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GenEd 1134

Andrew Gordan

My calligram explores the relationship between Allah and nature. In Islam, Allah is praised as the creator of nature; Allah is also found within and throughout nature, present in all the beauty and complexity of the natural world. The Quran speaks directly to these notions of the divine and nature. For example, Quran 2:115 states that “wherever you turn you are facing towards Allah.” In Quran 16:68, Allah directs the behavior of bees, indicating the divine role in the creation and formation of the natural world. Allah is also responsible for the world’s flora, the plants that nourish human society and beautify human gardens: Quran 16:11 notes that Allah causes “crops, olives, palm trees, grapevines, and all the fruits” to grow.

My design is a digital illustration of a single leaf, populated by an arrangement of hundreds of miniature Allah scripts. The design reflects the notion that Allah is found everywhere by demonstrating the apparent presence of Allah in even the smallest segments of a single leaf from the natural world. The design also represents the role of Allah as the creator of nature. On the aesthetic level, the varying color palette and random arrangement of the scripts attempts to convey the beauty, majesty, and complexity of Allah’s creations. The design intentionally challenges observers to focus in and discover the presence of Allah in unexpected locations. Thus, it also seeks to demonstrate the role of Allah as a confounder—and the duty of Muslims to seek him out in themselves and in the world around them.

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47. Willie Lowry For this project I chose the word “Tawhid”. For “scenery” I used the main symbols associated with all 3 Abrahamic religions and then had Tawhid written into the starry night sky. This night sky could resemble a number of stories associated with all the books. Such as the Isra and Mi’raj which are a part of the night journey where Muhammed ascended to heaven and spoke with God. From the Torah, Jacob, or Yaqub, as known in Islam, wrestled with God under the night sky and that is where he received the name Israel. And in the Bible Jesus, or Isa, was taken away to be crucified late at night. Tawhid is a term that relates to the oneness of God. This idea can be taken literally as God being one entity, and that there are no gods other than God. This phrase can also be related to the unity of God. Unity, as characteristic of God, being uncompromisable and acting as a single being. God as the joining force between all things and people. The idea of God being supreme is, of course, a common trait shared between the Abrahamic religions. Beyond that fact, I chose these symbols along with this word as a representation of the “oneness” of these religions. Despite different ways of practice, different main figures, language barriers, and many other differences, these religions all pray and aim to serve, the same God. I wanted to highlight how they are distinct and yet together by replacing the star associated with the moon with the star of David. Despite the separation there is still an undividable unity between these groups, even if it does not always seem that way.

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Gordan_Calligram