Question No. 3048 31 August 2022 Official answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) verified Content level: Intermediate

What Is the Material Standard for Recognising Beauty?

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Dear questioner, Master Ali Saei

Tracking code: #Q-3048

People instinctively make judgements about one another’s appearance. For example, one person may be considered handsome and attractive, while another is seen as the opposite.

There seems to be a shared understanding of this among people. Perhaps even someone who has little of the source of beauty is nevertheless considered beautiful, as a group of people agree. How can this be reconciled with the concept of beauty as it has been presented?

What might be the material standard for recognising beauty?

Is outward beauty meaningless? Or is it a gift from the Lord, bestowed on someone through His beautiful artistry?

Subject category: Ethics and Spirituality Theology and Creed Theology and creed

The essence and first answer at a glance (60-word summary)

Beauty is found in both outward appearance and inward character, and every human being has an innate capacity to perceive its subtleties. The important point, however, is to understand them fully, which reveals deeper truths. Agreement among people about particular things does not establish what is truly beautiful; rather, it is the consensus of the wise, guided by their innate dispositions, that gives rise to the principles of beauty.

Answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)

Teacher and researcher in the intellectual tradition of wisdom and the Ahl al-Bayt | Soroush Bamdadān Cultural Center

Every human being has an innate capacity to read the signs of beauty. These signs appear both outwardly and inwardly. What matters, however, is to read them fully, in all their forms. Their patterns and combinations reveal deeper truths about the nature of beauty, though not everyone can reach them.

Those who discover all the signs of beauty, inward and outward, are best qualified to speak of what is beautiful, of beauty itself, and of what is more beautiful.

Every being is like a book that partakes of beauty: its signs are inscribed upon its body and soul. Yet we should not forget that some signs of beauty cannot be perceived or read by everyone. Failure to read them does not mean they are absent.

Agreement among people on particular matters does not prove that they are true. A group may well agree on something false and present it as truth. Only the consensus of the rational can establish the criteria and principles of beauty.

The rational are those sound-minded people whose faculty of perception has not been corrupted by ugliness. They follow self-evident truths and do not stray from what is innate.

Whether a conception of beauty is sound—whether people’s agreement on what is beautiful is valid—can be confirmed only by assessing the character of those who agree.

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What Is the Material Standard for Recognising Beauty?

The essence and first answer at a glance (60-word summary)

Answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)

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