Art between commitment and freedom

"Art between commitment and freedom" is the title of an episode of Al-Wasatiyya presented by Tareq al-Suwaidan. ⁸ The episode opens differently from the earlier ones: the presenter says that in Arabic "the middle" (al-wasat) means not only the midpoint between two extremes but also the highest point, like the apex of a pyramid between two sides, and that the programme is about how the umma can rise again without extremism or laxity, by discussing disputed questions and hearing experts, young people and viewers. ^{9 10 11}

He introduced the subject by saying art is refinement, feeling, civilisation, beauty, spirit and identity, but can turn into liberation, positive or negative, and in parts of the umma is used today as a tool of demolition. ^{11 12} He said studies are clear that media and art today are the strongest makers of a society's values, well ahead of parents, friends, school, mosque and the internet; this is his statement. ^{13 14} He framed the question: how much freedom is allowed in art, are there shar'i and moral controls, and how can the artist's need for freedom be reconciled with the umma's wish to regulate him? ¹⁴ He said that in this episode he was not only a presenter but someone with an opinion. ¹⁵

The main guest was Dr Usama al-Qaffash, joined by experts, artists, directors and the studio's young people, ⁸ among them Dr Ma'mun Jarrar, ¹⁶ the Yemeni MP Shawqi al-Qadi, a Friday preacher and sharia lecturer whom the presenter said had once acted, ^{17 18} the preacher Khawla Abidin, ¹⁹ and an art critic, a poet, an actor and others, who are named here by role where their names are unclear in the recording.

• Does religion restrict art? 65% said yes and 35% no. ^{20 1}
• If you were in charge of an artistic work, which matters more, beauty or message, with no "both" option? 14% chose beauty, 81% message, and 5% abstained. ^{21 22 2 23}
• Umm Kulthum's song "The heart loves every beautiful thing", about divine love, sung by a woman with music: is it committed art? 73% said committed and 27% not; the presenter called the result surprising and said it was a message to scholars to reconsider what commitment means, or to reconsider how the young are brought up. ^{24 25 3 26}
• Do you support prior censorship of artistic production, a body that approves before screening, as against later censorship that punishes violators after screening? 92% supported prior censorship and 8% opposed it; the presenter said the result surprised and disturbed him. ^{27 28 4}

These are the votes of that episode's studio audience.

Dr Usama al-Qaffash said the phrase "the audience wants it this way" is sometimes used to justify the worst in films, that restrictions exist whether we like it or not, so absolute artistic freedom is a dead idea, and that freedom for him is "understanding necessity": material and production necessities, and the necessities of the Muslim society he lives in. ^{29 30 31 32} He said that where there is a clear, definite shar'i ruling, such as on drinking wine or eating pork, he cannot change it, but in open questions whoever says permitted bears that and whoever says forbidden bears that; the prohibitions agreed by consensus are very few, so he does not see religion as restricting art. ^{33 34 35} He cited al-Junayd grading listening to music by degrees and Abu Hanifa voiding a singer's standing as a witness, as evidence of how old the disagreement over music is. ³⁶

Dr Ma'mun Jarrar said the matter needs definition: if restriction means impediment, then no; if it means regulation and guidance, then yes, and he thought many who voted yes meant this; religion regulates all of life, and the artist is not outside the law. ^{37 38} He held that art is a human activity not to be set up as a rival to religion, which is divine legislation. ^{38 39} The presenter asked why Abu Nuwas's wine poems remained in the heritage books unbanned while a stage scene alluding to wine is banned. He said Abu Nuwas repented late in life, that the problem lies in dramatic art, and noted that Muhammad Qutb held in The Method of Islamic Art that acting and cinema are the last things that can enter Islamic art, because the model they present is aberrant; the answer, he said, is to offer committed Islamic art as an alternative, and such attempts have been made by television stations and production companies. ^{39 40 41 42}

A young graphic designer said the Prophet ﷺ's seal, with the name of God at the top, then "Messenger", then "Muhammad", shows a kind of design creativity, and that religious limits do not contradict his nature, since human nature agrees with the sharia. ^{43 44 45}

Shawqi al-Qadi said defining terms is a condition of judging: art as vulgarity is one thing, but art as the elevation of feeling, taste, peace and love is something in which he, a sharia specialist, sees no restriction from religion but elevation; everything in life is governed by controls, even freedom as the French Revolution defined it. ^{17 46 47 48} He related that Umar ibn al-Khattab wanted to punish a poet who sang of enjoying wine, but the poet argued that poets say what they do not do, and Umar let him go; he explained that the penalty is for drinking wine, not for speaking of it, and speech is a matter for guidance and debate. This is his account in the episode. ^{49 50}

Dr al-Qaffash said beauty and message are not opposites, and related that the director Hitchcock, asked about the message in his films, said that whoever has a message should send it by post; he held that every artwork carries a message at several levels, that beauty is good in itself, and that, in his view, those who preached "message art" have no art. ^{23 51 52 53} He said no critic counts reality television as art, because it is built on the theory of shock, which brings audiences and money; whoever wants to import it should do so by its own rules. ^{54 55 56}

A poet in the audience said art need not carry a message, since beauty is itself a message, like a solo on the reed flute; he does not think of a message when he writes, and he recalled the saying that "the sweetest poetry is the most untrue". ^{57 58 59} An actor said the creative product, heard, read or seen, falls under an umbrella of values, because art champions the values of goodness, truth and beauty; that fine content is spoiled by poor form and vice versa; and that responsibility is shared between those who market debased goods and the audience that buys them. ^{59 60 61 62}

An art critic among the guests said the audience wavers, having voted for message and then judged the Umm Kulthum song committed; he cited a verse of Jarir on dark-eyed beauty and the poetry of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab as beauty without a message, said that any message art not guarded by an aesthetic aim is fallen art, that message is not only religion, since even Marxists have one, and that a third option would have changed the result. ^{63 64 65 66 67} The presenter replied that eighty million viewers voted in reality television: where is the message? ⁶⁸

A young woman said she judged the song committed because it joined message in its words and beauty in its feeling, even though she considers a woman's voice in chanting to be 'awra and music forbidden, holding that its good outweighs; another said its content is committed but its form is not, because a woman sings it. ^{69 70 71} The presenter stressed that the episode issues no fatwa on these disputed questions. ^{70 72}

A guest named Yusuf recalled the maxim some Islamic preachers raised years ago, "men of religion should become artistic, and men of art should become religious", and said fatwas change with the times: a song that was questioned in its day looks committed beside today's debasement. ^{73 74 75} Another guest said beauty itself is an aim of the sharia, and the more a person rises aesthetically the more he rises religiously. ^{75 76} The preacher Khawla Abidin said every human act springs from will and intention and so must carry a message, positive or negative, and that even a picture of a rose carries the message of returning beauty to God's power. ^{19 77}

The presenter asked: if everyone agrees beauty and message are both needed, why is there debased art? ⁷⁸ Dr al-Qaffash said the implicit message is made by the receiver, that there is no debased art, only debased production, since art is by definition beautiful, and that naive message art is debased too because nobody listens to it. ^{79 80} He attributed debasement to capital seeking profit alone, then to blind imitation of Western programmes, to the absence of political and social freedom, and to a rigid trend among some religious figures that forbids all art. ^{81 82 83 84} The presenter asked about ideologues who want to spread Westernisation, said the media landscape changed with the satellite channels over the past ten years, mostly for the worse, and added that a manager who blames competitors for his company's problems is himself the problem. ^{83 85 86}

After the 92% result the guests divided. ⁴ The art critic opposed it, because those who voted for it imagined the censors as scholars and virtuous people, whereas in his view the censors have no sense of responsibility. ^{87 18} Shawqi al-Qadi opposed it for three reasons: who will censor, a harsh body or a lax one; prior restrictions stifle creativity; and the umma is restricted enough; he favoured later controls judged by an honest, independent judiciary. ^{18 88} Dr Ma'mun Jarrar supported it provided it observes shar'i standards, hoped producers would hold themselves to such standards, said every household controls what it watches, and that knowing the political, shar'i and moral ceiling in advance spares the producer the cost of a production that might be banned. ^{89 90 91} The actor preferred later censorship, since a creator who cares to be a real artist will not present what opposes his society. ^{91 92} A guest named Nabil supported it despite distrust of the censors, because there are different age groups, just as one does not leave the internet open to a thirteen-year-old son. ^{93 94}

A young man said the censorship that actually exists is security censorship, not moral: it bans series for their principles and permits series without morals. ⁹⁵ Dr al-Qaffash said the great problem is hypocrisy, and cited a statistic he said was published, that societies which censor the internet are among those that visit pornographic sites most; this is his claim, and no source was given in the episode. ^{96 97} He described censorship as a security apparatus like intelligence and state security, said it assumes young people want nothing but vice, and that the answer is for parents to look after their children at home. ^{98 99}

The presenter said Dr al-Qaffash had said something bold that he thinks true: most morally outstanding production is artistically dull, and a channel with high entertainment and high morals does not yet exist; how can it be reached? ^{100 101} An expert proposed three steps: not reducing commitment to formalities, settling the fatwas that confuse people on art, music and the female voice, and training those who work in art academically and professionally. ^{102 103} A young man said parents matter most and television production will not reform the young; the presenter replied that the programmes of Amr Khaled managed to rival reality television in viewing figures. ^{103 104 105} A guest named Juma said debased art is countered by beautiful, refined art, citing modern Islamic songs on video and the series Al-Taghriba al-Filastiniyya of about thirty episodes, and held that encouragement requires dropping strictness over instruments and the female voice. ^{106 107} Dr al-Qaffash closed by saying the alternative exists, need not come from a committed person, and depends on accepting the other and learning from those who do good work. ^{108 109 110}

The presenter said neither he nor anyone else can speak in the name of the middle way or of God's ruling, since these are human understandings, and that he was summarising his own views, not the guests'. ^{110 5}

• There is no civilisation without art, and the rupture he sees among some Muslims and their scholars between art and religion must end. ^{5 111}
• When the Al-Resalah channel began, he looked for media fatwa and found a book of that title, but no agreed question in it; scholars need to meet in specialised conferences and give the umma an answer, and as long as scholars differ the umma will differ. ^{111 112 113}
• He does not understand religion as a single line from which any step is deviation, but as a current with two banks, extremism on one side and laxity on the other: what the people of the Maghrib do has its proofs and what the strict hold has its proofs, so people should bear with one another, and among the Companions some were lenient and some strict. ^{113 114 6}
• The poll result disturbed him deeply: he is against any prior censorship of anything, because the umma will rise only through freedom; Islam did not spread while Quraysh besieged the Muslims, but after the Treaty of Hudaybiyya allowed it to spread. This is his reading. ^{6 115}
• He favours controls set by scholars and artists together, since scholars alone would stress message and artists alone beauty; the controls should be announced to producers without prior censorship, and violators taken to the courts, not to security bodies, for the security mindset has taken hold even of young people's spirit, while the root of religion is intellectual freedom disciplined by morals. ^{115 7 116}
• Media and education are in his view the umma's most important projects today; if major funders and governments abandon them for the stock market, the umma will not rise. Faster than relying on local talent alone, he held, is training in partnership with international production bodies, which he said he has dealt with and which are ready to produce. ^{117 118 119}

The vote results are the opinions of that episode's studio audience, not representative surveys.