Islam in Color

Medium: digital photography

In class, we learned about the omni-presence of Allah and the sacredness of His name. Professor Asani even mentioned spectacles of people coming to visit farms where the word “Allah” appeared on an animal”s fur or within the shape of their hooves.  The reverence for Allah in the Islamic tradition is clear and the relationship between Allah and his followers seems to permeate every aspect of life. Renard, in Seven Doors to Islam best stated, “Muslims believe that God has, since the beginning of time, actively communicated with and through all of creation in a variety of ways. Foremost, God communicates in the very act of creating, by suffusing the universe with divine signs” (Renard 2).

As someone who loves photography, I chose to use past photographs, as well as snapshots I took over the first few months of this semester as inspiration for this week’s work. I wanted to examine the idea of seeing God everywhere, and in everything. I decided to look through past photos to see if, with this new lens of viewing in mind, I could see “Allah” written in any of the surroundings I captured. I also went on a few walks and tried to see similar signs of the word “Allah”. The photos I have included here are some of my favorite iterations of finding “Allah”. I especially chose photos where I was able to see the name of God in natural settings because it reminded me of the connections between nature and God that we discussed in class. We talked about how nature is full of signs of God, and in some ways, are seen as daily examples of God’s miraculousness. I also found that these photos and ideas connected very largely to many of the 99 names of Allah, but based on the quote above, I most profoundly felt these photos and “seeing” God in nature connected with his name Al-Khaliq, which means The Creator.

In my three images, I found the word “Allah” masked in images of smoke, leaves, and rocks. As God is the Creator of everything, it is an incredible concept to be able to see his name in his own creations, almost like a divine signature of sorts. By engaging in this “Where’s Waldo”-esque search for the name “Allah” in my photographs and in nature, I was able to experience first-hand the Islamic concept of God’s omnipresence and understand the divinity of even simple, often overlooked aspects of creation.

Here are the three photographs, without the word “Allah” marked. See if you can spot the name of God yourself, or if can find a different one than I did!

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I edited the three photos to mark where I saw the name “Allah” in each. Here is what I found: