During week 2 we discussed the Qur’an as well as Islamic calligraphy.  Islam is known for being an iconoclastic religion, but calligraphy is used to help produce the same feelings and concepts that figurative paintings do. The calligraphy can be used to help convey the message of a passage or its tone. “The Arab calligraphers considered that their art was the geometry of the soul expressed through the body” (Khatibi and Sijelmassi, 14). Therefore, Arabic works of calligraphy have a great deal of personal connection to their artists. Their interpretations of Islam are shown in their works. Also, Islam originally was an orally based tradition. A common belief is that God/Light created letters, perhaps as a representation for angels (Khatibi and Sijelmassi, 21). One popular belief was that the Light formed into the letter alif and from there all other letters as well as things developed (Khatibi and Sijelmassi, 21).

My calligraphy is a representation of these mixed beliefs.The word for light is surrounded by an circular alif signifying the sun. The flames or beams branching off of the sun are different words surrounding the origin story. The words include Angel, animal, Qur’an, Allah, and writing. This is done in a similar style to other Islamic calligraphy in which artists use words, phrases or even passages from the Qur’an and create an image with the words. This form of art can be particularly powerful in Islam because words have such strong meaning and connotations because “[f]or Muslims, the Qur’an is the [literal] Word of God” (Z. Sardar, 5). My art may not be sending a particular message, but the added beauty to the creation story can be just as important.