Is Aesthetic Sense Universal?
Peace and blessings on you.
In the name of Allah, the ultimate Reality. The concept that we have 3 things incorporated in our program is a very fascinating idea. All it means is that we have the ability to learn and grow and find the truth, the ultimate truth. Intellect: we have the ability to reason, infer, deduce, and comprehend etc. to find the truth. These are the ingredients of our “intellect file.” What is does is provide the basic code to build upon. The bud shall become a tree, and what shape the tree takes, how many branches it will have, is governed by the environment and the time taken. The time frame is that of humanity as a collective being. It started from the first conscious, intelligent being and will end with the last intelligent, conscious being. Morality: we have the ability to realize good and bad. Good is what I want for myself without hurting others. I do not want to be robbed, or cheated, or lied to, etc. These are bad and the opposite is good. Now, what this tree grows into will also depend on the environment and human-race-time. No matter how much time passes, a lie will always be a lie and bad. But through the environmental factors and egoism, we have learned to accept it as an inevitability and use it for personal gain. Despite that, we have not labelled a lie as a good thing. Aesthetics: we also know what is beautiful and what is ugly. That would be the bud. This bud, like intellect and morality, will also go through evolution and keep on changing. What will not change is the ability to define what is beautiful and what is ugly. The dance we do is variable among nations and regions but dance we do. Singing is also beautiful and ugly, it varies from region to region but singing we do. Of course, my singing is beautiful in my region and ugly in another. The ability to qualify a thing or an act as beautiful and ugly will always remain. Aesthetics will be influenced by morality which is influenced by intellect. These three things affect each other and hence give me the “I” imprint, the unique code of my consciousness. The next question is why do I have these? The obvious answer is because I need these to be the vicegerent of the All-Mighty God. I have microscopic elements of the Great Reality that manifest, themselves, in me in variable degrees. I need these 3 abilities to take the test, designed by the Real. The test is of choice of good. How I get to that answer depends on my use of the 3 elemental abilities (fitrat).