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    Cosmology Islam Architecture - Gulzar Haider PDF

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    Islam, Cosmology, and Architecture Architecture isa social act and as such cannot he divorced from a culture's view ofthe grand scheme within which itexst. A single building can herald 8 futuristic vision or minor an alien tradition, or it ean even declare a rebetion against its miliew, but the whole city, the collective architectral ‘will ofa society, cannot le about the heie structure that sustains it If dveling is 1 mieor of sel, the city is the landscape transformed by the invisible forces of collective ideas. For Islam no act is free of an ethical dimension, and no domain ‘escapes connection with the sacred, Ts for this reason tha, for bath the study and the making of an architecture for Muslim cultures, we must understand the basic ideaional structures of its cosmology, ethics. aesthetics, politics, sociology. and economics. In this pape Iwill deat primarily with is cosmology, fully aware that ‘when a complex entity like Islam is studied through the filter of one exclusive eategory, the rsk is run of Pattening and simplifying reality. Against this 1 shall seek His protection and the reader's understanding, In the classical sense, cosmology is that branch of philosophy which raises {questions about the origin an structure ofthe universe. Though one ean find pr Socratic examples, itis Pato’s Timaeus and Aristotle's Physics that present the first comprehensive cosmologies. Classical cosmology remained distinet from ontology and metaphysics, which dealt wth general festures of existence (reality ‘he natural, and the supermatural), and were not structural in their manner of ‘analysis and presentation. Cosmology was expected to provide a comprehensive framework that could simultaneously elaborate and bring together the empirical fact and the metaphysical uth. The concepts of divine creation, annihilation, miracle, and providence were added to cosmological discussions in the Middle Ages.? ‘Cosmogony is a specifi, often dramatic, depiction of the origin of creation. Hidden in the eosmogonic story are hints about how matter came forth From non: ‘matter, how formless emptiness and silence were transformed into morphologically Aiferentiated and complex evstence, how elements aequied thei attributes, ow time came into being, and how various categories atsined their mutual stations Though most cosmogonies are singular happenings free ofa historical dimension and of ethical debate, they yield valuable insights when subjected {0 comparative analysis For the present discussion, we might have to abandon these clear philosophical categorizations and declare our interest in a kind of purposeful cosmology, a system of frameworks helpful in locating and charting the paths of man within his perceived and postulated, physical as well as ethical, universe. Such a cosmology ean help man structure the questions, if noe completely answer them, about the ‘origin, exten, limits, and destiny of the universe, about temporality and eternity, ‘and about the battle formations of good and evil, 1s difficult o imagine a society without some shared cosmogonic beliefs and some collective notions of how the machinery of existence works. In logend—& ‘common medium for expressing cosmologies-the characters symbolize ideal tributes, and events mark the milestone inthe unfolding of ereaion. Systems of religious belief remain the most potent sources of energy for cosmological cconeeptualizations. A religion in Tact survives in the hearis and’ minds of its adherents because it calms their exstemial anxieties by making them become aware of thei role inthe greater scheme of things. Traditionally man has exhibited the tendency 10 “eosmicize” the part of the world he decides to possess or inhabit In religious societies, from aboriginal North Americans to classical Hindus, natural [phenomena have been given the status of deities,» while monotheistic religions Ihave looked upon the cosmes as the wondrous handiwork of God and have treated nature as a teasure chest of Dive portets. Inthe fath-dominated Middle Ages, the boundaries between astrology ad astronomy, between chemistry an alchemy, and beeween the state of the body and the state of the spirit were at best fuzzy, If they existed at al. ‘Asis evident from dhe Quran and declarations of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam reaffirmed the essential cosmological Framework of the sacred texts and triton fof the Abrahamic faiths The grand scheme of creation, the orderly and law- abiding universe, the original state ofthe Garden and the earthly exile of man, the temporality of this life, the eterity of the hereafter, the Final judgment, heaven, and hel, all remained essentially the same as they had been in the Iudeo-Chrstian tradition. This is understandable because Islam claimed the unbroken Flow of revelation from Adam to Noah, to Abraham, his progeny, Moses, Jesus, and “Muhammad. Every subsequent revelation afired the ones before, clarified the concepts that had been clouded, reestablished the ones that had been erased, corrected the heresies that had ere in, and refined the law to an everincressing level of timelessness. Finally, through the knowledge and wisdom of the Prophet whose legacy’ is uninterrupted, God made potentially available’ the deeper and higher mysteries of existence to the seeking man For Muslims the Quran isthe Fina an etemily protected word of God to man Tis words are unique and ineplaceable, its structure timeless and fixed. Its meanings unfold as time itself untavels. It yields guidance of eternal relevance through exegesis (fs) and deeper interpretation (ta'wit) by those "firmly {grounded in knowledge” and the “men of understanding." Though the Quran is “pre-time” (gadim) and originates from the guarded tablet (awh al-mahfir)." is content is historically placeabe. Though most of its verses can be correlated with historical events that occurred within the twenty-three years of the Prophet's mission, they transcend history. Though all other created things shied away from receiving the glory of this revelation," it was revealed directly to the soul of Mohammad. 11 isin this sense that the person of Muhammad is intimately and timeless interwoven withthe Quran. This is why the Prop, his ie, his words, his deeds, his passions, his struggles, his judgmens, have become the medium through which the transcendant revelation becomes potentially understandable, As ‘the Quran is perfect and complete, xo its human recipient and its social embodiment fs the perfect man (isan al-kama). The pats ofall Islamic thought must by necessity converge on the Quran, whose metaphoric manifestation is Muhammad. the “Cty of Knowledge” (madinar alii. Ii significant that “Ali bn Abi Talib, who was the earliest of the exegets ofthe Quran and perhaps the first hermetic philosopher of Islam, and among the mest timate of the Prophet's ‘companions, is identified as the “gate” t this City of Knowledge. Ut is idle ‘wonder that all paths! of Islamic philosophical thoueht, especialy the one seeking ‘sam, Comey amd hee 8 the esoteric, converge through the authority and elaborations of companions such fas Ali and Abu Bakr who were initiated by the Prophet himslt From allthis itis possible to asert that any allem to grasp the nature of Islamic cosmological thought has to begin by accepting the Quranic cosmogony and to recognize tat all creation, withthe single exception of man, is endowed ‘with special characteristics (fra) that makes it fulfill its destined role (ar) within 1 perfect order Man is a special creation molded and shaped in the best of ‘orders? fom lowly cle, yet recipient ofthe “breath of my sprit" Only man has been given knowledge’ and thereby has been made worthy ofthe honored sation of taste and vicegerent of Go. ‘Man has a primordial enemy, Iblis, the one who refused to acknowledged his Aivinely appointed station, who ploted man's exile fom the Garden and wh has ‘vowed to lead him away from the path of return. Retur is only possible through the wilful submission to God and allegiance to the “way of the Prophet.” for in at lies the fulfillment of the very purpose of creation, © give individual and social expression to the ethical order of Islam. It is in this sense that we can lnderstand the Islamic scheme of time and history as the grand ethical divide Separating ight from darkness, good from evil the grateful from the defiant, and the God-directed from the self-indulgent. That divide is the Quran and ‘Muhammad, the inseparable and the mutually essential, the logos of Islamic cosmology, the point of reference inthe Islamic view of time. The history before Mufammad, the prophets and texts that preceded him, only partially evealed his attributes. The history after him unfolds only to reaffirm his timeless message and consolidate a global consciousness of man’s etical destiny ‘When the Prophet Muhammad uttered the lst verse revealed to him: “This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you and have ‘hen for you as tligion al-Islam," Islamic cosmogony had its Final at tis litle wonder then that te paticulars of Islamic cosmological thought have invariably been drawn from Quranic verses and the utterances of the Prophet, especially the hadith al-gudsi® Though the structural influence of Greek ‘Philosophical ration on early Islamic thought is well documented.” the content ‘of Islamic thought was drawn essentially from the Quran and she sayings of the Prophet. The Islamic cosmological discourse cepeatedly draws upon the verses bout the nature of God snd His beautiful names (asin alsusna) the exeation and adornment of the heavens. the perfection and abject obedience of the heavenly bodies, the plurality of the heavens and diversity of creations, the conscious and ‘uncon:cious adorations tashbih) of all creation, the flow of destiny, and the enigma of man’s time and God's time. Of special interest are the metaphoric iitusionary images of the light and the niche, the earth and the throne,” the ‘arden of Adam and the promised paradise ofthe soul contented and at peace:* ‘and of course the Night Joumey (isra) and the Ascension (ira) othe Propet.» Ibis my belief that hidden inthe script and the body postures ofthe pious believer ‘or in the stations ofa pilgrim on the bj, or in the rituals of burial, and for that attr inthe singular aloneness ofa af or the dot of a beh in the sevenness of| the heavens, in the welveness of the months, in the eightness of the angels that hold the Throne and in the seventeenness of repetitions in te daily ritual prayers ae cosmological indications of great value Is now possible to identi six concepts that we consider to be essential to any Islamic cosmological construct. The fist is the a prior existence of God: the ‘Unseen Omnipresent who engulfs all things, but notin the sense of being alien to them and who is within all things, but not inthe sense of being contained by them. This i to accept the being of God (dari Nahi) even independent of his Joe Bro. ami Theaves atuibutes (sar, God in his absolute aloneness, the one who is, even when there is ‘noone to recognize his atibutes ‘This isthe essence of hs glory Gaal), where all ‘manifestations are anniilated in the dat, bis undefinable realty that is beyond any perception, conception, and even cognition. Unconditional acceptance of hari lah thus becomes the center of any cosmological structure i Islam. It nehoes man to his inverse? ashe stands atthe dreshold of the vas universe, Second is the nature of God as expressible through his “names” (asa uf usa). His auributes (sian are maniest through the signs ad portents (aya). and those places and events that lead us 0 his cognizance. He js Jamal the beauty that signifies the aggregate manifestation of his sf. He is Nu, the Hight that is ‘essential forall enlighteoment, be it for senses or for soul. He is Samad, the Uulimate reference, the one tht contains no vacuity and in himself aecupies no spaces, the one heyond comporeality.” The prime purpose ofthe cognizance of God throug his aributes is for man to recognize his own attributes, potentiates, and limitations, vis-a-vis his God. The asm al-husna constitute cosmic sphere that bounds man’s search for his station in the universe and establishes his bearings a ne sech the divine purpose. ‘Third is knowledge, the path as well as the light tha illuminstes the path Detween acceptance of God as du and the cognizance of his nature, the sift. This [knowledge bridges the directly experienced realm ofthe present and the manifest (ahi) with the intuited realm ofthe anticipated and the hidden (atin. The primal source of energy and direction for this knowledge isthe revelation from Gea 6 the Prophet to mankind? The concept of the book (kira), though primarily used for the written and spoken word of God, has also been used for natute, from the cosmos tothe insects of the earth, whose study is to lead 10 the cognizance of and the wisdom of His creative will. Knowledge is also embedded in the very being of man and Gov-diected discipline (ibaa, taqw, zis), and selt-etection can lead to intuitive and direct diseemment (Las) of some vignetes of wuth. The multiplicity of the sources of knowledge is indicted by the fact that the word ayaat ‘the sign, the portent, the indicator, the evidence, the pater as been used fr the verse iself for is meaning, for man and mankind, snd the pienemena of nature, and for the provess of history and time Islamic pursuit of knowledge has encompassed a wide range from empirical and discursive to intuitive and ‘luminational. Pung aside the philosophic categories ofthe seekers and sources lof knowledge, we can assert that he observation and contemplation, he perception and intuition, Aristotelian rationality and grostc illumination are not mutually ‘exclusive. On the path of knowledge they can in fact be mutually supportive Knowledge isthe infinite set of paths that lends form tothe circumference of the manifest realty (far) around the center of the hidden essence (har). The ‘center isnot a point sit is nether visible or locatable. The circumference is nota sphere as the radii of knowledge are not identical, nor is i fixed in size, as ts limits are in perpetual fax. ‘he fourth concept is tat of onder, harmony, and perfection. Creation is not a capricious act of an Olympian god seeking amusement. Nor is it a grand biochemical reaction that unfolds as a stochastic process where every subsequent state isa function of chance occurrences of the previous state. God's creation is Purposeful, and every created entity has a prescribed role that fulfils without ‘question, Man, because of his knowledge and will, has the freedom to recognize ot ‘eject and be subservient or eebellious to his purpose. The cosmos is orderly and ‘obedient o the created law, and man is challenge to discover a flaw and point out 4 disharmony. Man is also informed thatthe eye of skepticism in search of imperfection will only return tired, dul, and discomfited* Beauty (jamal) is the am, Cong ond econ 7 state of ordained harmony of entities in thei proper relationship to one another All that corrupts this beauty and disrupts this state of harmony stands accused of sedition (fina) in the court of the Divine. The order isnot static nor isthe creation ‘bounded ad compete, Instead onder isa cosmological principle and harmony its perennial valu The fifth concept is that of the perpetual, continuous, and involuntary ‘movement of all creation toward its origin in Gov All emanates from him and is bound by its very nature to retum, In this is rooted the cancept of inevitable pevishabilty and morality ana’) ofall existence. All material manifestation and thus all physical beauty are entropi," except the jaa, the glory and majesty, of| God. Only the human march in search of God's cognizance is not enteopie, and only te soul that ofits own will ecognizes its Creator and tums toward him ean .win its freedom from the inevitable decay ofthe body. Only those who surender their very being asa testament to his glory transcend mortality. “The sixth concep is that of the continuity, harmony, and unity ofl existence. God is the cause of creation, but not causally subservient to it. Since truth Uiagigar) cannot contadiet another uth, there cannot he two orders of reality independent from one another This view therefore seeks the conditions of flux and imerransfocmabilty among the Finite andthe infinite. 1 sims for balance between discursive thought and gnosis nd considers the former to be a precursor ofthe lotr. lt respects and gives due place to asl and tarcth I approaches manifest phenomena as shadows of reality because the realm of the senses ean only accommodate shadows. This concept upholds that man who is apparently insignificant in the cosmos in fat cartes within him the microcosm that dares 10 comprehend the macrocosm and even God * It our aserion thatthe Islamic view of existence permeated Muslin literary and aristsic culture in the past Architecture, which by its very nature mediates between eurth and heaven, became an eloguent medium for this resonance between belie? and expression. Under the pretext of building for a purpose, on a site in a ppaicular climate, using the right materials and the bes techniques, architecture in fact served as a medium for expressing the favorite philosophical inclinations of both patron and builders, many of whom were tained in the master disciple system of the Sufi oners(ariqas), Seared writings point to the correspondence between Islamic philosophical thought and architectural expression. but serious speific suies ae lacking. One building that deserves attention isthe Taj Mahal, ‘whose architectural-cosmologica significance has barely been studied "The literature inthis field is of throe kinds. The fist ae the historical studies; they focus on problems of dating, precedence, influence, style, technique, and texts that relate the architectural work to its sociopolitical context. The methodology of research and writing is scientific and objective in tha nothing is acceptable unt it is corroborated by the sources, The authors themselves are often agnostic, if not ‘openly atheistic. "The second kind of literature is inspired by a spiritual wordview and a gnostic fame of mind. Authors of this variety quote from the sacred and philosophical texts to construct decoding and evaluative instruments for the Islamic art, Buildings to them ate symbolic tenis that ate catalytic fo states of mind. They find the particularities of history a bit distracting in their pursuit of the tans historical meaning and message of Islamic arcitectue, They are most ope and perhaps ‘most daring in constructing cosmological explanations for buildings. Finally there are the authors who try to establish a direct correspondence: ‘between Islamic jurisprudence and urban pattems and architectural forms. They 100 uphold the belie and the practice of Islam, ut are in general very suspicious ™ Archie Ba on ane Theos ‘of the gnostic and esoteric dimensions of Islamic thought. They are eager Yo accept ‘climatic causalities an socal correlations to establish their thesis thatthe sharia is the prime form-giver of the Islamic environment. They are equally quick 10 reject ‘or pronounce a religiously unacceptable ay attempt to construct an architectural theory that explains the mausolea of Islamic history. It is understandable that authors holding these three very different poins of view have great difficulty understanding one another's work. Very often the positions are frozen, and lines so firmly drawa that one group cap no longer face the other. Open discourse is essential, and only honest ertieism can bring the polarized academics of Islamic architecture closer together. Only then will the healthy and constructive instruments of criticism emerge that are so essential to the roth of Islamie architectural thought in our own time. “The very tlle of this paper will quickly ekasify it as one of those esoteric, spiritual, emotional, romantic, perhaps even idealistic, and worse yet academically indefensible” pieces of writing. Bu Lean only say that iis intended san honest tempt to build a case for the Quranie and prophetic sources of ‘cosmological thought. tn the following paragraphs I will wy to identify the six buasie concepts that are the essential precursors fo any Islamic cosmology and to ‘propose that architectural modalities are inspised by Islamic thought and its architectural legacy. J, Bowdares beyond boundaries. Yon Sina spoke of potential divsibilty and ‘essential continuity. The Sufis explained the hierarchical progression of creation from Halt, Lahut,Jabrut, Malaku, snd Nasut.* The tkhovanal-Safa (Brethren of Purity) charted the cosmic hierarchy from the “highest ofthe high to the lowest of the low.>" and al-Farabi presented a “teleology of happiness" by postulating an array of cities allegorical in thei characteristics trom virtwous to wayward 10 Fenegade to ignorant. OF course the Quran speaks of the seven heavens “in order fone above the other." Islamic thought structured itself in the manner of hierarchies that always stated and ended with the profession of Grand Unicity. It fs litle wonder then thatthe architecture of Mustims expressed conceptual, spt land architectonic hierarchies without breaking dovsn into staged compositions of forms and spaces. 2. Orientation beyond axiaity. The Muslin as always been trying 10 orient inset in the unferentiated vasiness ofthe earthly exile, But how would he face this plaeles,spaceles, and timeless God? In what direction and how? Noone but Goud could lead him oUt of this enigma. So God instructed Gabriel 0 locate & foundation for the Blessed Howse; he instructed Abraham to build the house, and he instructed the believers totum thei faces toward that house wherever they were ‘om ths earth, God also revealed to the Prophet the etiquette and the body rituals of the prayer at the prescribed times of the day and night. From this came the ‘musalia the archetypical Islamic place. It sits symmetrically and bilaterally on the crossing ofthe great circle passing through the Kata and the concentric circles emanating from the Ka'ba. The body postures from qayyane to rakw’a to sujud progressively establish the spatial orientations and ultimately the place, During the ‘yayyam te lateral plane ofthe body defines the parallel of the boundary wall that js behind an the qibla wall that is in front. As the torso descends into the ruku'a and is held up by arms bracing the knees, a plane is defined that locates the man, the mitvab, and the Kars, Finally as the body reaches the state of suid, as the forehead, swo hands, «wo knees, and Iwo feet define a symmetrical heptagonal piece of the earth, As the praise to “Lord the High’ is witered thre times, the am, Cooms at Archer ~ ‘upright axis between man the enlivened earth and God the one whose throne encompasses the cosmios is finally established, At that time, as the individual ‘usalla becomes the global mosque, the man for a brief moment has connected himself tothe Divine, Foran instant, all materiality has disappeared. But as he rises his head and as he return to the world of shapes and forms he finds bimselt Sting inthe center of the Cordova mosque, or in the courtyard of Sultan Hasan, or perhaps under die dome ofthe Suleymaniye Tes litle wonder then that al-Birun almost e thousand years ago in presenting his methods fr calculating the orietation says, "When bo the longitudes and the fatitudes of evo towns are known, other relations connected with them become known. They ate the distance between them, the direction ofthe one relative t the ‘other, and the points of imtersection.... They are very useful relations on the earth and in the hereafter" Dodd and Khairallah note thatthe morphology of Islamic plans are almost indistinguishable when they are divorced from scale and tex" "The plan ae simultaneously mandalas and cosmograms. The house may lok like the mosque, the mosque like the madras. The fountain with four water channels may be the same as in the chaharbagh garden, which in ten may be divided oF enlarged forever. 3. Journey beyond movement, Beie in the flow and flux of creation toward its destiny in Godt has led 10 the expectation of a joumey without the necessity of ‘physical path or processional movement This isan ontological movement free of ‘physical displacement. To evoke such a state of mind i Islamic architecture's most ‘ble challenge. Ii in this sense tha architecture becomes the sacred slage and simultaneously the invisible choreographer of Islamic life. The Suleymaniye in Istanbul from the courtyard through the mosque to the “garden of the dead,” reminds us of the journey of destiny within the living Kliye.s The mogarmas dome over the remains of Nur al-Din Zangi in Damascus points out the journey from the earth to he Heavens. 4, Presence bens represenation, Concrete sensual reality is always overpowered by the pervasive presence of the spirit which is independent of the senses. The Divine is beyond image and representation. Though places can be appointed by him hs signs, he in his glory is beyond place, space, and matter Inthe famous parable of Hallaj when bis beloved visited him in the cell the entie prison

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