Arhan Kumar
I have endeavoured to incorporate certain aspects associated with God, as well as ideas within Islam, as elucidated in our class––in particular, God as love itself, God the omnipresent, God the ineffable, the idea of an apparent (zahir) meaning and an underlying (batin) meaning, and my limited understanding of Sufism. If one traces the note-heads of this brief and simple composition, one finds that they spell the Arabic word for “God” (Allah in Latin script). This is may not be apparent (zahir) initially and is a hidden message that must be extracted by a keen eye and wise mind. This brings us to the idea of an omnipresent God, whose “face” can be found wherever one looks. A literal face is, of course, a human quality and is therefore not an aspect of God. As I understand it, the idea is to experience God in every aspect of the world. Just so, while the name (an allegory for the “face”) can be deciphered in the score of the music, it is not God itself (just as the mere score is not the music itself); God must instead be experienced in the music. A prevalent idea in today’s scholarship on music is of its ineffable nature. Music, like God, is beyond comprehension (but not, as we have learnt, beyond experience). Therefore, in finding God in the music, we have experienced one ineffable (God) through another (music).
Yet, this calligram holds an even greater significance to me. An idea that Professor Asani discusses in one of the chapters we read from his unpublished book is of God as love itself. Some communities take this idea so far as to modify the first part of the Shahada from “There is no god but God” to “There is no god but Love.” The title of this piece is a homage to that very idea. Music, although ineffable, is something for which I hold a deep and sincere love. Creating this calligram is therefore an act of love for me and therefore an act in God. It is also a homage to Sufism, a tradition of my people (in India and greater South Asia) and therefore one from which I may perhaps claim some heritage.