{"id":13,"date":"2012-03-22T04:09:06","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T04:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/?p=13"},"modified":"2012-05-04T19:58:39","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T19:58:39","slug":"henna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/2012\/03\/22\/henna\/","title":{"rendered":"Henna (Devotion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea underlying this piece is the use of bridal metaphors to depict the sacred union with the Divine. I was very struck by the power of the imagery in the gin\u0101ns<\/em> we have read, and feel that the degree of devotion expressed within these (and similar) poems perfectly encapsulates my personal image of what Islam means. The idea of \u201clonging in separation\u201d is one of the most beautiful concepts that I have encountered in religion thus far, and I wanted to create a design that brought together the humility and selfless veneration characteristic of these poems.<\/p>\n

I chose henna as my medium because of its direct association with marriage preparations, and decided to decorate my feet rather than my hands because of their unassuming nature. More than this though, my decision was inspired by a poem of Rumi\u2019s:<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be where your bare foot walks,<\/em><\/p>\n

because maybe before you step, you’ll look at the ground.<\/em><\/p>\n

I want that blessing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I find it difficult to articulate the effect that these three lines have on me. To me, they are perfection. \u00a0I cannot begin to imagine a love more pure and profound than that described here. Although my amateur henna abilities could never hope to convey this sort of sentiment, I tried to use my design to draw attention to the interface between the foot and the ground so as to emphasize this most humble form of contact. With this pattern I hoped to give an impression of the simple beauty and intimacy sought after in these poems.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea underlying this piece is the use of bridal metaphors to depict the sacred union with the Divine. I was very struck by the power of the imagery in the gin\u0101ns we have read, and feel that the degree of devotion expressed within these (and similar) poems perfectly encapsulates my personal image of what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4552,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4552"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/iztaccihuatl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}