Rahim & Karim - Acrylic on canvas - 12″ x 18″

This is a small painting that I created in December 2007. I wanted to paint the names of Allah also used in Sufi Zikr (or Dhikr) - Ar-Raheem (the Merciful), Al-Kareem (the Generous). I did not follow any particular style. In the first place I am not a trained calligraphist and secondly I just wanted to be myself - in expressing the particular reverence for these chants.

There are many other names of God among the ninety nine that are also painted across the canvas in light hues. Yes they have an amateur style but then I wanted to make them a part of the composition. Now I could not have given up the idea just because I am not skilled enough with the Arabic script. Lame? No.

In the picture above, the painting is held by Sadia Dehlvi who is writing a book on Sufism these days. And, this little composition was meant to give her the strength and act as good luck charm too.

For an earlier Zikr inspired painting of mine click here.

 Sadi has written a wonderful post here - I am cross posting it here.

Couple of nights back (24, April, 08) came an unanticipated opportunity to watch and listen to two of great contemporary pakistani sufi Qawwali singers at famous UCLA Royce Hall. The concert was titled, Qawwali Music of Pakistan: Sufi devotional music.Among the audience was both americans and sub-continental audience. What was striking, is Qawwali’s ability to transcend language with its sheer power and captivating devotion. The nature of improvisation makes each Qawwali, even if its sung by the same group of singers, very unique and every new listening is a new experience.Sometime the depth of the verses, fused with the presentation takes audience to an otherly high which was felt last night too. At times there were goosebumps and surges with the strong emotion that is created in Qawwali performance. The Sufi Qawwalis are considered as zikr or Divine remembrance if listened with spiritual understanding and depth.:: What is Sufi Qawwali? | Qawwali is derived from the Arabic word qaul, literally meaning “saying” but has taken on the meaning of “belief”or “credo” in South Asian languages. Qawwali is spiritual in essence; it is the devotional music of the Sufis to attain trance and mystical experience - originating in the 10th century and blossoming into its present form from the 13th century onwards. (more…)

Earlier I posted on Khowaja Ghulam Fareed, the Sufi poet from Cholistan. A famous festival takes place each year attracting thousands of people in the vast desert that Cholistan is. About this mela or gathering I found this charming piece by Zia Zaidi. (more…)

Finally, I wrote a piece on Delhi ……

Delhi’s present day chaos cannot belittle its grand past, which created a civilisation and shaped the contours of Indo-Muslim identity

When travels come, they come in battalions. Such has been the trajectory of my recent sojourns to Delhi. Travel to India can be, at best, random and left to a game of chance, given how the officialdom on both sides of the border ensures that people don’t cross real and imagined boundaries. Coincidence, or as my less rational side would say, the calling of the Delhi and Ajmer Saints, enabled me to land in Delhi twice in less than three months.

My most recent visit is in some measure courtesy of TFT. My obituary on Urdu’s towering writer Qurratulain Hyder in TFT last August was read by the immensely talented Rakshanda Jalil, media coordinator at Jamia Millia Islamia. A few months later she sent me an invitation to talk and present a paper at a seminar on the legacy of Qurratulain Hyder. There was no way that I could have refused this invite. Ms Hyder is my all time favourite writer; Delhi, an incomparable city to visit; and above all the opportunity to explore Jamia, a historical seat of learning associated with luminaries such as Maulana Azad and Dr Zakir Hussain could not be missed.

Delhi is not an ordinary South Asian metropolis. Its present day chaos cannot belittle its grand past, which created a civilisation and shaped the contours of Indo-Muslim identity, nourished the Urdu language, produced the finest verse in Hindustani and Urdu and fashioned a fabulous architectural legacy. This is why Delhi fascinates me endlessly. Each time I visit, I find a mohallah of the old dilli that concerns an important event or personality. Even better, another hitherto unknown monument is introduced to me; it is like a newly discovered continuation of an enjoyable book. One has only to casually drive around the city to find that it is dotted with monuments. I cannot complain that they are neglected in India; considering that Pakistan’s mighty administrators erect Shaminaas on Mughal monuments for personal parties, how can one grumble about the infidel neighbours! (more…)

by Sadia Dehlvi

Jama Masjid, the last significant and glorious monuments of the Mughal period now faces a threat of extinction in the garb of development. If the Delhi government has its way, glitzy swanky malls underground malls will be constructed just fifteen metres from the steps of the monument. The proposed plan shows disregard and insensitivity to history and the culture of the people living in the area.

To create the four layered basement the ground will have to be dug at least eighty feet which will causes severe stress to buildings within five hundred meters. In the year 2005 there was a high court order in favour of beautifying the area around the Jama Masjid with open green spaces for community interaction. The MCD had commissioned such a plan which was presented and approved by the court. Instead of this well integrated plan we suddenly hear the horror story of a new MCD plan converting the area into a commercial mall venture.

As a rule, the archeological survey of India does not permit any construction within a hundred metres of a protected monument. The Jama Masjid is a functioning mosque and is therefore not officially protected by the ASI as it belongs to the Muslim community. The Waqf Board is the custodian of the mosque as pronounced by the Delhi High court. However, does that mean we should strip it off from a heritage status and allow the builders and adventures of the state to threaten its survival? If the Masjid collapses, so will India’s secular legacy as represented by the adjoining mausoleum of Maulana Azad and the tomb of the Sufis Sarmad Shaheed, who challenged the orthodoxy of Aurangzeb resulting in his execution on the steps of the Jama Masjid. (more…)

Mystica Music contacted me and introduced their website that sells amazing music. I am not promoting their sales nor do I have any mandate to do so; but the range of titles is impressive and most significantly (for me at least) they have a few selections on mystical music.

One I liked a lot is called Zikr - Call of a Sufi. The artist is Anandmurti Gurumaa and it is in Hindi/Urdu.This is what the website had to say about the CD:

Zikr is a beautiful Sufi meditation cd which weaves together very intoxicating and invigorating meditation techniques with the Sufi art of whirling and worship. Listening to the tracks intently with utter mindfulness can open the door to the divine for a seeker, at any moment.
Enjoy the magical experience and offering of Zikr, from the unblemished hands of beloved Gurumaaji herself .

Call of the Heart
This opening track calls for utmost attention of the listeners as this can be the beginning on the path for those who are drunk with Love. Allah’s grace is being sought, as one who surrenders to the Lord will receive the bountiful shower of Bliss. While listening to it, pray that your heart opens up and hidden mysteries get revealed. (more…)

I am grateful to Minos for sending me the link to this brilliant painting by Lapata. This is a fine composition with a dream-like quality depicting the three unfortunate but towering politicians of our times. And, this also brings together the South Asian dynastic hubris in a neutral, no-politics-in-your-face manner.

Wish I could get this one - hate this consumerist urge; but the struggle is pretty engaging as well. Let me also reproduce the few lines that introduce our accomplished artist:

Lapata (pronounced ‘láh-putt-áh’), the artist’s takhallus, or alias, is Urdu for “missing,” or “absconded,” as in “my luggage is missing,” or “the bandits have absconded.She also writes for the blog Chapati Mysteryand posts many of her paintings there. Lapata grew up in a family of artists in western Massachusetts, some whose work adorns the surfaces of chinaware and brightens up the waiting rooms of dentists’ offices, and others whose artistic output has found more select audiences.

It was Gulgee’s bad luck that he was murdered shortly before the country’s most popular leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. His sad end somehow receded in the memory of his compatriots, more so because the tragic death of BB was followed by a reign of looting and destruction. But all said, Abdul Ismail Gulgee, one of the very few titanic figures in this country’s history of visual arts, certainly doesn’t deserve to be forgotten even for a while. (more…)

 By Hina Farooq

LAHORE: An exhibition of the South Asian Association and Regional Corporation (SAARC) students of the Beaconhouse National University on multi art was opened at the Alhamra Art Gallery on Monday.

As many as 23 artists from the SAARC countries participated in the exhibition titled Polytych. They picked various ideas and themes for their work. The art pieces displayed at the exhibition reflected the students’ creativity, representing their vision about the city and the surroundings that they came across during their stay in Lahore for a year. (more…)

This soulful poem by Faiz (??) was rendered by Madame Noor Jehan in her early, melodious years. Manto has also mentioned this rendition in his biography of the great Noor Jehan.

What an effortless and grand effort. (more…)

The India International Centre, where Hussain’s ‘Mughal India’ painting series are on dispaly, suspended the exhibition for Saturday after it received the threats from Bajrang Dal, sources said.

The IIC had received the Bajran Dal threat which said it has to face ‘serious consequences’ if the capital’s high-profile cultural organisation continued to exhibit the works of the controversial artist, they said.

More here

Bordering between abstract and socio-political, Shaheen Sultan Dhanji’s photography, painting and writings are at once striking to readership.  Her art transforms the humble into amazing objects of desire.
 
 Sultan’s  large scale of black and white photographs are at once contemporary, mingled with socio-political messages. Themes of war, poverty, women and sanitation, globalisation and various pressing subjects are provocatively captured on film. She has had some of her works exhibited in Ottawa and Toronto Canada. 

Luminous yet subtle abstract and figurative paintings reveal a fusion cultural influences, and experiences endured in  Sultan’s journey in assmililating between life in Africa and North America. 

Her art punctuates and pierces a wave of questions of human dignity, colossal loss of wars, life of a courtesan and major other social themes.  Sultan is senstive to light and colour. Her work can be calssified with using strong oil base, and lots of blues, yellows, red and burnt orange.
 
Apart from visual art, Sultan  is a writer for several newspaper. Her subjects include politics, literature, poetry and eastern philosophy. She does not shy away in dialoguing concerns facing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the genocides in Congo.  A constant worker, Sultan is convinced that tenacity and perserverance are the deepest, firmest pillars to create the enigma out there.

JR is grateful that Dhanji has shared the images of her two recent paintings that are shown above. The write up has been adapted from a review of her works.

“To look at one of Ali Kazim’s paintings is not only to look at something wonderful, something remarkable. It is also to look at something deeply intriguing. Kazim is a fine and highly skilled and accomplished painter, but he is also a deeply compelling and accomplished teller of mysterious and wondrous stories..” (Eddie Chambers in Secret Lives) (more…)

On a long tiring flight, I was not too amused by another predictable rant on “Intimidation in Tehran” in the Time magazine. However, while browsing through, I could not help notice a stunning photograph taken by Olivia Arthur. (more…)

by Vidya Rao

 I was fortunate to be one of the women invited to the first meeting of the Grandmothers’ University at Bija Vidyapeeth early this year. (more…)

ATP has published my post on Saira Wasim’s extraordinary art:

Saira Wasim is a prominent Pakistani miniaturist. I found a link to her website hidden in my unread emails. Some of her recent paintings are terrific. The image below is borrowed from here. It is dedicated to Queen of Meldoy, Noor Jehan.

“There is an eclectic mix of realism, comedy and circus - there is movement and drama alive in the miniature format.….Wasim is expanding the frontiers of the traditional genre of miniature painting. It is a tremendous service to keep this art form alive and relevant.”

Read the full post here

Murtaza Razvi writes in the daily DAWN:

NOTHING is safe any longer from the malevolence of those who continue to bring death and destruction in the name of God in this increasingly Islamic republic; not even a harmless rock-carved image of the Buddha dating back to the second century BC and which no one worshipped.

The giant Buddha at Jahanabad near Mingora in Swat finally lost its face, parts of the shoulders and the feet in a second assault last Friday by Islamist militants. The historical relic had survived two earlier attacks. But this time round, in spite of the law enforcement agencies having been warned of the danger the militants posed to the rock carving, the latter planned and carried out the blast unchecked.

Read more here