A Qur’anic Concept of Beauty: An Exegetical Study of Three Verses from Surah Al-A'raf

**“Beauty” is a subject that has long been examined by Muslim thinkers from various perspectives. While most have emphasized spiritual beauty, some have not overlooked physical beauty, which serves as the foundation of artistic creation. Nevertheless, the dominant approach has been philosophical and metaphysical, with relatively little attention paid to extracting insights directly from scriptural and intra-textual Qur’anic propositions. This may partly explain the distance of jurists and theologians from engaging deeply with issues of art and beauty. The present article asks whether such an approach can be grounded in the Qur’an itself, to the extent that a coherent framework of principles and guidelines for engaging with beauty can be identified. Its aim is to explore such an approach within the Qur’anic text and its exegetical tradition. For this purpose, three verses from Surah al-A‘rāf (31–33) are analyzed, based on the hypothesis that they offer a distinct Qur’anic view on adornment and beauty. The methodology involves a library-based textual analysis of both classical and contemporary interpretations. The article concludes that, according to these verses, beauty originates from a divine source and is inherently permissible—unless particular instances are prohibited for specific reasons. The guiding principle for its proper use is moderation, and deviations from moderation are confined to five domains, each of which falls under the category of religious prohibition (ḥarām).**