This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

GenEd 1134

Matthew Miyasaka

The motif of "Light" has come up throughout the course. For example, the Verse of Light says that "Allah is the Light of the heavens and earth." We have also learned from the readings that the Light of the Prophet was passed from Adam all the way down to Muhammad. Furthermore, we have learned about the holiness of the text of the Quran itself; the very words, spoken aloud and written down, are powerful as they are the literal word of God.

With these ideas in mind, for my calligraphy assignment, I have made a light painting of Allah in Arabic (achieved by keeping the camera shutter open for 30 seconds and "drawing" with my phone's flashlight). One of the original motivations was to use the world rather than the paper as the "canvas" for my calligraphy; the same can perhaps be said of the Quran itself, as it was repeated aloud long before it was transcribed onto paper. Also notice that in the photo the word itself is lighting the subject's face, which symbolizes Allah as the Light of the earth. It is unclear whether "Allah" as it appears in the photo is meant to be spiritually present or physically present, as while it illuminates the subject's face, the subject does not seem to notice it. This is meant to demonstrate the heaven/earth duality of Allah's being Light. Finally, the subject herself has headphones on, which I instructed her to do to reflect the original auditory nature of the Quran.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:
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.

This page references:

matthewMiyasaka