{"id":35655,"date":"2026-02-11T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T08:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:11:14","slug":"fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya","status":"publish","type":"videos","link":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/","title":{"rendered":"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the “Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel)<\/a>, held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme “Ethics and Aesthetics in Islam”. Ridouane Bisdaoune<\/strong> (Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco) spoke as part of Theme 1 \u2014 Ethics and aesthetics in Islamic heritage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Summary of the paper<\/h3>\n

This paper examines the vision of Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b (1150\u20131210) of the beauty of the soul in his epistle Blame of the Pleasures of This World<\/em> (Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101<\/em>). This vision can be described as a critique of the concept of material beauty and a defence of inner beauty. Al-R\u0101z\u012b considers that wisdom is the summit of spiritual beauty, and that neglecting it opens the door to physical and spiritual sickness.<\/p>\n

He divides the pleasures of the world into three categories: the first concerns bodily pleasures, which al-R\u0101z\u012b considers the lowest; the second category comprises imaginative pleasures \u2014 namely the pleasure of leadership and of prestige \u2014 whose good and bad aspects he sets out; the third category is the intellectual pleasure obtained through the sciences, whose aspects of attraction and repulsion he shows. This vision will be discussed in the context of the influence of Platonic philosophy (purification of the soul) and of Islamic thought (al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b’s I\u1e25y\u0101’ \u02bful\u016bm al-d\u012bn<\/em>) upon al-R\u0101z\u012b.<\/p>\n

Keywords:<\/strong> beauty of the soul \u2014 bodily healing \u2014 pleasure.<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> How does al-R\u0101z\u012b conceive of spiritual beauty?<\/p>\n

\nRead the panel synthesis by Chadia Gueddara<\/summary>\n
\n

This synthesis was written in the aftermath of the congress by Chadia Gueddara<\/strong> (EHESS), under the Pluriel student-fellowship programme. It covers all three papers of the panel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aesthetics and Sufism: gazes, listenings and spiritual knowledge<\/h4>\n

Held on Wednesday 11 February 2026 in Hall 2 and chaired by Guy-Ramond Sarkis, this panel gathered three papers in French and Arabic that share a single central question: how does classical Sufi thought articulate sensible experience and spiritual elevation? Three axes structure the whole.<\/p>\n

The first is the hierarchisation of pleasures and modes of perception. Ridouane Bisdaoune (Ibn Zohr University, Morocco), through Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b’s Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101<\/em>, proposes a taxonomy of enjoyments \u2014 sensible, imaginative, intellectual \u2014 whose ascending logic leads to a redefinition of beauty as inner reality, with wisdom constituting its summit. Yesmine Karray (ENS Lyon) identifies, in al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b, an analogous gradation of the experience of sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> according to the degree of spiritual maturity of the listener, while Wael Tahhan (Paris 1) shows how gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> \u2014 the lowering of the gaze \u2014 establishes a perceptual hierarchy between the ordinary look (na\u1e93ar<\/em>) and the higher forms of vision (ba\u1e63\u012bra<\/em>, mush\u0101hada<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The second axis is that of inner conversion as the condition of aesthetic experience. All three papers thematise the necessity of a transformation of the soul in order to reach an authentic perception of the beautiful: the polishing of the mirror of the heart in al-R\u0101z\u012b; understanding (fahm<\/em>) as a prerequisite to the shock of ecstasy (wajd<\/em>) in al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b; refinement of taste (tadhawwuq<\/em>, tazkiyya<\/em>) through the mastery of the gaze in Tahhan. The third axis concerns normativity and the legitimation of aesthetic practices. Al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b emerges as the central figure of legitimation: he integrates sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> into orthodoxy by conditioning its licitness upon the nature of the poetry, the music and the spiritual state of the listener. Tahhan extends this reflection by proposing to read gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> not as a mere moral injunction but as the foundation of an Islamic aesthetics whose adjective “Islamic” is rethought as an epistemological marker rather than a geo-historical category.<\/p>\n

The papers mobilise a conceptual network anchored in the classical Islamic sciences: ladhdh\u0101t<\/em> (enjoyments) and their hierarchisation in al-R\u0101z\u012b; sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> and its operators \u2014 tanz\u012bl<\/em> (embodiment of the poetic image) and ta’w\u012bl<\/em> (return to the first meaning) \u2014 in al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b; gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> in its double moral and aesthetic register, articulated with the notions of ba\u1e63\u012bra<\/em>, tazkiya<\/em>, tadhawwuq<\/em>, \u1e25al\u0101wa<\/em> and baraka<\/em> in Tahhan. On the theoretical plane, Bisdaoune articulates the “sciences of the Ancients” (falsafa<\/em>, medicine) and the “sciences of the Later ones” (kal\u0101m<\/em>, ta\u1e63awwuf<\/em>); Karray adopts a hermeneutics of the Kit\u0101b \u0100d\u0101b al-sam\u0101\u02bf wa-l-wajd<\/em>; Tahhan draws on the philosophers Taha \u02bfAbd al-Rahman and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.<\/p>\n

The centrality of al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b in all three papers raised the question of the risk of uniformisation: to what extent does this figure crush the diversity of Sufi positions on the licitness of sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> or on the theory of the gaze? The main contribution of this panel is to lay the foundations of an Islamic aesthetics built from within the Islamic sciences themselves, articulating ethics, epistemology and sensible experience. It also enriches al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b studies by highlighting dimensions that are often relegated to the background: the poetics of sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em>, the medicine of the soul, the refinement of the gaze. Conversely, the focus on the great classical texts leaves late Sufi traditions and concrete practices in the shadow. Finally, a more explicit dialogue with contemporary comparative aesthetics would allow the epistemological singularity of the proposed approach to be better situated.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"date_tournage":"","lieu":"","nature_evenement":"","vt_type":"Conf\u00e9rence","vt_yt_views":36},"video_collection":[854],"class_list":["post-35655","videos","type-videos","status-publish","hentry","video_collection-congres-de-cordoue-2026"],"date_tournage":"","yoast_head":"\nFakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the "Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101" - Pluriel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the "Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101" - Pluriel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme “Ethics and Aesthetics in Islam”. Ridouane Bisdaoune (Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco) spoke as part of Theme 1 \u2014 Ethics and aesthetics in Islamic heritage. Summary of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pluriel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-25T07:11:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/videos\\\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/videos\\\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\\\/\",\"name\":\"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the \\\"Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101\\\" - Pluriel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-11T14:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-25T07:11:14+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/videos\\\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/videos\\\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/videos\\\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/?lang=en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the \u00ab\u00a0Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101\u00a0\u00bb\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pluriel\",\"description\":\"University Platform for Research on Islam\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the \"Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101\" - Pluriel","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the \"Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101\" - Pluriel","og_description":"Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme “Ethics and Aesthetics in Islam”. Ridouane Bisdaoune (Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco) spoke as part of Theme 1 \u2014 Ethics and aesthetics in Islamic heritage. Summary of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/","og_site_name":"Pluriel","article_modified_time":"2026-07-25T07:11:14+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/","url":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/","name":"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the \"Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101\" - Pluriel","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-02-11T14:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-25T07:11:14+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/fakhr-al-din-al-razi-from-bodily-healing-to-the-aesthetics-of-the-soul-a-study-of-the-risalat-dhamm-ladhdhat-al-dunya\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/?lang=en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b: from bodily healing to the aesthetics of the soul \u2014 a study of the \u00ab\u00a0Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101\u00a0\u00bb"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/","name":"Pluriel","description":"University Platform for Research on Islam","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/videos\/35655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/videos"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/videos"}],"acf:term":[{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"chercheur_tag","href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chercheur_tag\/430"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"chercheur_tag","href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chercheur_tag\/252"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"chercheur_tag","href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chercheur_tag\/241"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"chercheur_tag","href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chercheur_tag\/248"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"chercheur_tag","href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chercheur_tag\/247"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"chercheur_langues","href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chercheur_langues\/321"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"chercheur_langues","href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chercheur_langues\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"video_collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/video_collection?post=35655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}