Enlightened Perception

Week 2: The Qur’an, God’s Word as Sacred Design, and the Art of Calligraphy

From region to region and in between communities of interpretation, the Prophet Muhammad, God, and a focus on calligraphic Arabic often function as important holy cornerstones of Islam.  It was said “that the Qur’an was revealed to [the Prophet] in ‘pure Arabic’” and that the Quranic Arabic that codified the religion was thus divinely inspired by the Prophet (Khatibi and Sijelmassi 18). Thus, the interconnection between the Prophet, God, and Quranic word and calligraphy is seen through their cyclic nature of representation and origin: Muhammad is the light that reflects God and reveals the Quranic word; God divinely inspires the Qur’an and creates Muhammad as the final Prophet for Islam; and the Quranic word symbolizes God’s wishes and Muhammad’s everlasting Quranic dissemination. These interwoven Islamic principles aim to inspire, among other things, love in Muslims as a basic construct of God’s relationship with humans. Rumi elaborated this point well, saying that “love is the very essence of God” and that the “love between creation and God is primordial,” stressing God’s love as a defining Muslim characteristic (Asani 72-73). Thus, the interconnected cornerstones of Islam exist to perpetuate a sense of love to its followers; God’s relationship with humans is based in love, but because he inspired both Quranic word and Muhammad, they too are built upon a sense of love.

In my piece Interconnection (medium: pen and marker), I’ve drawn the calligraphic representation of the words God, Muhammad, and love in Arabic calligraphy. I chose the format for my picture to represent the intertwining of calligraphy, Muhammad, and God under the Muslim principle of love. The connection between these three cornerstones is seen in the large script in the center of the piece; ‘Muhammad’ is the composed of smaller ‘Gods’, all of which are composed in Arabic calligraphy. The larger ‘Muhammad’ composed of calligraphy is a product of ‘God’ in my piece, just as Muhammad is a reflection of God. The calligraphic Arabic that’s present throughout the Qu’ran is thought be a miracle of God as well and thus make up ‘God’ and ‘Muhammad’ (Khatibi and Sijelmassi 18-22).

By including the word ‘love’ in Interconnection, I explicitly link the three holy figures in the Qu’ran and Islam to their underlying framework. Just as God is said to be “so full of love that He could not even hate the devil,” the triad put love above all else (Asani 70). The focus on love is represented visually in my piece by physically placing ‘love’ above the ‘Muhammad/God,’ making it the only other word in the piece, and by coloring the inside red. Moving the focus of Interconnection to the red ‘love’ reiterates love’s importance to God, Muhammad, and the Arabic writing. Thus, Arabic, God, and Muhammad “provide the glue that holds disparate interpretations of the faith together” in Islam just as they do in Interconnection (Asani 93).

• Comments Off on Interconnection