Moses Mayer
For my project I chose to revisit two core facets: the 99 names of Allah and the way in which Islam is embedded into our world. I decided to have a globe as the underlying platform on which to build my work, and given the way in which the Prophet Muhammad came to Medina and gained authority, I decided to center my snapshot of the globe around Medina (highlighted in yellow). I saw the 99 names of Allah as a way to represent the foundations of Islam, with the word “Allah” overlaid on top in the center of the globe as it represents a central facet/source.
To represent the way in which, by definition of Muslims as submitters, people who do not actively practice Islam can still be a Muslim, I decided that it would be fitting to express that people worldwide are under the shared influence of Islam. Hence, I layered the Arabic text for the 99 names of Allah across land masses visible on the globe with the idea that these represent north stars for citizens of each area. The green text represents land and nature; in itself is a metaphor for life, while the blue color for the overlaying Allah calligram represents water as a source of life. I see this as Allah being omnipresent in all facets of people’s lives, much like how water is analogous to sustenance and is fully present even on land. While the 99 names each have different literal meanings, they represent the same entity: despite our differences based on localized cultures, we are all human, and we all submit to Allah.
Final
See below for parts 1b and 1c of my final submission:
