{"id":11,"date":"2016-03-21T01:22:58","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T01:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2016-05-02T01:06:29","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T01:06:29","slug":"interconnection","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/interconnection\/","title":{"rendered":"Interconnection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style>\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-11 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/interconnection\/updated-interconnection-photo\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"772\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/files\/2016\/03\/Updated-Interconnection-Photo-1024x772.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/files\/2016\/03\/Updated-Interconnection-Photo-1024x772.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/files\/2016\/03\/Updated-Interconnection-Photo-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/files\/2016\/03\/Updated-Interconnection-Photo-768x579.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><strong>Week 2<\/strong><strong>: The Qur&#8217;an, God&#8217;s Word as Sacred Design, and the Art of Calligraphy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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. \u00a0It was said \u201cthat the Qur\u2019an was revealed to [the Prophet] in \u2018pure Arabic\u2019\u201d and that the Quranic Arabic that codified the religion was thus divinely inspired by the Prophet (Khatibi and Sijelmassi 18). Thus, the\u00a0interconnection 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&#8217;an and creates Muhammad as the final Prophet for Islam; and the Quranic word symbolizes God&#8217;s wishes and Muhammad&#8217;s everlasting Quranic dissemination. These interwoven Islamic principles aim to inspire, among other things, love in Muslims as a basic construct of God&#8217;s relationship with humans. Rumi elaborated this point well, saying\u00a0that \u201clove is the very essence of God\u201d and that the \u201clove between creation and God is primordial,\u201d stressing God\u2019s love as a defining Muslim characteristic\u00a0(Asani 72-73). Thus, the interconnected cornerstones of Islam exist to perpetuate a sense of love to its followers; God&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>In my piece <em>Interconnection<\/em> (medium: pen and marker), I\u2019ve 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\u00a0three cornerstones\u00a0is seen in the large script in the center of the piece; \u2018Muhammad\u2019 is the composed of smaller \u2018Gods\u2019, all of which are composed in Arabic calligraphy. The larger \u2018Muhammad\u2019 composed of calligraphy is a product of \u2018God\u2019 in my piece, just as Muhammad is a reflection of God. The calligraphic Arabic that\u2019s present throughout the Qu\u2019ran is thought be a miracle of God as well and thus make up \u2018God\u2019 and \u2018Muhammad\u2019 (Khatibi and Sijelmassi 18-22).<\/p>\n<p>By including the word \u2018love\u2019 in <em>Interconnection<\/em>, I explicitly link the three holy figures in the Qu\u2019ran and Islam to their underlying framework. Just as God is said to be \u201cso full of love that He could not even hate the devil,\u201d the triad put love above all else (Asani 70). The focus on love is represented visually in my piece by physically placing \u2018love\u2019 above the \u2018Muhammad\/God,\u2019 making it the only other word in the piece, and by coloring the inside red. Moving the focus of <em>Interconnection<\/em> to the red \u2018love\u2019 reiterates love\u2019s importance to God, Muhammad, and the Arabic writing. Thus, Arabic, God, and Muhammad \u201cprovide the glue that holds disparate interpretations of the faith together\u201d in Islam just as they do in <em>Interconnection<\/em> (Asani 93).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Week 2: The Qur&#8217;an, God&#8217;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. \u00a0It was said \u201cthat the Qur\u2019an was revealed to [the Prophet] in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7980,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7980"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/enlightenedperception\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}