Response 5: Cover for a mirror
I created a cover for a mirror to represent the stages in the journey of the birds to find the Simurgh. There are 7 covers representing the 7 valleys given in the book. After flipping over all of them, one can gaze into the mirror and this represents the birds realizing that they are the Simurgh and there is only 1 Reality. In using an everyday object, I was trying to capture the idea of the sufi experience as a daily lived experience, not a one-time high, or a occasional foray into esotericism. It is bothersome to open so many covers, and flipping through them to view the mirror will at first be slow but later faster as the user becomes more and more familiar with the pictures. This accurately captured for me the stages in the sufi experience in a very simple and visual manner. In addition to be artistically beautiful, I think pictures also cause us to sit and contemplate and contemplation leads to the divine.
The 7 covers depict scenes from the 7 valleys which are written on the back and thus are visible when flipped over.
First Cover: THE VALLEY OF THE QUEST
This shows a man digging depicting the story of Majnun and Layla
One day Majnun was sifting earth in the middle of a road. A pious man said to him: “Oh Majnun, what are you seeking here?”“I seek Layla,” replied Majnun. “How can you find Layla here?” said the other. “Could a pearl so pure be found in such rubbish?”“Well” said Majnun, “I seek her everywhere, so that one day I may find her somewhere.”
Second Cover: THE VALLEY OF LOVE
After the first valley, comes the valley of Love. Whoever sets foot in it, is plunged in fire….
Third Cover: THE VALLEY OF MYSTIC KNOWLEDGE
On this path of spiritual knowledge each one finds a different turning. One is taken to an idol, another to the Mihrab. One adopts idolatry , whereas the other embraces the faith . When the sun of knowledge dawns on the horizon of this road, each one receives illumination according to his merit and finds the task assigned to him in the knowledge of the truth.
Fourth Cover: THE VALLEY OF DETACHMENT
Although you see here a whole world on fire, ablaze to its very core, I know that it is no more than a dream. …..Should heaven and earth be split up into minute atoms, take it that a leaf has fallen from a tree. …. Were all forms to vanish from the earth, were not even a single hair of a living being to survive, what is there to fear? In short, if the part as well as the whole were totally obliterated, it would be equivalent to a mere straw disappearing from the face of the earth.
Fifth Cover: THE VALLEY OF UNITY
The region in which everything is renounced and everything unified, where there is no distinction in number and quality. ….. Whether you see many individuals in it or a small number, in reality they are but one; as all this group of individuals merely compose only one, this group is complete in its oneness. That which appears to be a unit is not different from that which appears to be a quantity…….A man asked a Sufi one day to give him some indication of what this world is. “This world full of honour and infamy,” said he, “resembles a honeycomb on which are imprinted a hundred colours. If anyone squeezes it in his hands it will become a mere mass of wax. As it is all wax and nothing else, go and rest satisfied that all these colours are also nothing.
Sixth Cover: THE VALLEY OF BEWILDERMENT AND STUPEFACTION
Here one is a prey to perpetual sadness. Every sigh is like a sword here, and every breath a piteous plaint. Here, alas! one sees blood dropping from the end of every hair, even though it has not been cut. There is lamentation, sorrow and consuming desire. It is at the same time day and night, but it is neither day nor night. There is fire in this place, and one is overcome, burnt and consumed thereby.
Last cover before the mirror: THE VALLEY OF POVERTY AND ANNIHILATION
Another butterfly thereupon sprang forward, intoxicated with love, and flung itself with violence into the flame of the candle. Putting its hands (front feet) round the neck of the flame, it lost itself completely in the flame. When the fire spread over its whole body, all its limbs turned red like the flame. When the wise butterfly witnessed this sight from a distance, it said: “What can any one know of this mystery? He alone knows it and that is all.” This one, who lost all trace of itself, knows more than others of this mystery of annihilation.