Response to an Urdu Poem in “In Praise of Muhammad.”
In response to reading some of the poetry venerating the Prophet in the article “In Praise of Muhammad: Sindhi and Urdu Poems,” I painted a picture of some of the opening images in a poem entitled “Khalil.” This poem comes in the context where the article is providing examples of the many ways that people express their love of and devotion to the prophet as one beloved of God and of people – and especially the honor shown Muhammad on the day of his birth. Taking the first few lines of the poem as my cue, I rendered the “morning breeze” by painting wave like lines of blue and yellow through the middle and upper section of the paper., and making orange lines and dots to stream in from the upper left-hand corner, as if that was where the sun was beaming (Asani 176). The narrator asks of this breeze, “[w]hat good news do you bear that every bud is blossoming?” and hence I painted a cluster of purple flowers in full bloom in the bottom left corner of the page. In response to “Here the tulip flutters, there the basil quivers,” I painted pink tulips next to the aforementioned blossoms, and basil next to the tulips, with lines surrounding both to indicate the movement being described (Asani 176).
Next, I used puff paint to write the exclamations which the poet uses to describe the aural qualities of this already beautiful visual scene-setting; the narrator says, “From somewhere else rises the exclamation, ‘Glory be to our Lord,’” and so I used the paint to write this phrase rising diagonally on the paper (Asani 176). The narrator continues by saying that “elsewhere there is the roar, ‘Blessings be upon him!’, and so next to the other phrase, I used the puff pain to inscribe this too, writing each successive word slightly bigger than the last to indicate a roaring sound (Asani 176). The final touch was to paint a southing peach color in the remaining empty space, pulling the picture together with a calming effect. My hope is that this painting captures some of the joy, anticipation, and praise that the poet’s words lend to the scene while describing the advent of the Prophet’s birth.