Islamic Art - Through the Eyes of Faith

Geometric patterns, in near infinite variations of pattern and scale are combined with floral and vegetal designs for a reason that exceeds any aesthetic directive: they express something about the world itself.[1]

Islamic art in its two dimensional form, falls into the three genres of calligraphy, geometry, and nature. Entire books can be devoted to each of these genres alone, but it is common in Islamic religious art to find all three present at the same time.

The Grand mosque of Kuwait is full of these triadic surprises and contains beautiful examples of Islamic art. The subject of this article is the small mihrab (prayer niche). There are six[2] identical mihrabs built into the South-West wall. Their function is to serve as the jibla’, pointing the faithful to pray in the direction of Mecca. They also serve as a sound chamber and ‘pulpit’ for a teacher speaking to small groups of students.

The art portrayed in the mihrab is bewilderingly complex, integrating abstract geometrical patterns, swirling leaves, and a wonderful motif of the honey comb[3]. The geometrical patterns are divided from the portrayal of nature (the honey and leaves) by verses from the Qurán written in Kufi script. Framing the top of the mihrab chamber is an outcrop of Isfahan style stucco. It conveys images of stalactites found in a cave[4] and indeed standing inside the mihrab is a cave like experience. You are embraced by the chamber and your view of the vast worship area in front of you is framed by the archway of the entrance.

If you start from the ground up, the richly coloured hues of blue, yellow and brown Morrocan mosaic patterns portray star and circle shapes. There is a complex repetition requires some concentration to discern, though one is subconsciously aware that there is order. which The mathematics under-girding this art form is formidable. Its origins lie in Pythagorean Theorem which was brilliantly applied to an Islamic context by early Islamic philosopher al-Kindi. The geometrical patterns convey a cosmology which reveals the belief that the universe reflect an intelligent design held together in unity by a creator. The early Islamic philosophers believed that part of their task was to discern the patterns and principles which governed the cosmos and in doing so they would learn more of the divine nature. The geometrical designs reflect the crystalline structures believed to be the building blocks of creation[5]. Yet this philosophy acknowledged that as well as frozen shapes there is a fluidity and variety which reflects the work of the eternal divine principle. Think of the snowflake. There is a basic structure and yet within this order is an endless variety of swirling patterns.

This stunning design is then interrupted at head level by the calligraphic words from the Qurán. Then arching over your head is carved a series of honeycomb motifs[6], the familiar hexagon construct framed by an intricate pattern of leaves and plant tendrils.

The mihrabs in the mosque blend the three elements of order, voice and nature. It conveys a theology to the believer of a created world divided by the spoken Word which separates the created and temporal from the sublime and eternal gardens of paradise. The stucco outcrop framing the mihrab suggests that the believer can encounter the divine within the context of our cave experiences.

[1] Jason Elliot. 2006. Mirrors of the Unseen. (Picador:London)
[2] The number six is significant in Islamic numerology. For an explanation see Keith Critchlow’s, (1999) Islamic Patterns.
[3] According to the Qurán a river of honey flows in paradise.(Surah 47.15)
[4] The prophet of Islam received his first revelation of the Qurán while meditating in a cave.
[5] Modern science vindicates this understanding of nature with the discover of the atom cell, DNA structures and so on.
[6] And your Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees. . . there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colours, wherein is healing for men: Verily, in this is a sign for those who give thought. (Surah 16:68-69)

Integration and Identity

Archbishop Gorien of the Armenian Kuwait community (in purple sleeves)

Two enduring images stick in my mind from last week. One was from an event organized by the British Council celebrating its 75th anniversary. In this event Dominic Miller, a renowned guitarist from the West was improvising music opposite the talented Kuwaiti Oud player, Fawzi Al Lingawi. Against a progressive sequence of 6th chords inspired by Chopin played on a classical guitar, the Oud weaved a haunting and magical melody. The unlikely juxtaposition of Western music with Arab music led to a completely unexpected result. It sounded fabulous. Guitar and Oud merged together in an emotional and intense celebration of their different timbres and scales. It worked so well that it bought tears to the eyes of the audience.

Despite the different musical traditions and experiences of the performers, they were able to integrate their styles together while at the same time maintaining their distinctive identities. The second event was a colourful and riotous celebration by Armenian students. Hosted by the Armenian Archbishop, Dr Gorian Babian, the evening unveiled an exuberant program of cultural dancing and music. Over forty students performed dances not only from their own rich and ancient culture but also from the other traditions embracing jazz, rock n roll and ball room dancing. Songs were sung in English, Greek, French, and Armenian. Celebration speeches were in Arabic, English and Armenian. In short, the Armenian community impressively demonstrated their ability to integrate into other cultures while at the same time remaining rooted in their own distinctive culture and faith.

Integration and identity are core skills required for our world today. The failure to integrate results in marginalisation and suspicion . The failure to be rooted in a distinctive identity leads to fear and insecurity. The Armenian community knows this and they have invested deliberately in institutions which maintain and reinforce their identity. Yet at the same time they have integrated into their host country so effectively that at times they seem invisible - so good are they at learning the languages and functioning in a culture not their own. They are confident, secure and successful and everyone benefits. It is troubling therefore to read of election candidates who are threatened by other cultures and faiths and would seek to suppress them. As Kuwait heads into the elections, I pray that God will raise leaders who will continue the rich and long tradition of a country where diverse cultures and faiths not only meet and co-exist but are also celebrated.

An Islamist talks about religion in Kuwait

Excerpt from an Interview with Dawood Salmon Al Essa.

(Arab Times 11th May 2009)

Q: Religion is fundamentally about beliefs, which differ from person to person. As beliefs are not supposed to be imposed on anyone, don’t you think those who want to live life the way they want to must be given the right to do so? Take for example segregation in universities; those who want to send their children to unisex schools must have an option, and likewise those who want to send their children to coed schools must also be given a choice. Isn’t that a fair deal?

A: We have a clearl scripture sent by God to us. And we have in our midst scholars who can explain that to us. The prophet said that he has taught us everything that takes us close to God, and forbidden us from all that which takes us away from God. It’s easy and simple.

Q: No, what I am asking is that when Islam is clear on issues of Halal and Haram, does it say that these should be enforced on people, irrespective of what they believe?

A: No. Islam does not force people to accept Islam. It just invites people to its fold. If you are not a Muslim you can’t stay in an Islamic country, until you have a contract with the government that you will not spread your beliefs and practices in the society. You can live by your beliefs personally, but it should not be made public. Yes, non-Muslims have rights, but it should not in any way cross the limits set my Islam. For example, if a woman decides to wear minis and walk in the street, then she will be forced to cover herself more modestly. But she can do so in her home.Good and evil have been clearly demarcated in Islam, and evil must be stopped while good has to be encouraged.

Q: But in very orthodox countries, I heard that people of other faiths are not even allowed to practice their religion. Is that justified by Islam?

A: That’s what I said. If you practice your religion, other than Islam, then it’s seen as corrupting the society.

Q: How does it affect the society if a person of a different faith reads his scripture or worships his god?A: From an Islamic point of view, the meanest of all deeds is the worship of a deity other than the one true God. So, when a man practices his faith openly, he could cast a negative influence on Muslims who may not be well versed in Islam, and they in their ignorance might take to this false worship. That can affect them. A Muslim is a Muslim whether he is knowledgeable in religion or not. But when you are not a Muslim and practice a different faith, you can have a negative influence on those Muslims who are not very knowledgeable. If these create problems for non-Muslims, then they are free to go to their country and practice their faith.

Q: But can’t you practice your faith privately?

A: That’s okay. Because then it’s only between you and God. But you can’t come out on the street flourishing a cross and preaching your religion. Such acts are prohibited in Saudi Arabia. Though Kuwaiti law does not prohibit this, it is prohibited in the religion.In Kuwait, they permit people to do whatever they want. This can affect Muslims. But, Muslims here are well grounded in religion and live the correct life. Alhamdulillah.

Q: Coming from a country like India, I enjoy complete religious freedom. India is a secular nation, but more than 80 percent of its population of a billion are Hindus. Yet, I have the right to practice and preach my religion there. So is the case with most modern nations. Don’t you think in an increasingly interdependent world we have to be more tolerant of each other’s faith, at least to be fair to those people who give us freedom to practice our faith in their countries?

A: We have to be allowed to follow our religion wherever we are because Islam is the true religion of God. There is no room for formalities and niceties here. Our prophet (PBUH) is the last prophet and everyone has to believe in him. It’s more a question of right and wrong, and not about diplomacy. Would you allow foreigners to indulge in corruption in your country, just because their countries have treated you well? It’s similar to that. If a country doesn’t allow you to practice Islam then a Muslim shouldn’t go to that country.It’s on this basis, that some scholars say that Sharia does not allow a Muslim to go to non-Muslim lands.

Q: But as a person who has traveled a lot, you have enjoyed religious freedom in countries like the US. Now when a person from America comes here, don’t you think it’s a basic courtesy that we give our guests at least the same treatment that they offered us, if not better?

A: No. As I said, this is not about courtesy. The situation is more serious. It’s about truth and about salvation in the hereafter.

Q: I heard a Hadith that the Prophet (PBUH) once received a non-Muslim delegation and permitted them to conduct their prayers in the mosque. Is that correct?

A: I didn’t hear anything like that. I don’t think this is authentic Hadith.


Actually this man is very consistent in his beliefs and views and I truly respect him for that. However I cannot help wonder what this would mean for the many residents of Kuwait who do practice another religion. There is for example a native Kuwaiti Christian community - how would sharia' law affect them? What do you think?

faith and young people

Jesus once summarised the divine law into two commandments. “Love God and love your neighbour” was his pithy sound-bite.

As the sectarian violence within and between faith communities continue to rage in Iraq and beyond I often speculate as to how we can apply Jesus’ teachings into this arena.

It seems to me that the most effective way is through an educational encounter between young members of different faiths. One project I was involved with in Birmingham was called Young People and Faith. It was designed by an inner city schools worker called Andrew Smith. He drew up an educational program which he felt would help to encounter the ignorance and prejudice which was a daily feature in the life of inner city school students.To see this project in action was a wonderful experience. Two groups of students representing different faiths (on this day it was Christian and Muslim) were to spend the day together. The morning started with ‘icebreaker’ type questions such as “What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?” “What are your favourite movies?” “What do you do at the weekend?” And so on.

They did talk about their religion and described their religious communal life and how they felt and experienced their respective faith. There was no proselytizing but rather a sharing of what God meant to them. There was also a basic introduction to both faiths given by a representative of that faith.

What really united the young people however was their shared sense of injustice and their common concerns about drug abuse, bullying and prejudice.As the day progressed, it was so encouraging to see the atmosphere transform from mutual wariness to a warm and light acceptance. Laughter broke out, jokes were shared. The end of the day was marked by going out to a bowling alley where the two groups mixing freely now, swapped phone numbers and e-mail addresses with promises of keeping in touch. For those young people, barriers of ignorance and hostility had been breached with trust and laughter. It is difficult to be prejudiced against someone who is your friend.

All this was achieved in the space of one day. Clearly it will take a lot longer for the damaged young people in places like Iraq and Palestine. It is not impossible though. For example, summer camps bringing together Palestinian youth and Jewish youth have done much to neutralise the hatred fostering in their young hearts towards one another. It is but just a small step in seeking to “Love God and love our neighbour.”

When the boats come home.

“Never surrender your passport to someone to keep!” is advice which is often given to expatriates on arriving in the Gulf. In practice this is harder than it sounds. I know one British employee who was told that if he did not hand his passport over his job contract would be terminated there and then. He reluctantly handed it over and then had the frustrating fight to get it back when he went on his holidays.

Talking through this issue with a Kuwaiti friend, he shrugged and said that it is to be expected that employers keep passports. Even though they know it is against the law! This is a fact. It is against the law for employers to confiscate and keep passports. Passports in truth belong to the governments who issue them and so anyone who needs their passports back should advise their embassy.

It is a puzzle though where this practice comes from. Why is it normative for employers to break the law in this matter so consistently? As a phenomenon it is not unique to Kuwait, it occurs all over the Gulf. One whisper of an answer was suggested to me though the reading of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book ‘Outliers’. He points to how attitudes and behaviours are preserved in specific cultures and passed on from generation to generation. In his provocative book he explores how this works using the institute of slavery as one example.

So what historical institution emerged in the Gulf which allowed the widespread practice of withholding passports against the employees’ will?

Authors Paul Dresch and James Piscatori in their book “Monarchies and Nations” point to the pearling industry. Pearling has a shared history in all the Gulf states and we can see in this historical institution the patterns and attitudes which shape today’s employers in the Gulf. Dresch and Piscatori wrote that the pearling industry was “built on debt bondage and indentured labour, where historically a diver in debt needed his captain’s release to work for another or face arrest for absconding. The labour market was regulated by freezing the labourer in his relationship to one employer. . . This system of private policing most probably deterred criminal behaviour among expatriates, but it also facilitated criminality among sponsors.” They then go on to explain how sponsors continue this tradition by holding passports.

History is a powerful shaper.. Today the pearling industry has virtually disappeared due to the Japanese innovation of cultured pearls. Yet the old attitudes prevail. The problem is that these attitudes now contravene the modern laws of Kuwait and international law. The boats have come home to a new world where the rules have changed. A law passed in 2007 says that passports can not be held by employers against the employees will. This law needs to be more widely known and enforced.

The scriptures advise “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. . . .For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.” (Romans 13.1-3.)

Maid Abuse (Again!)

“CAN we help?” is a question a lot of people ask when they hear news of another unfortunate soul who has slipped between the cracks of society. Here is a story of what happened when some friends of mine did try to help. They reached out to a Nepali lady who was injured after jumping out of a third floor window in order to escape her abusive employers. This maid had surgery on her pelvis and spine, was five months pregnant and to add insult to injury was serving a sentence in deportation jail on an absconding charge. (Why don’t they arrest the abusive employers?)
The authorities finally agreed to let my friends buy an airline ticket to allow her to go home. But when it came to processing the paperwork, the officials claimed to have lost the Nepali girl’s passport (it was found in the same drawer where it was originally deposited). Finally on the day that the ticket would have expired, out of desperation, the friends turned up the jail ready to take her themselves to the airport. The deportation staff reluctantly escorted the Nepali maid to the airport, and made sure that their annoyance was expressed by denying the poor girl use of a wheel chair and insisted that she walked the whole way through the airport and immigration in order to punish her. The abuse of this girl continued right up to the moment she boarded the plane.
She was the lucky one! She got out. Others receiving help are still stuck at the deportation centre. Tickets have been bought to allow them to go home, but they have expired because someone, somewhere will not process their paperwork. Hundreds of dinars from those who wish to help have been wasted. Prisoners are losing their minds because they have been stranded in the deportation centre for months. The tragedy is that often their tickets have been bought and paid for by people who have shown acts of charity – but bureaucratic apathy has reduced these efforts of kindness to nought. The tickets expire and dreams of going home are reduced to despair.
Please note, we are not talking about convicted criminals here. We are talking about people who chose to leave their employers under dire circumstances and who want to go home. Can you help? Of course you can. But you need to be committed and determined to see it through. Helping people in Kuwait is not for the faint hearted, but there will be reward and God sees what we do. “The King will reply ‘Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me”. (Matthew 25:40)

Will Shari'a law make Kuwait a better place?

The trouble with religion is that it acts like a magnifying glass. When people are in harmony with God and with one another ,religion becomes a beautiful gift. God is glorified and and all is magnificient. This is rare though. So rare that it is hard to think of a time in history when a people who applied the laws of God to themselves as a nation were upheld as a model to aspire to. Even the Old Testament epic of a people who followed God through the desert and established themselves in the Promised land failed to impress. There was corruption, there was consistent and deliberate rebellion - in short religious laws did nothing to make people into a better nation.

The pattern conintues throughout the Middle Ages. under the power of the Christian church we had the Inquisition, the fanatical Crusades and thousands of people were tortured to death in the name of Christ - all sanctioned by the laws of state which applied the rule of God. never again should we let the church be the ruling power of any nation.

Then there is the Islamic sharia' law. Admittedly there has been periods of history where Islamic law held vast empires together and culture and education flourished. What happened? There is a recent call for Sharia law to be applied in Kuwait. I asked a Kuwaiti friend recently what he thought. He admitted that there is no contemporary society in the world today who offer a positive model of Islamic law. Instead we think of Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan under the Taleban and Pakistan. None of them inspire us as fair and free societies. What on earth makes Kuwait thinks she can do any better? History would suggest otherwise.

As a Christian I think we are called to be good citizens by being salt and light. This means being engaged in our society and seeking to serve all humanity. Our religious beliefs and convictions should impact the public domain in a positive way. The minute though we have a group of people who starts to impose God's will in the form of codified laws we are in trouble. Of course the law should reflect the compassion and justice of God - but this is best achieved through God working through the lives of individuals and transforming them into his likeness through loving relationship. This is when religion comes at its best. Unsolicited grace and mercy manifested though a desire to do the right thing rather than because we are legally obliged to do so. May God write his laws on our hearts.

What do you think? Will Sharia Law make Kuwait a better place?