Tonight I was privileged to attend the lecture of Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (bio here), on the subject of truth and beauty in Islam.
One thing in particular that he said--or quoted, really--touched me:
Beauty is the splendor of truth.
Taking the statement in, a student in the audience followed up with the question: If something that is truly true is beautiful, can anything untrue still be beautiful?
And his response (to paraphrase): It may be enticing, yes, but it will never attain true beauty because it will always be encumbered by falseness, whether you recognize it at once or not.
Think on that.
A few more of my favorite sound bytes from the night:
--If this world is something, God is nothing. If God is something, this world is nothing.
--Expression of truth brings with it an understanding of hierarchy of art.
--God is beautiful. Sacred art is always divinely inspired.
--Ugliness is human invention.
--Truth means that there is God.
