اهمیت هنر اسلامی در داخل مسجد

Mosques, as symbol of Islamic architecture must play an important role in reflecting the superiority of Allah the Almighty. There are many ways in making it successful and one of them is through the high quality of aesthetic value. Aesthetic value in Islamic art and architecture is normally portrayed by the highest degree of motifs and ornamentation. Contemporary mosque designers normally focused on the majestic looks of the exterior part of the mosques and leave the manipulation of the interior space to the users. There are scholars who said that mosques should act as community development centre, some decided on the uniqueness of traditional Malaysian architecture and some believed that mosques must have domes and minarets as symbols of Islamic architecture. This paper realized on the aesthetics and beauty of mosque interior that fulfils the psychological needs of human beings: that is to be inside a beautiful ambience. Ornamentation should be taken as part of mosque components and not as mere decorations done after-thought or filling in the gap. The main objective of the paper is why is it important to focus the ornamentation towards mosque interior so that ornamenting the mosque will not be done uncontrollably and unnecessarily.

At some point this time scholars are still wondering on comprehensive study of the history, function and significance of ornamentation in Islamic architecture especially in mosques. The organizations of the ornamentation, which covers vegetal, geometrical, epigraphic and figural or even a combination of two or more of these elements are in need for some evaluation and elaboration. Most of the time, these ornaments will reflect local traditions with a mixture of foreign influences, subject to the geographical area of the particular Islamic world. Islamic ornamentation is the very element that sews architecture and religion resulting serene, intelligible, structured and highly spiritual of Islamic art and architecture. Ornamentation in Islamic architecture mentioned by Grube (1978), serves several functions. Among the functions are giving the effect of weightlessness to the structure and creating articulation and non limitation to the space. Here, Grube (1978) looks at the physical functions of Islamic ornamentation. Seralgedin (1996) though, sees ornamentation as glue in uniting the Muslims with their architectural forms and decorations. Nevertheless, both of the renowned scholars seemed agreeable that the ornamentations which give sense of being inside a place with the articulation and embellishment of the interior are inspiring and notably assets to Islamic art. Human is regarded as a reflection of the innate beauty of the Almighty who had created the universe. Beauty in Islamic art and civilisation, to elaborate is a wide scope to be covered and this includes the appreciation of symmetry, balance, and also the expressions of sense of all-pervading life force were compatible with Islamic aesthetic principle [1].

The result of modernist movement always misinterpreted the existence of ornamentation as symbol of luxury. Mosque symbolizes the existence of a beautiful religion that is Islam. Visiting the house of Allah Al-Jameel (the beautiful) or a sacred place where we could spend our time getting intimate with Him we should encounter the joy of beauty at all levels of his existence. Unfortunately, in the modern world, we always provide nice decoration with marble banking halls and agree with so utilitarian and aesthetically poor mosques internal. The prayer hall for example, if it is not for the small niche that demarcated the Qibla wall and dome on top, the mosque could be misapprehended as a multipurpose hall. Mosques should be categorized under socially inspired type and this type is like residential where it should be studied together with its relationship to social factors such as users’ needs physically and psychologically [6]. These buildings should give the highest comfort that satisfy the psychological tranquility to the users in different cultural needs. In the Al-Quran, it has been mentioned in about 120 passages describing the paradise (Al Janna) being a beautiful place giving serene sense. As in the following verse; “For them will be Gardens of Eternity; beneath them rivers will flow; they will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and they will wear green garments of fine silk and heavy brocade; they will recline therein on raised thrones. How good the recompense! How beautiful a couch to recline on?” This is the starting point where most of the medieval mosque, for example the Great Mosque of Damascus, put forward their aesthetics feature of motifs and ornamentation, which portrayed the Paradise garden symbolically. On the later erections of medieval mosques for example Mosque of Al-Hakim under Fatimids dynasty, those features from paradise are then simplified to be in structured geometrical designs that are pleasing to the eyes of whomever witnessing them. Everyone in this world would not oppose to be in a beautiful place and this is shown clearly when we opted for beautiful houses for us to live in. Beauty that emerged through the manifestation of floral and geometrical motifs in arabesques and the beautiful Islamic Calligraphy inspired from the meaningful verses of the Quran. Where else is the most suitable place to instill all those precious artistic and ornamental values other than in mosques, the very place where all believers come at least once a week or five times a day at the most