Ya Allah Islam Is Peace

 

By Marina Gamil

The root of the word Islam is silm, which refers to "Making peace, being in a mutually peaceful environment, greetings, rescue, safety, being secure, finding peace, reaching salvation and well being or being far from danger, attaining goodness, comfort and favor, keeping away from troubles and disasters, submitting the self and obeying, respect, being far from wrong”.

The "Submitting the self and obeying" here means "Submitting to justice and righteousness in order to reach peace and safety and being in a peaceful environment by one's free will." In fact, salaam and salaamat, mean "To reach salvation," and their famous form aslama means "Submitted, became Muslim, and made peace." "Islam" as either a noun or a verb with these meanings is mentioned in many verses in the Qur'an.

God wants a Muslim to live in a safe and peaceful environment and to make efforts for the spread and continuity of peace. Since Islam means living in a peaceful environment that emerges as a result of submission to God, the Qur'an asks that all humanity should embrace silm, that is, peace, and reminds us to avoid following Satan.

Unfortunately there are so many stereotypes about Islam and Muslims. These stereotypes include the most common one, which is “terrorism.” People all over the world view Islam as the religion of terrorism and disaster. But how could this be true if Muslims are also dying all over the world? If Muslims were actually terrorists they will not be killing each other. Terrorism has no religion and no one can deny that.

This painting is called “Ya Allah”. It is a 40 x 60 cm acrylic on canvas painting. The painting is consisting of three main colours and a supplementary color to add a show-like effect. These colours are: shades of brown, shades of Yellow, and Green. I added the silhouette of the lady as a part of the background in a bluish grey color to give a smooth effect without setting an intimidating contrast.

In my painting I wanted to view how Muslim ladies always pray for their children, for their countries, for their families, and for the whole world. These small prayers are called (Doaa’). Here the lady is wearing a scarf and she has her hands up tight together and she is saying Doaa’ for everyone. Under that there is the word “Ya Allah” means “oh God” which is how people usually start their prayers. Above the word I portrayed a mosque in green. That is the symbolic color of paradise in Islam. To me I tried to portray the metaphor of how praying leads to paradise and these prayers are heard through the mosques. If you look at the picture from down to up you will start by the word Ya Allah, which is pointing upwards towards the mosque. Then the minarets of the mosque have a bright yellow color to set a strong contrast, which is pointing upwards towards the lady. The lady is also pointing upwards which leads us to look at the final conclusion and the big message behind this paining which is a calligraphy, which says in Arabic calligraphy “Al-Islam Salam”, which means “Islam Is Peace.”

In conclusion, the Qur'an emphasizes peace and reunion and understanding as basic to all social and even international relations. As mentioned in the Qur'an, Paradise, which is the reward for the pious, is a place of peacefulness. moreover One of the ninety-nine names of God is Salaam, which means peace. Over the course of history, the general approach of Muslims has been helpful towards maintaining peace, spreading an environment of serenity and trust, and constructing a civilization of love, compassion, and mercy to share with other people in peace.