Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
I wanted to know the hukm on Islamic Architecture. My professor says that if the Prophet (salAllahu 3aly Wassalam) saw those architecture masterpiece mosques that have been built in the past, he would disapprove of them. There is a hadith about the impermissibility for mosques to have ornaments [zakharif]. Also the Prophet’s [salAllahu 3aly Wassalam] masjid was very simple.
Another problem is the idea of materializing the unseen world into the seen world, sorta. Ya3ni for example, the Muslim gardens had the idea of two streams or rivers, running through them, and an abundance of trees and plants. It’s almost like the designer was trying to bring the heavenly attributes down to earth. Is that permissible?
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
1. “Allah is Beautiful and loves beauty.” (hadith)
2. “Allah likes that if you do something that you do it with excellence.”
(hadith)
3. There is difference between making something beautiful and excellent in
design, and excess and wastefulness; it is the last that the hadiths blame.
4. Beautiful design is a means of thanking Allah for His blessings, and a
means of reminding people of the perfection, beauty, and majesty of Allah.
And Allah alone gives success.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani