BOOK 2 – ETHICO-METAPHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS
And the holy Book has reminded us that it is the mission of the Devil to employ beauty for misleading mankind, inasmuch as he had proclaimed at the dawn of Creation:
ِ ِ ِ ْ ﻬﻢ أض وَﻷُ ْﻏ ِﻮﻳـﻨـ ِ ِ .ﲔ َ ﻻ ﻋﺒَ َﺎد َك ﻣْﻨـ ُﻬ ُﻢ اﻟْ ُﻤ ْﺨﻠَﺼِ إ. ﲔ َ َﲨَﻌ ْ ُ َ َ ِ ﻦ َﳍُ ْﻢ ﰲ ْاﻷ َْر َﻨ… َﻷ َُزﻳـ “… I verily shall employ Beauty for them (i.e., the human beings) in the earth (i.e., based on the earthly environment, inducing them to the love of sensuous pleasure and to the adoption, for that purpose, of the materialistic and hedonistic approach to Art), and shall mislead them all,—except such as are your perfectly devoted servants.” (15:39-40). Thus, the aesthetical pursuit has, in the very nature of the case, to be subordinated always to the demands of morality, whereby alone the moral tone and social health of the human beings can be ensured.
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