Month: March 2016

Reading: Infidel of Love: Exploring Muslim Understandings of Islam Chapter 2

This art project represents the “four prominent ideals” which according to professor Asani form the “core of [Muslims’] faith: peace and compassion, social justice, love of God and jihad”. I decided to form with important words associated with each of these 4 ideals the structure of a temple representing Muslims’ faith in Islam. The idea of the 5 pillars of Islam is a Sunni concept that has been associated with Islam in general. Yet, Muslim communities support different views on what the religious ideals and values of Islam should be. Professor Asani argues that they are 4 fundamental ideas that can be found among most Islamic branches.  It inspired me to recreate a sort of Roman temple supported by 4 pillars. I chose for each of these pillars a symbol I though reflected the 4 values presented. I decided to draw a Roman temple instead of a Mosque as temples were a place dedicated to cult and religion  but also because they have a symmetrical and usually simple architectural building. I wanted a building whose architecture could really reflect the idea I had of the structure  of the Muslim Community, with elements pilling up, supporting each other towards the sky. Mosques can also have 4 towers on their sides but these structures are not supporting the entire edifice and thus do not fit my design as well as a Roman temple does.

The base of the building is the community that supports the entire religion: Muslims. Without a group that has some important values in common and that agrees on certain basic ideas and beliefs, a religion cannot exist. For Islam, the Muslims are the people who choose to follow this ideology.

The first pillar of the edifice of faith is peace and compassion according to professor Asani. He states in chapter 2 of his book that “Islam is literally a religion of peace and peace making”. The two most important phrases that marked me about this idea and that I used to build the first pillar were the “sirat al-mustaqim” and the words of the basmala “Bismi-llahi’r-Rahmani’r-Rahim”. The “path of peace” on which God is suppose to lead his rightful and pious followers and some names of God itself “In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful”. These two expressions express well the idea that Islam can be perceived and interpreted as a peaceful ideology and I chose to draw on that pillar the “sirat al-mustaqim”.

The second pillar is the one of Social Justice such as “helping the poor, the sick, and the marginalized. Professor Asani stated that Social Justice was itself supported by two different “sets of obligations”: the “idabat”, which is more of a divine obligation, a subjective one, (the belief that God’s message was transmitted to the Prophet) and the “mu’amalat” which is more of a social obligation towards society in general. These two notions express themselves in Muslims’ lives through the “salat” and the “zakat”. One cannot go without the other and this is why I chose as a symbol a balance; Muslims have to find the right equilibrium between salat and zakat.

The third pillar reflects the idea of a “selfless love of God”: the individual disappear, his egocentric desires and dreams evaporates as he gets closer and one with God, a point where he would be at the “fana fi’llah” (state of annihilation in God). The other important word is the “alast”, as moment in which “all of creation was united and contented in the Beloved’s presence”. I chose as a symbol a fire as the idea of getting purified of egocentric impulses and desires by fire has been a recursive theme in class.

The fourth and last pillar is the one about “jihad” which means ““to struggle, to toil, to exert great effort” but the exact definition and interpretation of the terms differ depending on economical, cultural and political variables. Thus, I choose as a symbol a diamond, as jihad can be observed through many different facets and reveal/mean completely different things. The lowest form of jihad is jihad asghar then the next one is  jihad akbar but the greatest one is be the jihad against oneself: the “nafs”.

This art project tries to show that even though within a same communities of interpretation differ in their vision and practices of Islam, there still are some key concepts and values more or less shared among all Muslims.

Reading: Infidel of Love: Exploring Muslim Understandings of Islam Chapter Three

I decided to  illustrate in my art project the different roles the Prophet Muhammad plays in various Islamic communities. Professor Asani focuses in his book on 4 ways Muhammad is perceived in Islamic cultures: as a Prophet and messenger from God, as a role model, as an intercessor and finally as God’s beloved.

First of all, Muhammad is seen as God’s prophet: he plays a key role in defining the boundaries of faith in the Islamic tradition. Indeed, in the profession of faith, the shahadah, the first part is inclusive and is common to all monotheist religions (There is no God but God) whereas the second part of the shahadah, “muhammadur rasulu Ilah” (Muhammad is the Messenger of God) is exclusive and thus differentiates Islam from other religions. Muhammad is thus an important marker of Muslims’ identity, as reflected by the shahadah. On my project, you can see Muhammad standing at the center of the picture, under a yellow light (symbol of God) and inside with his followers of a circle made of the second sentence “muhammadur rasulu Ilah”.

Muhammad is also perceived as God’s messenger. Professor Asani writes that some Muslims consider Muhammad not to be the author of the Qur’an but rather “its transmitter” , like a “transistor radio”. This idea is reflected in the picture by a line made out of verses of the Qur’an which goes directly from the light at the top (which represent God who possesses the Holy Scriptures) to the Prophet’s ears and then from his mouth to the written Qur’an given to his followers, the Muslims.

In Chapter three, we can also read that Aisha, one of the Prophet’s wife, described him as being the “Walking Qur’an”. For a lot of Muslims, Muhammad represents a model, “uswa hasana”, and example to follow in order to access God and Heaven; he incarnates the right “path”. For this reason, a lot of Muslims believe in the importance of living as the Prophet did, according to his customs. I tried to represent these ideas by filling the body of the Prophet with verses of the Qur’an (he embodies the sacred text (“walking Qur’an”). I also draw  flowing out from his hands Muslim customs such as the salat, the musulmani (act of circumcision for boys in South Asia, which means becoming a Muslim) or the Sunnah that are presented by Professor Asani as examples of rituals “determined by Muhammad’s reported practices”.

On top of being a role model, Muhammad is also a beloved intercessor between God and the rest of the believers (as reflected on the art project). Professor Asani describes that Muslims sometimes perceive Muhammad as both a “revered eleder in the family”, the one to turn to in times of “grief and difficulty”, and a prophet with the “ability to seek God’s mercy” for their sins. Thus, it is also a common custom for pious Muslims to pray for “God’s blessing upon Muhammad” by reciting the “tasliya” (prayer for the Prophet).

Finally, Muhammad became with time a mystic and was hold by Muslims as God’s beloved. For instance, Professor Asani talks about the association of Muhammad to a “form of light mysticism”, supported by the Light verse from which derives the idea of “Nur Muhammad” (the Muhammadan/Shining Light), of a Prophetic and Divine Light which was passed down from prophet to prophet since Adam up to Muhammad in who it found its ultimate completion. On the project, I decided to represent this Prophetic Light by a rope linking  him to the the Lamp which then became one of the Prophet’s symbols.

Reading: Infidel of Love: Exploring Muslim Understandings of Islam Introduction

This box represents cultural and religious illiteracy and misunderstanding of religion. Professor Asani stated in his introduction that people usually categorize and paint “with a single color and a single brush stroke” difference and in that sense failing to acknowledge or perceive the diversity, beauty and complexity of other cultures. For that reason, all the human figures or images representing different aspects of Islam are in black and white on the box.

Professor Asani emphasized the problem of religious and cultural illiteracy, how misunderstandings and ignorance can lead to misconceptions and tensions between and within cultures. I thus decided to represent Islam as a black box, reflecting various erroneous or narrow-minded views people can hold of the religion. It is important to understand that I make no reference to planes’ black boxes in any way. I decided to take a box after remembering the saying “Think outside the box”. For me, it involves thinking for yourself and not taking for granted what you are told. I then chose the color black to show that narrow-minded people have a vision of Islam that  is not enlightened, they are behind a sort of “veil of ignorance” and have no access to “light” as in truth or wisdom.

The 4 sides of the box represent lens through which religion can be approached: through devotional or textual approaches (as mentioned in the introduction) or by looking for instance at the history of the religion or its artistic traditions. But looking at each separately does not give a correct and well-rounded idea of Islam. Looking at Islam only through a devotional approach (doctrines and rituals for instance), leads to “rarely acknowledging the diversity of interpretations and practices” . The textual approach can lead to misinterpretations if one ignores the context in which the scriptures were written and be ground to “exclusivist interpretations” and “extremisms within religions” such as the emergence of a deadly interpretation of “djihadism”. Only looking at Islam’s history or at  its artistic expressions  (calligraphy, architecture etc.) are two other ways of interpreting religion. Although these two lens of studying religion are not as dangerous as the previous ones, they do not give a full understanding of Islam and only allow the viewer to access a limited and fragmented insight into this religion.

Instead, knowledge and understanding of religion reside in the opening of the box, in being curious enough and rigorous enough to explore religion in its entirety and integrating all its different aspects at once when studying it.