Deen Magazine : Water Edition
Deen Magazine Deen Magazine : Water Edition
WE MADE FROM WATER EVERYTHING.
Dear Community, Welcome to this space. We are Deen Journal: a platform that uplifts and creates art that is a conduit to spiritual ascension and self-discovery.
We are grounded principally in faith, spiritual poignancy and divinity of Islam, Allah (swt) and his Messenger. Join us as we explore the corners of our deen, as we create beauty inspired by Allah’s miracles and wonders. We ask that you join us in this space from a place of curiosity and reverence for the craft, for artistry and for the will of persistent beauty in the face of an otherwise difficult dunya. This is your space, and perhaps even your community.
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Our theme this year is Water. The concept of water is one that bursts with layered meanings. As such, it is no surprise that the primary texts of Islam, the Quran and Sunnah, are resplendent with mentions of the spiritual centrality of water. It is a beautiful experience to understand that in the most intimate stage of knowing Allah – the ritual devotional prayer, one must purify their outer limbs with water, which extinguishes the banal desires of the mind, and body. How sublime it is to experience meeting Him with vices dripping and the mind illuminated.
One day, the Prophet (pbuh) called the believers to pray the midday (asr) prayer. The people frantically searched for water to perform ablution but could not find any. Water was a scarce commodity in Arabia, and the people keenly treasured it. Not for vanity, or even physical sustenance. Their main concern with regard to water was to bless and purify themselves as they stood to engage in conversation with their Maker. When it was told to the Prophet (pbuh) that the people could not find water to cleanse themselves with, he (pbuh) took a cup that had a tiny amount of water in it. And then he dipped his blessed fingers into the cup and instructed the people to make ablution from that cup.
Water is a life force for us physically and spiritually. Communities around the world are structured and organized by their water geographies and topography. And profoundly, Allah reminds us that in Heaven, there are “rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk the taste of which never changes, rivers of wine delicious to those who drink, and rivers of purified honey, in which they will have from all [kinds of] fruits and forgiveness from their Lord, like [that of] those who abide eternally in the Fire and are given to drink scalding water that will sever their intestines?”
One of the companions who was present, Anas Ibn Malik (May God be well pleased with him) narrated that: “I saw water sprouting from his fingers and people performed ablution until even the last of them could do it”. How fortunate those companions were to draw from water emanating from the Prophet (pbuh) and have it become one with their physical being. How fortunate were the eyes that witnessed such a miraculous sight? We must appreciate water because God made it central to our survival. But we must value the water because of the intimate connection it had with our beloved Prophet.
This is what awaits us as believers. We are reminded of this slice of heaven on earth every day when we wash out bodies, hydrate, and nourish our souls. As you reflect on the art of this offering, take some time to reflect on your own relationship with water. How much do you drink? How excessive are you with consumption? When was the last time you felt engulfed by water? By the miracles of your topography? The wonders of grace?
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Reflect on the flooding and disastrous droughts of our Muslim brothers and sisters across the world. What is our responsibility, as generative beings, as artists and above all – as Muslims, to this earth? To the rivulets that sustain our lives.
Without further ado, we invite you to celebrate the work of Muslims artists worldwide who supported this effort. We are indebted to the work of these imaginative creators and their craft. The featured artists of this inaugural publication are:
[ Warmly, Aya
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Table of Content
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Dear Believers, My mother used to say that a bridge may carry you forward but the map you need is buried in the ocean. Today, I ask you to make your way towards the water, in hopes that you find direction by remembering those who came before you. Those who used their last breath to pray on your behalf. When you get there, you will discover that some call the Atlantic ocean a body of water, while forgetting to mention that is also a cemetery. There are Muslims there and I want to know when was the last time you prayed for your spiritual ancestors? Today, I am asking that you give more than prayer, that you use your hands to right the wrong of history. I want you to know that the ocean is not only a body of water but a lost continent, a birthmark in search of its people. A persistent prayer desperately trying to make its way to you. I know what you’re thinking. How do you pray for something that ain’t dead but breathing under your skin? If history has made you afraid of the ocean, how can you ever go back and search for what was lost? As life would have it there are more questions than answers.
Still, I stand before you, asking Allah to make good use of my tongue. Perhaps I am here to remind you that no matter the hour, you can always go back. I want you to find that map. Hold it against your heart like an inheritance that fell from heaven. I want you to know your origin is not pain and your beauty is one that no language can define. I see you on the front lines, standing against injustice, demanding that somebody honor your humanity. Here, I am asking you to travel back through history. When your soul is tired and the ache of it all is heavy. Lord, knows I’m also tired. Tired of a world that knows more violence than peace. Tired of barely living, yet still praying for another day. Last year, I remembered my mother’s words and made my way to the ocean. I stood at the water so long that wings started to grow from my back. I want you to know I could have flown away from here. But I came back to get you, came back to pray in front that ocean with your body next to mine. What is freedom if I can’t share it with you.
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“Allah has created every [living] creature from water. And of them are those that move on their bellies, and of them are those that walk on two legs, and of them are those that walk on four. Allah creates what He wills. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.” (24:45)
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Water is my healing It calls my name in all of its pronunciations My toes crawl back to the rivers & the lakes & the places I know where the earth’s veins tumble open And oxidize at human touch. Water is my song The waves / the sounds of river slapping up against concrete harbor columns / The trickling sound of rain as it cools off of my window / The whisper of the morning dew / The waterfalls chanting & the way that my body exhales When it meets the water God took dirt and water and made me And so, of course, my peace is found at their meeting points The shore, The bank, The muddy and overflowing front lawn These are the places I find myself again I go searching for linage For family history For language and tradition that I can bathe in and keep as the antidote I want to name my predecessors like we name rivers And Great Lakes and the Gulfs of Oceans
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So, it is natural that I collect up fragments Of my own story by the water The ocean an ancestral burial ground of all of my people who cast down Their bodies as staffs And still could not part the sea Somewhere in Sudan, a river forks off And makes a wet and wondrous diaspora In all the ways I wish I could pronounce myself African and Sudania but my tongue will not let me
Somewhere in the thickness that is America’s sin, a predecessor finds the river and pledges allegiance to its current. She floats her way to freedom and lets the night sky guide her For my people, The water is the final stretch, The landing zone it is healing and whole-making In the dancing reflection, I can see my ancestors leaping from ships and letting the water set them free Water is freedom
the Nile / the Mississippi / they are my own north stars bleeding across the earth and guiding me back to a home so many have left for me.
I lower myself into the water Let its glassy freshness overtake me Let it flow down my back and watch as all of the pain & dirt & guilt Wash away. (I always wave goodbye before I go) by
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Mona Hagmagid
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ِتاَمِلَكِّل اًداَدِم ُرْحَبْلا َناَك ْوَّل لُق نَأ َلْبَق ُرْحَبْلا َدِفَنَل يِّبَر اَنْئِج ْوَلَو ”يِّبَر ُتاَمِلَك َدَفنَت ”اًدَدَم ِهِلْثِمِب Say: "If the sea were ink for [writing] the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought the like of it as a supplement."
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Question & Answer with Artist Shainess Daoud 1. What do you hope to evoke in your work? Beauty. I look for beauty and I try to capture it so other people and see it and feel it. I try to show that the little insignificant scenes of life can make it worth living. That’s why most of my pictures show appeasing faces, scene of people showing affection de to one other etc…My art has always been introspective. Something that I owe myself and need to do to discover myself. It’s a solo conversation first. I share because I hope people can relate to my own experience as a human in this chaotic world. 2. Does water inform your work, and if so, how? Living in an island, I learned to seek refuge and relief in the water. I love swimming and feeling the waves crush against my body so I go to the ocean quite often. I’m used to repeating this whenever I come across a source of water: “Where there is water, there is beauty”. And beauty is the reason why I take pictures.
3. Where are you located? I was born and raised in the island of Ngazidja (Comoros Archipelago). I came back home a year and a half ago from France where I studied… Islam informs my work in a sense that I try to document Comorian customs and rituals which involves a lot of religious ceremonies. In a sense, I try to document how Islam is practiced in my country because of lot of aspects of our practice of Islam are surprising to many people. 4. What interests you outside of creating and producing artistic work? Well, I love watching people create and produce art (laughing). I love fashion, I launched a fashion brand called “The Kure Project”. It is mostly merch products designed to empower the African diaspora. I love languages (I wish I had the courage to learn Swahili, Arabic). I’m also interested in travelling as a way of learning and renewing my eye. 5. What inspires you? Newness. Newness (new places, people, environment, knowledge…) automatically brings out a desire to create, to change and to update myself. On top of that seeing other forms of art really inspire me, especially cinematographic work and poetry.
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After Warsan
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At a gathering i laugh and say i don’t believe in nationalism.
like her darker sister with the black hair, like the women on my mother’s
The first time i go to sudan i arrive on a travel document,
side of the family. i wave a flag with their faces on it,
green like the second layer of the red sea.
the closest thing to home, looks like an immigrant,
i’m on a boat with my family five miles off the coast,
like the creases in my father’s face, like the sunset touching miami,
my cousins point to the ranges beneath the surface
like every mural of malcolm x in every diasporic city.
& i think myself to be a mermaid, otherworldly, like the feeling i first felt
i never asked to leave, they took me. Feels like i’m every nation’s castaway.
the first time my family meets me not in sudan,
mark of my mother’s prayers. i sing songs to myself
not even at the border, but in cairo on a boat just like this one,
in a dialect of arabic i’m constantly defending.
my hands, skin color, still grazing the water.
i liberate myself in a dialect im still defending.
i thought myself to be a mermaid then, too, but not like the little mermaid,
even though the flag has failed me i am still raising it.
“My fountain is from Eden to ‘Amman al-Balqa’. Its water is whiter than milk and sweeter than honey. Its cups are as numerous as the stars. Whoever drinks from it will never be thirsty afterwards forever. The first people to arrive at it will be the poor emigrants, their hair disheveled and their clothes stained, who are not favored in marriage and for whom the gates of rulers are not opened.”
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All things on this earth exist to remind of us of our purpose. God did not create anything, no matter how minute or significant, in vain. In fact, Allah reinforces this when He informs us that the successful in His eyes are those who deeply contemplate all that He created, in its intricacies and complications, and are automatically drawn to exclaim: “Our Lord, you did not create any of this aimlessly, exalted are you and protect us from the punishment of the fire.” These people do not separate the earthly from the divine or the apparent from the sublime. They are keenly aware that every single particle on this earth contains in it an opportunity to draw in proximity to their Lord. We should approach water in this manner. And in celebrating water in this magazine, we celebrate one of the blessings of God. In Surah Rahman, God asks humanity 31 times, in a chapter that contains 78 verses, “O, which of your Lord’s bounties will you deny?” None my Lord. This is our humble offering, and we pray in reverence that you accept it from us.
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WE MADE FROM WATER EVERYTHING.