Metaphysical Investigations

The absence of figural representation in Islamic art is not merely a juridical restriction or an aesthetic preference, but is rooted in Islam’s metaphysical understanding of the relationship between God, the world, and the manifestation of the sacred. By examining the contrast between the theological paradigms of incarnation and manifestation (theophany), this article argues that the aesthetic divergence between Christian and Islamic art arises from two distinct conceptions of divine presence. In Christian theology, the doctrine of incarnation affirms the embodiment of the Divine Word in a concrete historical person, thereby legitimizing iconography as a visual mediation of sacred presence.

In Islamic theology and philosophy—especially within mystical thought and Transcendent Wisdom—the relation between transcendence and resemblance is resolved by distinguishing between the level of Essence and the level of Act. The Divine Essence remains beyond all form and determination, while divine reality appears in the world through manifestation rather than embodiment. Consequently, no determinate image can function as an exclusive bearer of the sacred, rendering figural representation metaphysically unjustified. The juridical prohibition of images thus operates as a historical safeguard against limiting the infinite and reviving idolatrous patterns. The article concludes that the absence of images enables a distinctive affirmative aesthetic in Islamic art, expressed in calligraphy, geometric patterns, and arabesque forms that visually articulate unity in multiplicity and a non-representational sacred presen