it's just pretty to me...

June 16, 2010 9:14 PM

I really like Arabic calligraphy and I'm thinking about displaying some in my bedroom. However, it is very religious---most pieces I've seen are quotations from the Qu'ran or praises of various religious figures. So here's my question for MeFi: what would you, as a religious man, think of an atheist hanging "God is great!" or some similarly devout phrase on his wall?

Incidentally, I also enjoy listening to hymns just as music, which recently caused an awkward situation when the silly shuffle algorithm scheduled Ne Irascaris Domine right before a Cannibal Corpse cover. Which is why I'm thinking a bit more carefully about such things now.

posted by d. z. wang to Religion & Philosophy (9 answers total)

Long before I identified as even remotely religious, I (and my still non-religious husband) purchased a print of The Garden of Earthly Delights, by Bosch, which was designed as a cautionary tale about the pleasures of the flesh and was intended to be used as a triptych behind an altar. It's inherently and intently religious. Nobody ever thought it was weird of us to have it hanging in our home.
posted by KathrynT at 9:18 PM on June 16, 2010

The most inventive arabic calligraphy (eg words in the shape of animals etc) supposedly evolved as a response to religious injunctions not to depict the human or animal form, so in a way it was always art first & foremost, but with a religious pretext to justify it.
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:26 PM on June 16, 2010

I think that it is great you appreciate it as art. As a person of (that) religion, I say do it.
posted by serunding at 10:10 PM on June 16, 2010

Go ahead and hang it up. :) If you are concerned about the sensibilities of religious Muslims (and I thank you for that consideration), then here are some guidelines for "being respectful."

1) Make sure it is in fact up on a wall, rather than the floor.
2) Don't 'multi-purpose' it. e.g. don't use it as a table cloth or place mat.
3) What Burhanistan said.
4) Put it up in a room other than the bathroom

As a contextual note, putting one's shoes or feet on something is considered a mark of contempt or at least lack of respect (This is why the reporter threw a shoe at Bush, rather than something that could do more physical harm.). The more conservative Muslims I know place their beds so that the foot does not point towards the Ka'aba, and would usually put something like calligraphy up on a wall that was oriented towards the Ka'aba.

Of course, all of this assumes that as a religious woman, I am still qualified to answer.
posted by bardophile at 11:16 PM on June 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm Muslim, but many times I've seen some religious "thing" - from churches to synagogues, from paintings of Krishna to whatever, and I've been touched by it's beauty, even if the message it intends to convey doesn't reflect my own beliefs. Religious or secular. Go for it.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:10 AM on June 17, 2010

As an atheist in love with Arabic calligraphy myself, I don't see anything wrong with it. But I'd like to point out that there are non-religious Arabic phrases that shouldn't be too difficult to find and put up.

[bonus points for finding a decent calligrapher and having custom-made phrases drawn up]
posted by xqwzts at 1:22 AM on June 17, 2010

no point repeating what's been well covered before, but my two cents is that i'd feel more comfortable hanging up an unfamiliar aesthetic piece after researching its context. by that i mean you could, perhaps, do a little research into islam, the use of the phrase "allahu akbar" in war, prayer, and societies.

or maybe not. perhaps i'm revealing myself as an archetype from pirsig's "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance", in that there are (apparently) two kinds of people - those that appreciate aesthetics and those that connect better with internals and mechanisms.
posted by asymptotic at 3:15 AM on June 17, 2010

I remember going to a Pakistani restaurant soon after I'd started learning Arabic, and being pleased to understand that there were Arabic phrases written into the decorations: "That one says 'There is no God but God!' And that one says "Muhammad is the prophet of God!' And that one says... 'Kebab Mahal!'"

This mixing of the sacred and the secular--the name of the Prophet, the name of the restaurant--seems sort of relevant, though I'm not sure how.

There are also some very fine calligraphers out there who use secular phrases in their art. Though I'm afraid I can't remember the name of one chap I'm thinking of, who is very well-represented in the posters/postcards section of the Institut du Monde Arabe shop... I'll see if I can track it down for you.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 7:09 AM on June 17, 2010

Maybe balance it out by hanging some other cultural calligraphy up also? Japanese calligraphy can be just as ornate and beautiful as Arabic, and the zen phrases usually involved go well with atheism. And by having other kinds of imagery displayed, it wouldn't look like you were actually espousing one or the other.

(I frequently wear a t-shirt that has the Tibetan Buddhist mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" on it, in Tibetan writing, though I'm not strictly a practicing/observant Buddhist. It just happens to be the "philosophy" I most agree with, and I think it's a cool looking shirt.)
posted by dnash at 9:24 AM on June 17, 2010