Note: Dr. Salman Rizvani is the director of the fundamental research office of the Islamic Media Research Center. I talked to him about the challenges facing art jurisprudence. He believes that before art jurisprudence, the challenges of art ethics and art philosophy must be solved. He also considers the historical misunderstanding between jurists and artists as another obstacle for the development of art jurisprudence. The details of the conversation with this university professor are as follows:

What are the most important challenges facing art jurisprudence?

Rezvani: One of the most important challenges facing art jurisprudence is the lack of dialogue between jurists and artists. This is a mutual misunderstanding; It means that both artists do not consider jurisprudence to be a path-breaker in the space of artistic discussions, and jurists are indifferent to art and perhaps do not have accurate information regarding various artistic issues.

Another challenge facing these two fields is that art has changed its function; But still, jurists do not pay special attention to this issue, except that artists do not pay much attention and knowledge to the dynamics of jurisprudence. The attitude of artists towards jurisprudence is a traditional and ineffective one, and they believe that jurisprudence is not only a solution; Rather, in many cases, it is an obstacle to the cultivation and growth and creativity of artists.

As long as the misunderstanding between these two subject areas is not resolved and the problem between the two areas is not solved and these challenges exist. As long as jurists do not recognize different artists and arts and do not believe in changing the different functions of art, the expansion of art jurisprudence will have a weak possibility.

For instance, music has been removed from the function of playfulness in many artistic approaches, and now music is considered as an expressive element in the media; That is, music is not just a decoration and embellishment of the media message; Rather, it is the carrier of the message and basically carries a part of the meaning in the process of the message. Therefore, this change of function has been created in the field of music, which can create new jurisprudential issues and new chapters of jurisprudence that jurists must pay attention to, and artists must also open this facet of the expressive element and other aspects of the art of music for jurists and the functions explain so that a correct understanding of the art of music takes place in terms of theology. It is the same in the art of image and sculpture, etc.; Thus, changing the functions and applications in art causes new chapters and rules to be imposed on art. The construction that occurred in the field of artistic issues will also lead to the construction in the rulings; But these misunderstandings must be resolved in a conversation and these new chapters must be opened.

It seems that the relationship between art and religion has not been taken for granted or its chapters and rules have not been revised so that we can discuss art jurisprudence; Thus, we have problems and objections both in the ethics of art, in the philosophy and wisdom of art, and in the jurisprudence of art. We have not assigned the first two stages yet, we have considered the third stage which is the discussion of art jurisprudence. This issue has caused artists to run away from this issue. Of course, jurists are not immune from this damage and they pay less attention to these discussions and mostly avoid the jurisprudence of art and do not get too close to these issues; Because it is an unknown phenomenon and world.

In my opinion, it is necessary for enlightened scholars and nobles to examine this issue in detail first, so that in the preliminary discussions, a correct understanding of these issues can be made, and the authorities and great scholars can make the desired rulings in the field of debates on these issues. That is, this must be an issue in the body of the framework. The language of art and media must be recognized in the field.

We have a rule that “the guidance does not spread except through me as the spread of misguidance”: guidance does not take place except through the path where misguidance takes place. Of course, one of the misleading focus points for the audience is the language of art and media. Now most of the believers and people are misled by the media. Well, we, who are preachers and promoters and exponents of the rules of religion, must first recognize the language of media and art, then automatically, its chapters appear to us. This happens after recognition. In this framework, the seminary must first recognize it and make it a seminary issue, and then study it in different fields. Discover the world of art. To discover the chapters of art and know them correctly. When this knowledge happens, there will be changes and transformations in the field of fundamental rules.

In my opinion, according to the rule that says “People are enemies of what they are ignorant of” perhaps ignorance of the field of art has caused the seminary to avoid these topics. On the other hand, there is this ignorance in the field of art. Artists’ ignorance of religion and lack of detailed information about religion have caused artists to distance themselves from the religious, jurisprudential, and ruling areas of religion.

Apart from the general challenges of emerging jurisprudence, such as the lack of specific rules, lack of sources, lack of scientific writings, etc., what are the specific challenges facing art jurisprudence?

Rizvani: These challenges mentioned in the text of the question are completely correct and exist in the field of jurisprudence. We have many challenges from the side of art. The lack of religious and jurisprudential information of artists, the lack of artistic sources that have been written in this field and have examined the relationship between art and religion in a general sense and jurisprudence in its own special sense. There is also this lack of scientific writings from the side of art and basically the lack of information that exists between artists from the point of view of jurisprudence. Also, the fact that jurisprudence artists see an obstacle to the development of art and consider jurisprudence against creativity and development of art is a fundamental challenge, if apparently this is nothing more than a misunderstanding.

Maybe jurisprudence only channels art and makes it clean of anti-values. This goes back to the relationship between art and religion and that no major work has been done in the theoretical discussions and philosophy of art; Basically, the field of art has a challenge with religion in terms of belief, and until the challenges of this belief field are not resolved, it will not be the turn of art jurisprudence. In other words, we see the relationship between religion and art as challenging and these theoretical issues have not been revised properly and there is no correct image of these issues. Definitely, the field of art is a backward field and we must first address the field of religion and art.

I think our most important challenge is in the field of philosophy of art. We did not take a deep and detailed look at the philosophy of art from a religious perspective. The chapters on philosophy of art are not serious chapters of Islamic and Shi’ah attitudes. Our philosophers did not have a detailed and deep look at art and media, and until these areas of belief and theology are revised, art jurisprudence discussions are definitely secondary discussions and will not be addressed. I think it is necessary to first examine the theoretical issues and philosophy and wisdom of art.

Jurisprudents often do not have a good relationship with art (whether dramatic, visual, painting, etc.). In your opinion, what presuppositions and bases have caused this judgment on their part?

Rizvani: It seems that most of the jurists do not recognize the arts, and maybe it is because of the sometimes negative historical record of some arts such as music and sculpture, so they do not have a correct image of the later arts. Many of the functions that exist in the history of art are not related to many arts. For instance, most of the music functions have changed. The art of sculpture is no longer the art of making idols and embodying God; Rather, it is an art that is used for the growth of human creativity and positive functions. In the sense that they make the characters permanent in the form of visualization. There are different conceptual and meaningful functions of sculptural art. Or, for instance, the art of painting is an art with creativity; Therefore, many of these ideas about art are no longer imagined.

In my opinion, the misunderstandings between jurists about art are the other way around. There are many misunderstandings between artists and jurisprudents, such as the fact that jurisprudents are very traditional-minded and stonewalled and ignorant of art issues, which makes the conversation between jurists and artists impossible. It is good that these conversations take place on both sides, the dynamics of Shi’ah jurisprudence are explained to artists, and the functions of different arts are explained by artists to jurists, so that good results can be obtained from these conversations for the development and expansion of the field of art jurisprudence.

Ijtihad: Throughout history, the relationship between jurists and artists (except poets) has never been generally good. What steps should be taken to eliminate this mistrust and lack of understanding?

Rizvani: Yes, throughout history, this relationship has been weak and sometimes it has been confrontational. To eliminate this mistrust and lack of understanding, the best way is to explain and talk between the artists and the special custom of both sides; It means that our seminaries must be places where artists come and go. One of the reference groups of our artists are jurists. The jurists should also be one of the parties of their consultation in the field of knowledge of the subjects of the field of art, the artists themselves. The language of art should be recognized in the seminary.

To be included in the educational texts of the field of discussion of art in its various types. The field of art should be discussed in the official educational books of the seminary, and the result of these scientific discussions will, of course, show the closeness of these two fields.

The fruit of this closeness reaches both sides. At the same time, the audience will get out of the confusion and confusion, and a new language called art and media will be added to the fields to explain religion, and we will take a greater level and scope of the audience under the umbrella of our religious explanation. Through the use of the language of art, we will create more influence in the layers of insight, tendency and action of the audience, and in fact, according to the order of the Supreme Leader, we will perpetuate our own ideas and thoughts in the form of art.

In a deep and precise statement, he says: Every thought, idea and revolution that does not fit into the form of art will not last; Thus, in order to perpetuate the message of Shi’ah denomination and jurisprudence, we must acquire the language of art and recognize the language of art. Explain the place of conflict in different arts and have a deep and fundamental knowledge of art and media, and finally attain the religious science of art, as I said, the path of this is from the philosophy of art, from the relationship between ethics and art, and from the expansion of the relationship between jurisprudence and art.

This conversation is a part of the electronic magazine “Fundamentals of Art Fiqh” which was produced in collaboration with the School of Fiqh Hunar and the Ijtihad Network website.