Light and color in Islamic mysticism and architecture

In: Religación: revista de ciencias sociales y humanidades, Band 5, Heft 23, S. 177-181

Abstract

This paper aims to study the cognitive background of light and color in the culture and art of Islamic mysticism and architecture analytically. Islamic mysticism and architecture are two separate disciplines that pursue a common goal in light and color about the creation of the universe and its emergence in different realms. Architecture tries to express the delicate mystical aspects of this matter in the material world. The mysticism supposes the universe or the light of all lights begins from God, and this light, which is an aspect of existence, will be darker passing to the lower worlds. As the world of reason, the first universe, is white, and the world of the body, which is the last known universe, is black. The findings show that light and color are two fundamental elements of creation and existence, which, by mixing in Islamic mysticism and architecture, have found a new identity and have created a vast global vision toward Allah. This essay is based on an interpretive analytical method, based on Clifford Geertz's interpretations theories and functionalism of Branislaw Malinowski, based on a library and documentary methodology and a qualitative content analysis method that transforms from descriptive to interpretive.