Formulating a Divine-centric Approach to Software Development

A majestic and serene aura exudes from the walls of masajid that were built during the epoch of Islamic civilization. One feels grandeur emanating from every nook and cranny of the Badshahi Masjid in Lahore, the Fatih Camii in Istanbul, the Alhambra in Granada, and countless other monuments of marvelous design and architecture around the Muslim world. And the same can be said of other sacred design and architecture from other civilizations and parts of the world.

But it is no mere accident that this design paradigm evokes a deep emotional experience from us, for they are essentially the percolations of the soul reverberating through our entire sensory being.

These buildings, be they sacred spaces or profane, are a testament to the knowledge and wisdom of the premodern world, one which combined an understanding of material reality with the metaphysical - or spiritual - world. And if we were instead to open a book and look upon manuscripts from this same era we are met with exquisite illuminated borders, illustrations that are intricately crafted and deftly balance compositional color and structure, and calligraphy that resonates with the entire publication.

What we are essentially witnessing is an entire design philosophy and paradigm, very much the same as the paradigms and principles that we follow today, be it Scandinavian minimalism, Baroque gaudiness, and postmodern brutalism. The philosophy behind traditional Islamic art and architecture is to focus its depiction and creation not as a means to mimic and represent the real world, but instead to turn the viewer's attention towards the Creator behind the creator, i.e. Source of All Creation.

“The East and the West belong to God: wherever you turn, there is His Face. God is All Pervading and All Knowing.” Qur'an - Surah Al Baqara [2:115]

Behind the apparent sensory depiction - such as a scene in an illustration, or an embellished dome in a masjid, or a courtyard with a fountain in the midst, flanked and surrounded by plants and greenery - are abstractions and symbols that appeal not to the conscious intellect, but the subconscious - or the soul if you may have it - which is in essence lifting the veil from the Divine Presence. As material reality is illusory - in this philosophical and metaphysical paradigm - the design and architecture in itself is still part of the illusion, part of the veil that hinders our ability to notice the ever-present Divine Presence. But the way it is put together using the bedrock of Divine symbolism, the manifest reality is thus able to appeal to our deeper sense of self.

Utility Versus Subtlety

This is how European Renaissance art differs from Islamic art: the former focuses on realism in order to depict material reality, whereas Islamic art is interested in reminding the viewer of the immateriality of the material realm. It speaks not to the intellect but, through it, to the soul.

Just as a beautiful Afghan or Persian carpet, a geometric mosaic tile pattern from the Maghreb, or muqarnas hanging off of the ceiling in a masjid or palace stirs the beholder, can this same soul stirring response be experienced through our technological creations?

In other words: what would an app or a website look like, and what would its functionality be like, if its core design principle was inspired to reflect the 'Face of Allah'?

So far we have discussed how aesthetic qualities evoke Divine remembrance, but when it comes to software the visual (and/or aural) layers are but one facet of the larger system. We also must turn our focus towards its interactive qualities, which in turn lead us to the fundamental question of being: what is the purpose of the app/website? Are the interactive features in accordance with this core principle of remembrance?

If we look at “Islamic” apps on the market their claim to religious adherence falls into two categories: either they draw aesthetics from Islamic art/architecture, or fulfil a religious/spiritual requirement such as providing prayer times, offer Arabic and translations of the Qur’an, or provide the compendium of Sahih ahadith (authentic sayings of the Prophet ﷺ. However, I feel that these are developed under a primarily utilitarian perspective: put this geometric pattern here, give the times of prayer, offer translations, and so on. This is not a critique of the hard and undoubtedly essential work and effort people have put into to make these software renditions available. This critique is instead of the foundational paradigm that we follow to build these software systems, so that we can start to discuss and explore a paradigm that is not rooted in the material, but rather the metaphysical and spiritual.

But why? Why should we develop a different software engineering paradigm? What difference does it make? And that too one which proposes to derive itself from some abstract notion of Divine-centricity? It is precisely because our current human-centered paradigm has a huge ethical gap that it is essential to explore other ways of doing things. Human-centric software development cannot respond to, nor understand, the real problems arising because of it such as engineer burnout, climate change, ecocide, mental health, fake news, mistrust, unraveling of social harmony, amongst others. It neither has the language, nor the will, to look at itself introspectively and acknowledge its destructive capacities.

For too long techno-evangelists have taken on the belief that they are benevolent creators on a mission of making the world a better place. And yet they never acknowledge the simple truth of its core motto - disrupt everything - that such a process always has negative effects. After all the definition of the word ‘disrupt’ is to ‘interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem’ or ‘drastically alter or destroy the structure of.’

Yet in the technology sphere the definition is used positively, as if it is something benevolent - ‘to cause radical change in (an industry or market) by means of innovation’ - while glossing over the obvious problems and destruction its radical change brings. Therefore it is necessary to put on center stage an ethical framework, and I argue that a Divine-centric paradigm has the capacity to holistically address these issues. In subsequent essays we shall explore this in more detail, inshallah.

Therefore, coming back to my critique earlier about religious apps built on top of this functional paradigm, we need to raise the question of is it even possible to create spiritually aligned apps if they are based on a foundational structure that is not even aligned with the recognition of anything beyond the material realm? If the foundation has no belief, how can we tack on belief?

Tradition as Inspiration

Therefore the way forward is to formulate a paradigm that is Divine-centric, akin to the foundations of Islamic art and architecture, in order to create spiritually-aligned software.

As discussed earlier we already have examples in traditional Islamic art and architecture to help us explore the basis for designing apps and websites from an aesthetic perspective. But even though we may not find any analogues of interactive design from Islamic art/architecture design philosophy we can make use of examples from passive interactions, such as viewing and hearing, to inform our conceptualization. These interactions, although involuntary, are nonetheless ways we experience these objects.

These passive interactions are also the primary ways we interact with apps and websites. The layer of HX - human experience as I like to call it rather than the more sterile term 'UX' - is built on top of these modes of interaction to provide choice. We can take cues from these involuntary interactions - how they evoke a sense of calm, splendor, longing - and apply them to HX such that the interactive elements of an app/website also begin to reflect the 'Face of Allah'.

Reflecting the 'Face of Allah' however is an abstract metaphysical rendering which we need to concretize (or manifest) in order for it to be applied. From the liminal space of imagination we need to shape these controls into something real, just as muqarnas and tehzib (illumination) takes form out of abstract concepts.

If we look to the Islamic art forms, of illumination, of illustration, of calligraphy, they each have a structure and grammar that forms the foundational building blocks of that art form.

The aesthetics are not separate from the technical and functional aspects of the form - they are not compartmentalized and reduced into 'separate fields' - but are part of a holistic methodology that help manifest the form, and I would argue accentuate the experientiality of it. That would mean the design aesthetics are inherently tied to the functionality of the technology, both of which are intended to praise and glorify Allah. Thus the interactions - the 'choices' - we imbue to these software systems become about elevating humans from their base animalistic tendencies, rather than accentuating them, which is what current software systems do.

And just as how we look at the inside of a dome of a beautiful masjid, or walk through the palatial gardens of old and feel harmony in our soul, the remembrance induced is not a superficial aesthetic being beaten into someone with a hammer, but instead intrinsic just as it is for Islamic architecture or calligraphy.

Just as geometrists were the architects and engineers of the past, whose work encompassed not just aesthetic design but functional engineering such as load-bearing, software engineers need also to become apprised with a holistic approach of development, that incorporates aesthetics, technical knowledge (and ethics), all intertwined as one methodology.

So the aesthetics of a website become a 'feature' rather than an effect of a feature. This requires moving away from that utilitarian perspective of software development, which defines building something only if it fulfils a utilitarian function such as capturing user attention, and whose basis and directive is, in the end, to make money. But how can we build something that is in accordance to this Divine-centric paradigm? How can we assess its effects and measure if it stirs the heart and soul? However such line of questioning arises precisely because of a paradigm that is materially driven.

A Divine-centric paradigm does not need to indulge in such line of questioning because it is intrinsically aware of the effects of its foundations. Just as an Agile methodology is intrinsically aware of its ability to organize and structure the work and timeline of a project, thus similarly a Divine-centric paradigm has its foundational building blocks that when applied create that soul-stirring effect on us, which we have also earlier referred to as reflecting the Face of Allah.

Thus every design and developmental decision becomes inherently connected to the Divine. The people (or rather the vessels) who created these works during the Golden-age of Islam were so attuned to the Divine through the centuries long evolving wisdom of their art tradition, that what they created - which still stand to this day after centuries - are a testament to that knowledge and wisdom.

This is what this essay series is going to be about. By tapping into Allah's Wisdom that we find in other related fields of Islamic architecture, art, and writing and applying it here, I seek to explore, channel, and realize for software development a similar paradigm. It would thus not be a soulless add-on, like a tacky geometric border added to an app or website header, or throwing in Islamic jargon in the hopes of magically making the app 'Islamic', but be a fully developed paradigm with foundational building blocks for HX and system designs.

In the next iteration of this series we will explore the design philosophy and paradigm that traditional Islamic architecture is built upon, to explore what its building blocks are, the symbolism tied to them, and how it comes together into a Divine-centric paradigm to create awe-evoking wonders. Till next time, inshallah!

Related Posts