Dairah—God as One
For my final project, I incorporate what I view to be the unifying force of my projects herein displayed—the Dairah, or circle, of Islam. Throughout the semester, we have learned about the symbolic nature of circular concepts in Islam—that everything in existence is made of circles, including the sun, moon, stars and human life. As such, we are reminded that we both come from Allah and will ultimately return to Allah.
This simple concept, that everything in life somehow repeats and becomes circular, becomes critical to understanding Islam in the different contexts herein described. In my response, I use a variety of clay-made colors to inscribe Bismillahi (“in the name of God”) in a circular fashion. I use grays, browns, blacks, and greens to convey the way in which nature is tied to Islam, smearing the colors to represent the ultimate unity and connectedness of being that Islam gives to its followers. I give dimension to the words by thickening the clay coloring on certain parts of the word, as displayed in the second line of photographs. Doing so, I illustrate the varying multiplicities through which we understand Islam as a religion, and the personal perspective through which we may become enlightened. Finally, the word Allah is most prominently inscribed in the middle of the circle, with the Alif running through both the middle of the word and the dairah itself. This is meant to represent the notion that it is Allah, despite various conceptions and understandings of Islam, who is the guiding force that unites all Muslims in their belief.
Thus, whether Sufi, secular, conservative or other, Islam as a tradition and as a religion ultimately unifies its believers with the simple notion that Allah is One and it is he, through his creation and existence, who gives meaning to humanity. However we may understand religion and the many perspectives and expressive mediums from which we can draw our experiences, the ultimate goal is similar for all of His believers—a true understanding of God. This “truth,” as I attempt to illustrate through my creative responses, is a personal understanding—a journey each individual believer must undergo in order to reach his or her own enlightenment.