance of sustainability in architecture in the context of the Islamic spirituality and worldview, Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, while building the Kabah, besought God for foremost life blessings and boons which, in fact, represented and, by definition, were inseparable neither from the purpose and mission of their honourable lives, nor from the purpose and mission of the groundbreaking phenomenon of the Kabah or al-Masjid al-Haram in its role as a blessed place and a guidance for all kinds of beings. They among other things supplicated: \u0153Our Lord, accept (this service) from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing.  Our Lord, and make us Muslims (in submission) to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation (in submission) to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful. Our Lord, and send among them a messenger from themselves who will recite to them Your verses and teach them the Book and wisdom and purify them. Indeed, You are the Exalted in Might, the Wise.\u009d (al-Baqarah, 127-129.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same way, about building, using and\nmaintaining mosques, God says in the Quran: \u0153The mosques of Allah shall be\nvisited and maintained (yamuru<\/em>) by such as believe in Allah and the\nLast Day, establish regular prayers, and practice regular charity, and fear\nnone (at all) except Allah. It is they who are expected to be on true\nguidance.\u009d (al-Tawbah, 18) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from scientific and professional\nknowledge and skills, faith, integrity and good deeds are also needed for\nrising to the challenge. As a matter of fact, the latter is more consequential\nand is a prerequisite of the former. The key word in this verse is \u02dcamara,\nyamuru <\/em>which, according to Abdullah Yusuf Ali, if applied to the theme of\nthe mosque, implies the following: 1) to build or repair; 2) to maintain in\nfitting dignity; 3) to visit for purposes of devotion; and 4) to fill with\nlight, life and activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to this remarkable spiritual significance\nof sustainable architecture in Islam and its unbreakable relationship with\npeople’s everyday life, influencing them and being influenced by them, the\nQuran affirms, for example, that buildings can be founded either on God-consciousness\n(taqwa<\/em>) and His good pleasure (ridwan<\/em>), or on an\nundermined sand-cliff ready to crumble to pieces with its occupants into the\nfire of Hell (al-Tawbah, 109); that mosques can be built for causing\nharm and disbelief and division among the believers and as a station for\nwhoever wars against God and His Messenger, that is, out of sheer hypocrisy\n(al-Tawbah, 107); that buildings can be a cause of pretense and doubt in\npeoples hearts (al-Tawbah, 110);  that\nit is not for such as join gods with Allah to erect, visit or maintain mosques\nwhile they witness against their own souls to infidelity, because their works\nbear no fruit in the spiritual kingdom (al-Tawbah, 17); that the giving of\ndrink to pilgrims only, or the physical maintenance of al-Masjid al-Haram, as a\nform of deadening formalism and blinding symbolism, is not equal to the pious\nservices of those who believe in God and the Last Day and strive hard in\nAllah’s way (al-Tawbah, 19); that nobody is more unjust than he who forbids\nthat God’s name is glorified and mentioned much in His mosques and strives for\ntheir ruin (al-Baqarah, 114); that the Kabah has been erected in order to\nfunction as a place of assembly for men and a place of total safety\n(al-Baqarah, 125); that buildings can be built as landmarks for vain delight\n(al-Shuara, 128);  and, finally, that\n\u0153righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but\n(true) righteousness is (in) one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the\nangels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it,\nto relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask (for help), and\nfor freeing slaves; (and who) establishes prayer and gives zakah<\/em>; (those\nwho) fulfill their promise when they promise; and (those who) are patient in\npoverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true,\nand it is those who are the righteous.\u009d (al-Baqarah, 177). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, the Islamic idea of sustainable\narchitecture is to create awareness and an utmost sense of responsibility in\npeople, which will inevitably stir up spontaneous and sincere sustainability\nactions. By people we mean not only architects, designers, planners, engineers\nand patrons, but also everyone else in societys subtle hierarchy of ranks, stations\nand responsibilities, by reason of architecture being peoples art and at once\ntheir collective right and responsibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this manner, a healthy environment of mutual\ngiving and taking, as well as of mutual demand and supply, will be created and\nupheld. People will thus perceive the prospect of contributing to\nsustainability pursuit as their moral, spiritual and contractual obligation. In\nit, they will see themselves, their future and their mission. Most importantly,\nthey will see in it an evidence of their impending success, wellbeing and the\ninterests of both worlds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a ubiquitous mood and vibes will be felt\neverywhere and by everyone, owing to the universality and comprehensiveness of\nthe sustainability concept and undertaking. It will signify honorable peoples\nemphatic response to Gods command: \u0153\u00a6And cooperate in righteousness and\npiety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression\u00a6\u009d (al-Maidah, 2). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the same note, believers are depicted as having faith, doing righteous deeds, and joining together in the mutual teaching of truth, patience and constancy. (al-\u02dcAsr, 3). It stands to reason that if this philosophy of sustainability and sustainable architecture takes root, then the concerns and snags of double standards, inconsistencies, lethargic and solely profit-driven implementation moves, inadequate educational strategies and policies, lack of political will, lack of transparency, skepticism, etc., which constantly plague todays sustainability development efforts worldwide, could be successfully purged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All-embracing Islamic sustainability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, it is nigh on impossible to\nestablish and implement sustainability in an environment of mutual mistrust,\nimpiety, omnivorous greed and self-indulgence, doubt, uncertainty, lack of\nproper understanding and orientation, etc. No wonder<\/em>, then<\/em>,\nthat decades of talking and campaigning\nfor sustainability yielded a little of positive outcome. Most people simply do\nnot care and cannot even grasp the point of the whole enterprise. The rise of\nan out-and-out eco-awareness simply failed to take off. Positively,\nsustainability blueprints and efforts must be rendered genuinely meaningful and\nsustainable first, before any rays of hope for a genuine sustainability and\nsustainable architecture could be emitted into the hearts and minds of people. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is more to\nsustainable architecture than haranguing on and selectively and relatively\napplying such sustainability principles as using alternative energy sources,\nenergy conservation, reuse of materials and reducing waste, pollution and\nenvironmental degradation, albeit on some vague, questionable, inequitable and\ndeficient premises. Sustainable architecture is to morph into a total\nresponsible lifestyle and culture. It is to penetrate every level of peoples\nlives and consciousness. It is to influence, and be influenced by, the rest of\nlife ambits.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally speaking,\nthis inimitable and all-embracing Islamic sustainability exemplar is perfectly\nrecapped in these words of the Quran: \u0153<\/em>And the heaven He has\nraised high, and He has set up the Balance; in order that you may not\ntransgress (due) balance. And observe the weight with equity and do not make\nthe balance deficient.\u009d (al-Rahman, 7-9).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the preceding\nverses, God speaks about three entwined degrees or levels of harmony,\nequilibrium and justice on the strength of which life was created and was set\nto operate, and which man in his capacity as the vicegerent on earth must\nrespect and strive to sustain at all times. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first and grandest\nlevel is the one relating to creating, raising and imposing balance and harmony\non the heaven with everything qualitative and quantitative in it. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second level\napplies directly to man, the trustee to whom and whose magnificent life mission\nand purpose everything in the heavens and on the earth has been subjected,\nwhereby he is expected to uphold and not transgress the balance and harmony\ndivinely instituted in life as a whole. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the third level of\nharmony, justice and equilibrium is the one that regulates dealings and\nrelationships between people in their daily routines where the weight is to be\nobserved with equity and the sense of balance as a rule of life not to be made\ndeficient, that is to say, where every persons rights will be respected and\nabilities as well as potentials nurtured and put to good use. This applies not\nonly to human mutual relationships, but also to their relationships with the\nrest of Gods creations. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, as Ibn\nKathir in his exegesis or tafsir of the Quran remarked, God created the\nheavens and the earth with truth and justice so that everything else could\nexist on the basis of the same foundations. The medium or agent for attaining\nsuch a target is nobody else but man. One of the objectives of Gods revealed\nWord to man, it follows, was to make man firmly establish his feet at his own\nmost immediate level and to thus confidently start rising through the\nintellectual and spiritual ranks of existence aiming at the highest stations\nwhere the highest and grandest level of harmony, equilibrium and justice\nresides. Unmistakably, human cultural and civilizational legacies, as well as\nthe architectural ones in view of the fundamental and intimate relationships\nbetween architecture and human cultures and civilizations, are testimonies to\nhow far in those sustainability matters humankind has gone and risen, or how\nlow it has regressed and fallen.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the context of his commentary on the above mentioned Quranic sustainability verses, Abdullah Yusuf Ali explains: \u0153In the great astronomical universe there are exact mathematical laws, which bear witness to Allahs wisdom and also to His favors to His creatures; for we all profit by the heat and light, the seasons, and the numerous changes in the tides and the atmosphere, on which the constitution of our globe and the maintenance of life depend.\u009d The word \u0153balance\u009d repeated in each of the three verses in question means that men need to \u0153act justly to each other and observe due balance in all their actions, following the golden mean and not transgressing due bounds in anything.\u009d Speaking both literally and figuratively, \u0153a man should be honest and straight in every daily matter, such as weighing out things which he is selling, and he should be straight, just and honest in all the highest dealings, not only with other people, but with himself and in his obedience to Allahs Law. Not many do either the one or the other when they have an opportunity of deceit. Justice is the central virtue, and the avoidance of both excess and defect in conduct keeps the human world balanced just as the heavenly world is kept balanced by mathematical order.\u009d***<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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