Arabic Traces In Ridges of Sand By Mustapha Marrouchi

Posted on 07 December 2009 by Sailanmuslim

For the uninitiated, the flowing of lines and seemingly idiosyncratic spattering of dots and dashes that characterize the Arabic script can appear an inscrutable enigma. That it is a cursive system with few clues as to exactly where discrete elements find their borders only adds to the puzzle. Without an overly onerous measure of study however, the mystery is breached and the tangled jungle of vines gives up its fruit, and its secrets, that the right to left procession of ascending peaks and receding troughs is regular, logical, and rigidly ruled. When one learns how to tease apart the sound sequences encoded in the script, meaning emerges, but the cracking of the code is bittersweet; what was once tantalizingly obscure devolves into the simply mundane–written words doing what they do–mere signs signifying something out there in the world, but what thing and which world? Even as the first great mystery fades, another comes into being: that ineffable quality in the arrangement and execution of these sound symbols that is more than the sum of its parts and the source of its captivating beauty.

Of all the so-called Islamic arts, al-khatt (or trace ) holds a privileged position. Combining function with perfect form, the hyper-stylized and fantastically ornate expressions retain a suppleness and a subtlety unmatched in other cultures. They are at once stirring and deeply soothing. Adapt scribes, whose masterworks can be seen adorning mosques and monuments, ancient coins and illuminated manuscripts, take the written words and weave them together not quite as poets do–into a tapestry of ideas and imagery that flood the mind–but rather into a blank canvas upon which one cannot anticipate what might emerge. The effect is a paradox. The work is in its nature one of arabesque (generally of highly spiritual matters), the form in which it is rendered allays the impulse to simply read–beginning at the beginning and ending at the end–one finds himself instead caught up in the unbounded net of loops and hooks, eyes wandering forward and backward over the field, infinitely fine in its detail, distinct, atomic; yet revealing the harmony and symmetry of the whole at a further remove. This tidal shifting of perspective transforms consciousness, offering a glimpse into what lies beneath and beyond our senses.

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Tales of religious tolerance in Africa

By Thomas J. Morrisey, Written for UPI


Published: Nov. 24, 2009 at 12:31 PM
David Robinson, professor of history and African studies at Michigan State, is collecting print, audio and video documentation of the Muslim people of Ghana and Senegal in an online archive.
A Michigan State University professor is creating a digital archive of stories of West African Muslims in two countries he considers models of peaceful coexistence between different religions.

David Robinson, a professor of history and African studies at MSU, is gathering print, audio and video documentation of the Muslim people of Ghana and Senegal. They comprise an archive titled “Diversity and Tolerance in the Islam of West Africa: Creating Online Resources of Peaceful Muslim Practice.


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Echoes of Sufi Dances

 

 

“Tell me of the existence
Of worlds and planets far away
Of past civilizations
Of continents gone adrift.
Talk to me about love
Tell me more about human love,
Of anomalous travelers
In magical, mystic territories.
Ahead we followed by instinct
Only the comets trail
As vanguards of another system
In search of the end.
No Time No Space
Another race of vibrations,
The sea of the simulation.
Keep your feelings in memory
I love you especially tonight.
The air-traffic controllers
Just ready for take-off
Astrological telescopes
To discover new stars.
Walking Sundays
As a spacer
Ahead.
Ahead we followed by instinct
Only the comets trail
As vanguards of another system
In search of the end.
No Time No Space
Another race of vibrations,
The sea of the simulation.
Keep your feelings in memory
I love you especially tonight.”

 

Franco Battiato. No Time, no Space. 1985

Music by G.Pio & F.Battiato - Testo di F.Battiato – From the album "Echoes of Sufi Dances"(EMI) – Arrangements : Battiato-Pio.

 

TO LISTEN

 

Reason and Passion . Khalil Gibran

 

"Your reason and your passion
are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of white poplars,
sharing the peace and serenity of distant meadows... -then let your heart
say in silence,"God rests in reason!"-

And when the storm comes,and the mighty winds shakes the forest,
and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky -then let your heart
say in awe,"God moves in passion!"

And since you are a breath
in God's sphere,
and a leaf in God's forest
you too should
rest in reason
and move in passion.

Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese-American artist, poet and writer. (1883-1931)

 

YouTube

Maktub مكتوب

 

It is written.

 

 

 

Rumi, Sufism and The Spiritual Path

 

 

“Observe the wonders as
they occur around you.
Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving
through and be silent... “

*****

“In your light I learn how to
love.
In your beauty,how to make
poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you. “

~Rumi~

 

 

 

 

 

Beauty of the Heart

 

There is a place where words are born of silence,
A place where the whispers of the heart arise.
There is a place where voices sing your beauty,
A place where every breeath
carves your image
in my soul.

Beauty of the Heart

 

Where Everything Is Music (Rumi)

 

“Don’t worry about saving these songs!

And if one of our instruments breaks,

it does not matter.

We have fallen into the place

where everything is music.

And even if the whole world’s harp

should burn up,

there will still be hidden instruments

playing.

The strumming and the flute notes

rise into the atmosphere.

So the candle flickers

and goes out.

We have a piece of flint,

and a spark.

This singing art is sea foam.

The graceful movements

come from a pearl

somewhere on the ocean floor.

Poems reach out like kindred spindrift

and the edge of driftwood

along the beach, wanting!

They derive  from a slow

and powerful root

that we can’t see.

Stop the words now!

Open the window

in the center of your chest

and let the spirits fly in and out.”

PEACOCK FEATHER ..PFAUENFEDER

Everywhere.....

You Are.

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