The Most-Beautiful - Al-Jamīl
Al-Jamīl, The Source of Beauty
In an enlightening hadith (prophetic narration), the Prophet ﷺ tells us that no one with an ounce of arrogance in his heart will enter Paradise. In seeking to understand what arrogance means, the companions asked “O Prophet of God, what if a person likes to dress well?” The Prophet ﷺ responded, “God is beautiful (Jamīl) and loves beauty. Arrogance is rejecting truth and looking down on people” [Muslim] God gives us clues to His beauty. He calls the sun, the moon, the stars, the skies, and the mountains ‘signs’. And what is a sign except something that leads us to something greater—to a logical conclusion, to the source of that sign? Our faith in God’s beauty should strengthen our connection with our Lord. It increases our love for Him and our longing to return to Him—to be able to see just a glimpse of Him. The Prophet ﷺ made the following du`a’ (supplication): “I ask of You the joy of looking on Your noble countenance and of my longing to be with You.” [Nisa’i] Because He is the Source of Beauty, he tells us what real beauty is. The Prophet ﷺ also says “God does not look at your appearance or your possessions; but He looks at your heart and your deeds.” [Muslim] So beautifying ourselves outwardly, while commendable and can take different forms in different cultures, is tempered by what is beautiful to God. For example, no matter how elegant a shirt is, if it does not cover our ‘awra (parts of the body that must be covered), it is not beautiful to God. The real beauty that is evident to anyone is inner beauty. If the inside is beautiful, it beautifies what is outside.