Light upon Light in Patagoina

This image is a response to the latter part of the sura al-nur, specifically, the line “light upon light.” Drawing on many of the readings about different interpretations and sources of authority, this image attempts to combine the beauty of God’s written word, with the beauty of God’s physical creation. The overlay of the calligraphy on the double rainbow symbolizes the many different possible meanings of the seemingly simple phrase “light upon light.”

There are two main aspects to the image. First, there is the background picture: a double rainbow in Chilean Patagonia. Second, there is a calligraphic design of the phrase “light upon light.” Calligraphy plays a central role in Islam. One of al-Ghazali’s ten external rules for reading the Quran is to write it beautifully, and calligraphy is an attempt to capture some of the beauty of the Quran. As Nasr argues, “Islamic calligraphy reflects through the symbolism of its very form this intertwining between permanence and change that characterize creation itself. The world consists of a continuous flow or becoming, yet becoming is nothing but the reflection of Being and the immutable archtypes contained in the Divine Word or Intellect”(S. H. Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality, 28). Thus this image combines the intertwining of permanence and change in the calligraphy, with the intertwining of permanence (of the landscape) and change (of the weather, and the rainbow’s disappearance).

Sura al-nur (24:35) is an allegorical chapter of the Quran. The Sahih international translation translates it as “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah presents examples for the people, and Allah is Knowing of all things.” This verse can be, and has been, interpreted in many different ways. The many interpretation leads to questions of authority, and, as Sardar writes, leads to the question of who can interpret the Quran. In addition to the question of authority, comes the question of translation. Although the Quran is meant for everyone, as the word of God, it cannot be fully understood or appreciated in any language other than arabic. As Sardar notes, this led some (notably Rashid Rida) to outlaw translation of the Quran at all. Sells agrees with Sardar on the difficulty of translation, noting that “in any translation there is a loss” (Sells, 26). However, this image tries to avoid some of the problems with translation, by focusing instead on the combination of the Quranic verse and the beauty of Nature. In doing so, it is offering its own interpretation of the line.