The higher meanings of Islamic architecture by Mustafa Hassan Al-Badawi

Author: Mustafa Hassan Al-Badawi Publisher: Dar Al-Usul - Hadramout / Dar Al-Nour - Egypt This book, an unprecedented work, aims to recover some of what has been lost from our heritage in the lapse of time, revealing what the Islamic civilization contained of knowledge treasures deposited by our ancestors in their architectural works. Indeed, Islamic civilization is a rich civilization with vast richness; since its inception, it has been rich spiritually and morally, then intellectually and culturally, scientifically and methodologically, and artistically and artistically. It continued to flourish in this richness for more than a century until it was weakened after the Muslims' defeat against the West, and then their fascination with their military strength and material sciences. At that point, the connection between the descendants and ancestors was severed, and the transmission of sciences and arts from generation to generation was cut off, and we forgot how to read and understand our heritage. One of the most important points the author indicates is that every Islamic artistic work has three values: a utilitarian value, an aesthetic value, and a moral value. All three must be present for the work to be called art. He then defines the moral value as containing every Islamic artistic work with what mentions God, His universal laws, paradise, and the spiritual celestial worlds. He explains how understanding such meanings depends on the depth of understanding of the Islamic intellectual heritage. The author gave considerable space to discuss a fundamental approach in the Quran and Sunnah, which is the approach of parables and their importance, as well as concepts of the Islamic intellectual heritage. He then illustrated with colored images and explanatory drawings how Muslims adopted the same approach in their architectural works. For all these reasons, it is a book that every interested person in the depths of Islamic civilization—spiritually, intellectually, and with noble beauty—should read. Also, every architectural engineer who wishes to understand the symbols of the works of his ancestors, and every Muslim artist regardless of his art. Dr. Mustafa Hassan Al-Badawi was born in Cairo in 1948 and grew up there. He graduated from Cairo University Faculty of Medicine. He traveled to Britain and worked there until he obtained a fellowship from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London. He works as a psychiatric consultant.