What is Islam? When defining complex social structures, humans often mistake grey for black: we make singular what in reality is complex. A straightforward response to this question would define Islam as a uniform set of religious practices that constitute the world’s second most popular religion. A more thoughtful answer would mention the different sects of Islam and how each has distinct variations on prayers, rituals, and theology. Although these answers are not wrong, both could not be farther from the truth. As examined in the course, a more honest approach to understanding Islam, along with other social structures, would use the Cultural Studies method.
Most people who are American would consider themselves such even though they cannot recall a single line from the American constitution; similarly, most Muslims would consider themselves Muslim even though they cannot recall or articulate passages from or interpretations of the Quran. To explain this odd truth, the Cultural Studies Approach emphasizes the importance of worldly realities in creating individual religious experiences. Faith, under this approach, is influenced by ethnic, cultural, political, economic, and gendered factors to name a few as it is by theology. Professor Asani in his text Infidels of Love says the cultural studies:
maintains that religions are shaped by a complex web of factors, including political ideologies, socioeconomic conditions, societal attitudes to gender, educational status, literary and artistic traditions, historical and geographical situation—all of which are inextricably linked in influencing the frameworks within which sacred texts, rituals, and practices are interpreted. (Asani 10)
With this unique approach one’s understanding of religion transforms from static to dynamic. However, this approach also makes more complex one’s understanding of religion. Within the cultural studies approach, each individual has a unique relationship with religion; no two experiences are the same.
The arts play a major role in making sense of the complex individual experiences. No matter how many theological texts or field studies one has at their disposal, no purely analytical piece can make sense of the powerful emotional connection a worshipper has when listening to devotional music or visiting a sacred shrine. The arts shows us that there is profound meaning in that which words and numbers cannot capture; this meaning is essential to understanding religion and reveals the essence of our humanity. Artistic pieces in Islam should therefore not be seen as supplemental to the faith but at the core of it. Much of Islam’s meaning can only be understood through the arts.
Art in Islam reflects the faiths diversity. During a guest lecture, András J. Riedlmayer
recounting the Bosnian Conflict, Riedlmayer recounts meeting a saddened man who in order to receive funds to rebuild the local mosque destroyed the tombstones of his ancestors and agreed to rebuild without local art that could be considered shirk or idolatry. What remained after such rebuilding was not just a more barren mosque, but the loss of tradition and identity that generations built and cherished. Instances like this also raise the question: Who’s Islam gets represented? Every individual has a unique experience with Islam, however, only those who are in positions of agency due to the availability of power or wealth are able to express their relationship with Islam. Those who are powerless often cannot express their ideas or are restricted in the ways to express them.
Our exploration of Islam and the Arts examined many different approaches and facets of multisensory personal representations. In the arts, we examined oral art forms such as the Qawali and Ginans, literary art forms such as the Ghazal and Mathnawi, which can also be recited, and visual art forms like calligraphy, painting, tapestries, and Mosques. Looking at these pieces brought new light to Islam’s past and its interaction with ethnicity, politics, race, and gender. Every ethnic group has unique art forms; political movements often use Islam as an ideology to consolidate power; people of color have unique experience with Islam; finally, women can either view Islam as a potentially restricting ideology or a mechanism for empowerment that only restricts when misinterpreted by misogynists.
These ideas from the course influenced my approach to the creative art projects. My overall philosophy in creating the art projects was to reflect the individual relationship a muslim has with their faith. Within each individual’s experience is a unique bond that forges their relationship with Allah. I created three pieces, Photographing Paths, Sufi Self, and Hoopoe that explored different aspects of the personal journey of one’s faith. The Lamp and Victory in Defeat were attempts to visualize two aspects of Islam explored in the course that I personally found moving. Finally, the sketch And when I closed my eyes, I finally saw the world, was an attempt to explore the esoteric question: What does it mean to see?
Every muslim has a unique relationship with faith that changes throughout their life. The course explored the unique journeys of Muslims through the artistic representation of their faith. Like all faiths, Islam is not a monolith and constantly evolves with every additional individual experience. An example of this is the role of Islam in modern nationalist movements in post-colonial nation states. For countries like Pakistan, Islam played a major role in determining national identity and the nation state played a strong role in raising the debate of what is considered Islamic. We saw this role of Islam in the works of Muhammad Iqbal who wrote the Shikwa and Jawab-i Shikwa as a way to create a dialogue between a follower and Allah with many nationalist undertones. These nationalist movements were not limited to Pakistan and also came to Iran and other nearby nations where a new right wing governments changed the experience of thousands of women with Islam. For some women, the government finally valued conservative values of modesty and for others an emboldened religious police used their bodies as the battleground of ideology while making it harder to have a positive personal relationship with Islam.
Though current issues that color the relationship individuals have with their faith change as time moves forward what remains the same is the powerful use of the arts to represent these evolving relationships. People come and go, ideologies fall into and out of favor, but what remains after personal journeys have ended are the footprints left behind. These footprints exist all around us in the artistic legacy of the past. In the same manner, in this course I embarked on a personal journey to better understand individual relationships with Islam and now leave behind footprints of art.