Zeena Abu Al Saad
My
name is Zeena Abu Al Saad and I am a Jordanian student studying journalism at
the American University in Dubai. Despite being fully Jordanian, I have lived
in Qatar for the full 20 years that I have been alive; I arrived in Dubai 3
years ago when I got accepted to AUD, and I am currently living here
temporarily with my twin sister until we both graduate. Dubai being the great
cosmopolitan city that it is, during the past three years it has not just
introduced me to a great number of cultures different to mine, but it has also
introduced to me a great number of opinions and perspectives on Islam much
different to mine. As cliché as this may sound, my decision to become a
journalist was initially greatly influenced by my need to defend my peaceful
religion, Islam. The media to me is on of the most powerful creations of
mankind, if not the most powerful; while I greatly believe that the media is
super beneficial, I also believe that it is one of the strongest destructive
forces on our planet earth.
The
title of the artwork that I have produced for my Islamic Art and Architecture
course goes by the name Al Wihda Fi Al Tanawo’, which translates in English to
The Unity in Diversity; despite being short, in my opinion, these two words
capture the absolute essence of Islam and its Art.
Why
call it The Unity in Diversity? This project could not have come in a better
time as we are currently in the midst of all the negative stereotyping against Islam
and Muslims around the world. Through this artwork, I want us to come together
to understand how imperative it is for Muslims to come back to the pluralistic
vision of the Quran before anything. Islam-related issues in the media have
changed significantly in the past 10 years, both in amount and quality. The
occasions of September 11, 2001, pushed Islam into the worldwide media
forefront: not just did coverage of Islam definitely increase, especially in
news and entertainment media, however the way in which Islam is framed
worldwide has also changed. The past couple of years and events have resulted
in Islamic unfortunately being framed as a religion that is not accepting, not
diverse, and not unifying. As a Muslim, I constantly feel the need to express
the beauty of my religion and to help those who have been misguided, to see it
for what it really is.
Contrary
to what is portrayed in the Media, Islam is actually a religion that shows that
all individuals are totally equivalent in God's sight; Islam and the Quran are unmistakably
accepting to diversity - in creation, society, and convictions inside of the
human world. Disposing of the pre-Islamic tribal society instilling tight
groupings in light of family and genealogy, the Quran portrays every single
individual as a major aspect of one super unit, which is humankind. It
addresses the totality of humankind as 'Bani Adam' (offspring of Adam). For instance
the accompanying verse from the Quran supports the notion of diversity as a
crucial component of the plan of creation. In verse 99 of Sura Younus, the
Quran clarifies that on the off chance that it had been God's Will to not to
give the freedom of choice to mankind, he could have made all humanity alike
and all would then have Faith. Thus, the Quran endorses diversity and
acceptance as a major aspect of the Divine Will. The Quran sees questions in
the matter of religion as purposeless and urges its disciples to discover
regular grounds of conviction through politeness, sympathy, and sincerity.
There
is a history of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, and individuals from
different beliefs living respectively in congruity in a pluralistic culture
under the Muslim rule; furthermore, it is important to take into consideration
the remarkable ethnic and religious differences that existed in the early
hundreds of years of Islam. This was obscure to different civilizations of
those times. All Muslims from different origin used to live in flawless
amicability with everyone else, as the Jews and Christians stayed faithful to
their confidence and were completely free to satisfy their individual religious
commitments. In fact, they wouldn't face any pressure regarding their faith or
pressure to embrace Islam. The Prophet, for example, would take his partners
and his hosts (of different religions) under his wings and would not permit
anybody to embarrass them or to treat them cruelly. Furthermore, Jews and
Christians embraced Arabic dialect and adequately added to the way of life of
the Islamic culture.
Back
when Caliph Umar landed in Jerusalem after the success of the city by the
Muslims in 638, the Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem gave him a voyage through
the locales. As the timing for prayer approached, Umar requested a spot to
pray. The Patriarch offered Umar the chance to pray where he stood in the
Church of Holy Sepulcher. Umar turned down the offer saying where he, the main
Muslim ruler in Jerusalem, would pray, his supporters would assemble a mosque
and that he couldn't let that happen out of respect for the church and its worshippers.
Therefore, he prayed outside on the street and today a mosque, called the Mosque
of Umar, still stands opposite the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This
demonstrates Umar's admiration and respect for Christians and their religion.
I could go on for days about stories from
early Islam that demonstrate its compassionate nature if given the opportunity.
Islam is a religion that encourages all Muslims to draw in sympathy, obtain
learning, and acclimatize wisdom no matter the origin or creed. In its initial
hundreds of years the Muslim civilization was the vanguard of human advancement
since it was not hesitant to recognize truth and to secure learning from
whatever source - Muslim or non-Muslim, past or present (House of Wisdom in
Baghdad is a great example). Ali, the fourth Muslim Caliph and a profoundly
worshipped figure by all Muslims, said that one ought to assess a talk in view
of what it says and not who says it.
As
for Islamic Art, I could also go on for days. Islamic Art is of great
importance to me because I come from a family of artists who have instilled the
soul of Islamic Art in my upbringing. When many of us think of Islamic Art, we
think of The Dome of The Rock, The Taj Mahal, and maybe bowls or silk carpets,
but these are just examples; what exactly is Islamic Art? Through this brief
description of Islamic Art that I will be presenting, I will also further
emphasize just how diverse and unifying our religion is, even in its art.
Islamic
Art is a concept put together by art historians in the nineteenth century to
order and study the material initially delivered under the Islamic groups of
people that rose up out of Arabia in the seventh century. Today Islamic Art
depicts the majority of human expressions that were created in the grounds
where Islam was the prevailing religion or the religion of the individuals who
ruled. Unlike the terms Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist workmanship, which
allude just to religious craft of these beliefs, Islamic Art is not utilized
only to portray religious art and architecture, yet applies to all fine arts
created in the Islamic World, both religious and secular.
Therefore,
Islamic Art alludes not just to works made by Muslim specialists, artisans, and
designers or for Muslim supporters; It incorporates the works made by Muslim
craftsmen for a supporter of any faith, including Christians, Jews, or Hindus,
and the works made by Jews, Christians, and others, living in Islamic lands,
for patrons, Muslim and so on.
A
standout amongst the most popular landmarks of Islamic Art is the Taj Mahal,
situated in Agra, India. Hinduism is the prevailing religion in India;
nevertheless, due to the fact that Muslim rulers, most broadly the Mughals,
dominated extensive regions of current India for a considerable length of time,
India has a boundless scope of Islamic art and architecture. Furthermore,
another example of the diversity of Islamic Art is The Great Mosque of Xian,
China. Initially developed in 742 C.E., the mosque's present structure dates to
the fifteenth century C.E. Moreover, it takes after the arrangement and
engineering of a contemporary Buddhist sanctuary.
Islamic
Art is not a monolithic style or development; it traverses 1,300 years of
history and has mind boggling geographic assorted qualities—Islamic domains and
administrations controlled regions from Spain to western China. In any case,
few if any of these different nations or Muslim realms would have alluded to
their craft as Islamic Art. An artisan in Damascus would have thought about his
work as Syrian or Damascene—not as Islamic.
While
taking other courses in AUD such as Arts History, I have come to realize that in
a few ways, Islamic Art is somewhat like the Italian Renaissance. Amid the
Renaissance, there wasn’t a one unified Italy; it was a place of many
independent city-states. Nobody would have thought about one's self as an
Italian, or of the craftsmanship they delivered as Italian, rather they
perceived themselves as a Roman, a Florentine, or a Venetian. Every city
created its very own local and astounding style; In the meantime, there are
sure hidden subjects or likenesses that bind together the craftsmanship and
design of these urban areas and permit researchers to talk about an Italian
Renaissance.
The
artwork I have produced is highly influenced by a painting called diversity
that belongs to a contemporary Muslim artist Siddiqa Juma. According to her
website, as her style has developed, she has become focused on Hajj, the
journey that each Muslim attempts to perform in any event once in their
lifetime. Juma has not yet made this voyage herself, thus her work conveys not
the experience of journey or the procedure of performing the Hajj, however a
longing to leave on that trip, with every one of the components on each canvas
floating overwhelmingly towards the heavenly city. This longing has given her
work another focus, moving her far from impersonation of exemplary Islamic art
and towards a more individual style, one that conveys at the same time the closeness
and the separation between Juma and her religion. One of her paintings, named
diversity, which stood out to me the most, portrays the Kaaba surrounded by
small blotches of many different colors, representing the diversity of Islam
and its followers. I wanted to create something that, similar to Juma’s work of
art, represents the diversity and unity of Islam, but in a different way.
My artwork was created using
acrylic paint on a simple white rectangular canvas. I began by first using a
paintbrush to paint the entire canvas black, and then I proceeded to add handprints,
using my own hands, in many different colors. The handprints on my canvas in
different colors are there to symbolize the diversity of Islam as a religion,
its acceptance to diversity, and the diversity of Islamic Art (Islamic Art is
marked by handprints of people of all colors, religions, and cultures.)
Furthermore, I also used this technique to emphasize the notion of unity in
Islam; the different colored handprints, which are meant to represent a variety
of humans, are united together on one canvas. The colors I chose to place on my
canvas are symbolic in Islam; for example, I chose the color green because it
is the dominant color in Islam and it represents the notion of paradise, I
chose to include red because it symbolizes passion, white symbolizes purity and
peace, and finally blue symbolizes the sky (where god and heaven meet).
Following this, I outlined my handprints in colors different to those they are
in just to create the illusion of contrast to add a wider range of colors to
the canvas. Furthermore, I also added blotches of different colors of paint by
gentling dabbing a small sponge on empty areas of the canvas. I chose to add
calligraphy because it is an essential work of art in the Islamic World. The
Qur'an, written in rich scripts, speaks to Allah's (or God's) divine word,
which Muhammad got specifically from Allah amid his dreams. Furthermore,
Quranic verses, executed in calligraphy, are found on a wide range of types of
workmanship and design; Islamic calligraphy can be found on everything from
fired dishes to the dividers of houses. Calligraphy's inescapability
underscores the quality and importance that Islam places on dialect,
particularly Arabic. I chose to write the word Salam in white; Islam is
directly linked to the word “salam”, which translates to peace in English. By
using the color white, I wanted to further emphasize the meaning of the word
and its importance in our religion.
In
conclusion, through this artwork I feel the need to shed light on three of the
most fundamental parts of Islam, which are peace, unity, and diversity. Islam
is not about war and slaughter and scorn like what the vast majority thinks,
due to images shaped by the media. Islam is not about murdering and lying and
doing repulsive things "in the name of Allah." Islam is not about
telling the world that non-Muslims shouldn't be alive. Our religion is about
both internal and external peace, accepting diversity, and uniting the world
and creating one Uma (community).
