Wide controversy sparked by Moroccan actor Hashem El Bastawy's announcement of his final retirement from acting, disavowing his artwork, and asking the public to delete his photos.
The same decision was taken by the Moroccan rapper “Nizzy-bee”, calling on his young fans not to take advantage of his decision to repent, and to return to listening to his songs and pictures, and he said: “I am innocent of them, between me and God.”
This announcement opened a serious discussion on social media about the retirement of artists at the height of their artistic giving and moving away from the lights of fame, and their declaration of “repentance”, following the path of Abdel Hadi Belkhayat, Mohamed Rizqi, Al-Mokhtar Jedwan and others.
Repentance from immorality
A number of observers supported the decision to retire Hashem El Bastawy from acting, as one of the commentators wrote: “Personally, I support him for retiring from what is called art that does not take into account God’s law in anything.”
Another commented: “This is your right, and it is better for you if you take this path, and everyone is free in their decisions. Art is forbidden for what goes on behind the scenes, and what art brings in terms of immorality and destruction to the person and society.”
A third commentator asked, "Why does it grieve in some people to retire an actor or singer, and decide to repent to God?" He added, "Repentance is a heartfelt act that a person must possess, whether he is an artist or someone else, every once in a while."
Art is a human message
As for art critic Mustafa al-Talib, he considered that “the decision to retire is a personal freedom that no one can interfere with; But what will the artist repent of? Art is higher than that, because the artist performs a human message.”
The same critic added in his interview with Hespress: “I do not agree with artists who declare repentance and retirement, on the contrary, the artist plays an important role in society, and he can save an entire family.”
The student recalled the story of a couple who were on the way to court in order to conclude a divorce.
“The decision to retire harms Moroccan art and opens the way for outsiders from the profession,” the student continued, stressing: “It is true that sometimes we live in psychological and spiritual moments that push us to stand with ourselves.. Overcoming this ordeal is not achieved by the decision to retire, but rather by achieving balance at the level Creativity and in our private lives.
Psychological struggles
For his part, psychologist Abdel Moneim Al Talidi interpreted the artists' announcement of retirement as the state of internal conflict that the artist is experiencing.
Al-Talidi said: “The public figure is always in the limelight and finds itself facing two paths that have no third, to continue the artistic career or to make the decision to retire, repent, and permanently move away from the artistic community.”
Regarding the retraction of the decision to retire, the specialist explains that “there are female artists who choose to announce sudden decisions to shed light on them... Since they cannot bear the idea of remaining in the shadows, they turn to religious channels to present advocacy programmes, or return to the limelight; This is normal.”
Linking retirement to repentance
For his part, Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab Rafiki commented, in a post he posted on his official Facebook page, on the decision to retire by saying: “You retire from the artistic field. This is a personal decision and individual freedom, and there is no right. to anyone to interfere with it; But what is disturbing about the subject, as it happened previously in Egypt with a number of female artists, is linking the subject to repentance to God, and the innocence of all previous actions.
The researcher in religious affairs added, “This corrupt link sows in people’s awareness that art is a vice and a sin, and that the artist was committing a forbidden act.. Thus, we transfer art from a noble and honorable message and from an important tool to frame society, direct its behaviors, raise its issues and raise awareness of it to its being A sin and a crime, we applaud those who left it,” pointing out, “this link sends a message that those working in art are not honorable, and they are doing a disgraceful act while waiting for them to go to the pilgrimage to expiate and seek forgiveness.”
My companion stressed in the same post that “art is a virtue, not a sin, art is noble and not a disgrace, and considering it a vice is what was sown by Wahhabi money that used to entice artists in exchange for announcing their retirement,” as he put it.
He concluded his comment by saying: “Finally, I have a very small jurisprudential question for all those Mu’tazilites out of repentance: What is the ruling on the money they gained through art? And what will they do with it after the alleged repentance?”