Visual Dhikr™
returning to remembrance

About time, I hear you say. Yes, they are finaly here, the VD t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies, sold via the Islamic Design House.

We hand picked the fabric, designed the cuts, the colours, the stitching and obviously decorated them with our own exclusive artwork - definately ahead of the rest.

Oh - and yes, its not just for the brothers, sisters you can get your mits on some cool tops too.

Go now, they are selling out fast, its Ramadan and get an early Eid bargain!

Ruh, Visual Dhikr

Its that time of year, lets do our best to part with some of our hard earned cash?

www.ramadanrelief.com - Islamic Relief have tons of ways to donate and contribute.

This site houses a few artists and I love some of the works by Tajelsir Hasan and Abdul Qadir al-Rais in particular. Tajelsir is a khattat, evident from his excellent script work (also renowned), he also works with water colours (?) interestingly. Abdul Qadir is also quite exceptional with his water colours, but even more impressive with oils (?) - his use of colours gives vibrancy to his work. He also places the nuqta (diacritic dot from Arabic) in paintings - a signature style it seems. Beautiful work.

http://www.creativearab.com

The tendency, in a secularized civilization, is to define creativity in human-centered terms. Traditional societies…define creativity as a function or quality of an Absolute Reality, however defined by the tradition in question.

To understand creativity, we must dispense with the conventional idea that religion or traditional wisdom stifle it. How can this be, when the ground of religious faith and spiritual practice has been the source of so much of the world’s greatest art?

Scary to see my pic in the magazine, but Emel did huge feature on Visual Dhikr (including cover!). Go subscribe now or buy from your local store.

The gifted young artists Ruh al-'Alam is the elusive face of Visual Dhikr, a project that create unique and contemporary Islamic Art work. He talks openly with Remona Aly to reveal how losing himself in art has led him to finding the ideal path towards divine remembrance.

“I was somewhat disillusioned with the notion of art in the western world when at college. It seemed to focus too often on controversy, rather than on communication or beauty. An artists’ ego was more important than the art itself. With Islamic art, you don’t get distracted by the artist – you concentrate on the art. That’s what I believed in.”