The Ta’ziyeh
Communal mourning.
Hussein’s ritual drama.
Artistic Islam.
Hussein 1
His sorrow and thirst,
His son, violently taken.
What can Hussein do?
Hussein 2
Through grief, he transcends.
His sacrifice is his power.
In God, salvation.
Zainab
Sister no longer,
My grief must be laid aside.
Celebrate Hussein.
Audience
For us, with Hussein.
Forever the Karbala.
Forever our tears.
The lectures and poetry on the Prophet Muhammad inspired me to watercolor a rose. The rose serves as a popular symbolic reference to the Prophet Muhammad, as legend has it that the rose’s fragrance comes from the Prophet’s sweat. We saw this imagery in both the multimedia resources, such as the video of the rendition of the Burda, and in the poetry of the Prophet. A Sindhi poem by Abd ur-Ra uh Bhatti talks about the Prophet being surrounded by roses on his wedding night.[1] Also, an Urdu poem entitled “Qamar” states, “Even the roses do not possess such a fragrance,/As there is in your sweat, kind sir!”[2] Furthermore, some of the Urdu poets use images connected Muhammad to flowering blossoms, or call him “The rose of God’s garden.”[3] The poetry we encountered in Professor Asani’s article frequently used floral imagery and furthermore repeatedly utilized the rose as a symbol for the Prophet Muhammad.
Because of all of these inspirations, I chose to watercolor a rose as a symbol of the Prophet Muhammad. I further indicated that the rose was in reference to the Prophet by having the salawat visible in the rose. On one petal, the salawat, or prayer for the prophet, is written in Arabic. Its English translation – “Peace be upon him” – can be found on another petal. This rose shows one of the many creative ways Muslims have conceived of the Prophet Muhammad.
