Elevating Aesthetic Taste based on Hamd in the Quran and Hadith

The relationship between the truth of beauty and perceiving beauty is a fundamental topic in aesthetics. From the Islamic perspective, the truth of beauty is steadily flowing throughout the universe, and it has levels, ranging from sensory to more extrasensory (i.e., intellectual) qualities. Since the relation of a human to beauty is that of a perceiver and the object of perception, perceiving beauty will also have different levels. Therefore, the Islamic perspective calls humans not to confine their perception of beauty to the sensory levels but to elevate it to grasp the intellectual beauty, or husn, as well. However, elevating aesthetic taste to the higher levels requires deeper knowledge about beauty and the skill of understanding husn. Therefore, the question that needs to deal with is about the correct approach to elevating taste. As fundamental research, the present paper aims a study the approaches of elevating aesthetic taste. It employs a descriptive-analytical and inferential methodology to draw on Islamic epistemological sources, including views of Allameh Tabataba’i, and explore the human structure of perception and factors influencing it. Findings indicate that “encounter” plays an important role in constructing knowledge and that the quality of encounter influences the quality of knowledge. Therefore, for elevating aesthetic taste, the way one encounters beauty needs to be developed. Based on an analysis of the Quran and hadith, the study finally suggests that the best approach to elevating the level of encountering beauty will be to highlight expressions of hamd (praise for true beauty) by the person and develop the ability to express hamd