i met this very cool lady the other day - she’s also bengali, and she’s a linguist (she knows like 6 languages, mashallah) and into literature and stuff - and i had heard from a guy at school (a non-muslim guy who’s studying arabic because he’s a classics major - latin, greek, and maybe even yiddish now) that some fellow named “arberry”‘s translation was quite good; well, this sister had a copy and i finally got to look at it and i must say - subaanallaah! i am blown away, really - what he did was like 85% what i had in mind for this project! it is BEAUTIFULLY laid out, the author (who surprisingly was not muslim, but an authority on arabic linguistics, and died fairly recently in 1969) took pains to keep much of the rhythmic style of the quran, which is often QUITE neglected when translated, and the volume is simply designed, with little added, in order to keep the focus on capturing the beauty, power, and resonance of the original; it is truly a work that can reach out and strike at the heart of the reader; i also had an idea to lay out a quranic translation with the numbering often found in literature - not to dismiss the referential value of it, but to keep it at a minimum, to “dim the lights” so to speak, in setting a mood for the reader of the book, and so does arberry; he uses a minimum of parenthetical interjections and other academic distractions (which of course can be found in other works) which i also felt would be a point most in keeping with the objective at hand; at any rate, contrary to how many people (and honestly, this comes also from a good place - the protectiveness of god’s word) view translational work - i think each work has its own unique objectives, and think as many good translations and styles (obviously as long as it is kept within the technical possibilities demanded by the arabic language as well as orthodox extrapolation), the better; and also something which many people do not understand - i, like many other artists and workers for the religion, do not necessarily do what i feel like doing - rather, if a great idea comes along and it hasn’t been done, i often feel positively COMPELLED to do it (ie i will not feel rest until it is done); and this feeling has little actually to do with how widely i want to see it circulated (often i want very little, if any, since that is most comfortable actually) but is a drive simply to put it out into the universe, to see it exist, if allah wills, to bear the responsibility of seeing it “done” (no matter by who); and so it was a pleasure to see this particular project done, and done so well; the only disappointment i feel is “o brothers and sisters, where art thou?” - why is it we as a nation are still stuck with the mental residue of colonialism, still the followers when we were once the experts and the innovators; why is it some of the best work done in the modern era regarding islam (heck, even arabic and hadith with hans and other orientalists) comes from OTHER THAN its own adherents?! perhaps we are too busy fighting each other in religious matters and following everyone else in worldly matters; it surprised me a little to hear that shaikh nuh highly praised this work, and i admire his honesty and integrity in giving credit where credit is due, since it truly is a great achievement; for some time i have felt that scholarship is one thing and artistry another - the prevailing “wisdom” in the current regime of muslims is that academic study is the only way and the arts merely a sinful waste of time; but no, art has always had the power to shape the way people saw things and the prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam himself would listen to it or commission it if it served a purpose; it is about time we saw someone who had not only the academic capacity but the utter love of words and sounds put down a translation for a book which in its day was a miracle to non-believers simply by virtue of the way it SOUNDED; my only sorrow is that our magnificent holy book has been “reduced” to an “oxford world classic”, on par with other temporal, albeit masterly, works! and seeing it with the “oxford university press” stamp on the back does distress me somewhat; anyway, i did breathe a sigh of relief and feel that for now, i can put the driving compulsion to do this particular project (a very daunting one actually), away, at least for now; obviously, the work is not perfect, nor can any work ever be, and many people (a common objection is also that we already have translations, so why more?) do not understand that WORDS, that LANGUAGE and meaning change over time, that each generation needs to be brought not only the “message” of islam, but needs to be able to catch even a glimpse of what used to cause the most hard-hearted to sway; i may very well come back to this later (the work does have a few outdated/strange usages for anyone not in the ivy league, some of the connotations could be rendered less like a biblical passage and more in a universal construct, and of course there are some stylistic improvements that could still be made regarding design, etc.), but at least it doesn’t have to be NOW…

We are smack in the middle of the initial NM campaign. One of the first things we had to do was create a site worthy of NM and this in itself was a fun project. Like the comics, although seemingly “simple” at first glance, the site is by no means simplistic, but was art-directed the entire way through. I decided that obviously a pop art feel would best suit the motif of the site, so Sas and I looked up the fonts and designs related to smarmy pop culture. Even though honestly pop art was probably one of my least favorite (in terms of like what I’d put up in my living room or something) genres, me being pretty classically or surrealistically inclined, I was absolutely thrilled with the NM website results. A particular favorite for me is the Warhol style “self-portrait” of the Man himself. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did - to us the website itself was a work of art.

ok so by a complete fluke on the last day of ISNA some african american brothers came to my dad’s booth to talk to him and one of them makes a little rhyme like “give me your card, if its not too hard, and-something-i-cant-remember-that-rhymes-with-‘ard’” - anyway i sort of laughed a bit at that and he turns and goes, oh, i see she got it - you see, im a poet - so when i told him i was too, we started talking
i am always looking for artists for IN Production, but i have a pretty high standard (please dont confuse this with a PRETENTIOUSLY HIGH STANDARD) - i insist on both originality and competence - and he did some of his stuff for me and it was GOOD subhanallah
now this bro is a classic, classic gentleman from a sadly-passing generation - old-school, southern, with manners and compassion, but with a righteousness that is very down to earth
unfortunately, he lost everything he owned in katrina and although people know OF him, its never materialized into anything steadily - he had a chance to perform for nelson mandela even based on one of his writings, he has hundreds of poems, he’s gone all over america, etc. yet let me tell you again - there are virtually no modern day emily dickinsons - i mean no one’s gonna come up to you, go wow, you’re really talented, and drag you into the spotlight - talent is talent, but to get somewhere takes the “necessary evil” of marketing
now i believe i have a balance inshallah - i dont want to become a monster like the really commercial, solely money-making ventures in the “entertainment” (versus art) world - but i dont think artists should have to starve either
so i told the guy i am like 90% ready to sign him to work with me (i dont like leading people on so i wanted him to know its not set in stone or anything) but i am pretty excited - i mean the guy is intelligent, but very simple too - and has strong presence - a classic all the way
anyway, when he told me to meet him at denny’s in the 3rd ward, LOL, i was like that’s perfect!
again, not sure if i will really go through with it, but he’s definitely a possibility, may Allah grant him long life and eternal success…

(Note: This entry was imported from my personal blog and as such some of the information may be dated. Unfortunately, user comments were lost in the migration, so if you had a comment up, feel free to repost.)

I started a company called IN Production (part of IN, Islamic Network) to put out Muslim art. The first project is NaseehaMan, a comic book. The comics used to run weekly on IN. Unfortunately, the author, Zuhair Munshey, has passed away, rahimahullaahu ta’aalaa. But the comic book is coming out this week inshallah. We have a website for IN Production, where you can catch up on all our projects (www.inproductionmedia.com) and specifically for NaseehaMan (www.naseehaman.com), but they are not functional yet. So I decided to start blogging about it here and transferring the entries when the sites are up. It’s just such an exciting process and a lot of people have been waiting around for the comic book!

(Note: This entry was imported from my personal blog and as such some of the information may be dated. Unfortunately, user comments were lost in the migration, so if you had a comment up, feel free to repost.)