The Application of Qur’anic Verses in Malaysian Contemporary Islamic Painting and Fashion: 1991–2016

Abstract

The decision is made by the 13th Muzakarah of the Fatwa Committee on 1 and 2 July 1985, and the Non-Muslims are prohibited/not allowed to write, carve, shape, display and sell materials containing Qur’anic verses. In 2008, Malaysia Department of Islamic Development published a book titled ‘Guideline on Manufacturing, Handling, and Disposing of Publishing and Decorative Materials which contain Quranic Verses’. Another book was produced by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia the Guideline on Department of Islamic Development Malaysia Volume 2 Year 2015 titled ‘Guideline on Manufacturing, Handling, Selling and Disposing of Qur’anic verses’. In manufacturing, all activities related to manufacturing of materials containing Qur’anic verses must adhere to the guidelines. There are nine guidelines and one of the guidelines is related with the artworks on Shari’ah compliance. It is prohibited to write or shape Qur’anic verses in the form of animals, humans, buildings and game equipment such as the wau, plants, flowers and the like. The usage of the calligraphy in the creativity of the artists emerged the shape of human, fauna and alike by consciously and unconsciously. It is also the issues of the spelling mistakes, difficulty of reading the verses and designs’ arrangement in the application of the Qur’anic verses in the artworks. Therefore, this research is to study the application of Qur’anic verses in Contemporary Islamic art: 1991–2016. It is the artworks produced after the establishment of the National Calligraphy Art Association (was established in 1985) and Yayasan Restu Foundation (was established in 1987). These institutions support the Islamic Art in Malaysia via education and exhibitions. This study reconsiders the JAKIM’s Fatwa and the compliance of Islamic art in the application of Qur’anic verses. 120 artworks of variety of Qur’anic verses were collected from 36 artists as samples in the analysis of the stylistic of Qur’anic verses in the contemporary Islamic art. The context of the artworks is categorized into four categories: signs, doa’, shifa’ and dzikr. It has four components (idea, tools, form and contents) and the Islamic tradition of deeds in contemporary Islamic faith. The artists do righteous deeds (amal khair) receive reward (ajrun) of journey to the paradise (Jannah). Thus, the thesis formulates towards the definition and philosophy of Islamic art.