Sphere of KUN~

Light of Peace. The past few months have been ones of retreat, my most familiar mode… During that time, I was able to complete my upcoming musical album that I intend to release hopefully before the end of this year inshAllah. I also was elated to discover another art form that completely captivated me as it came! I hope to reveal it soon inshAllah. I also completed some paintings whose conception was very different… I just need to organize and make space for those new projects to come out.

I revere the sacred process within creativity, it’s one blissful reality that I have no control whatsoever over and I’m deeply fulfilled with it which tends to make me shun any form of external attention, validation or recognition. However I honor the duty to share anything that may contribute to the human soul’s nurturing… just like many beings contributed to nurturing me. We never know what may ignite the dormant Spark in one’s center so for this reason, we must share those graceful vibrations that come to us, effortlessly, as they just offer themselves to us, through the sphere of KUN~, al hamdulillah il rabil alamin. In truth we have no say in inspiration nor in any of the phenomena that the Universe lets out and allows our names to take credits for. Everything we make already exists in veiled dimensions…

Even when I’m away from the cyber world, I receive all the kind emails sent my way, thank you. I’m going to reply to each one of you.

Painting “Kemet Incandescence” on Lonnie Plaxico’s New CD “Ancestral Devotion”

Lonnie Plaxico’s new album entitled “Ancestral Devotion” has just been released. It is an incredibly rich Jazz record that I think anyone who is into spiritual culture would enjoy, you may listen to excerpts of this gem and purchase it here. I must say there is one track on the CD that particularly moved me deep, it is “Nile River Valley”…  I did the painting “Kemet Incandescence” for “Ancestral Devotion” album cover. The creation of the piece was very much influenced by Africa’s ancient art; the painting process was quite an experience as it has allowed me to celebrate the sacred feminine in my African cultures in another way which I want to delve deeper into… you may see the entire painting and read more about it here.

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Lonnie Plaxico at work:

Away from the Periphery of Being

There always comes a time when one must leave one’s lower self in order to embrace one’s true being, the higher self. When the soul longs to manifest its beauty, it is shattering, no one can resist it so it pulls you to its experience of constant merging with the Divine Reality: Bliss in its purest form. There is such glory to existing away from the periphery of being to near the Center, and delve deeper into who we are instead of existing distracted by surface illusions that desensitize us and even oppress our spiritual sense. The soul fiercely is averse to dis~harmony, chaos, false hierarchy, corruption, compulsion and any kind of oppression which unfortunately all characterize the many structures of our dimension… yet for those who are uncomfortable with all these structures, they must be fought with love and patient resolution. I think the more we evolve, the more obsolete these structures become and the less they will be able to sustain this cultural out-of-tuneness imposed upon mankind for centuries; we do not exist somewhere outside of Universal Law, we are not exempt of the responsibility that comes with being a particle of a cosmic, purposeful whole. We are not stagnant forces numbed by the schemes of falsehood; we are consciousness, always evolving toward knowing its Source anew and manifesting this knowingness which implies constant change, evolution, revolution with all the attributes revealing themselves in that sacred, loving process which makes life magnificent!

(c) 2009 Aïda Touré

Art is Bliss’ Remnants

Al hamdulillah il rabil al Amin, Art is a quiet revering of The Hidden… through the intimacy of creativity, we trace the unknown yet the nearest, wholeheartedly, without any condition nor any usual man-made boundary, we celebrate The Most Sublime who left imprints of Herself/Himself through our breath. Art reveals itself to adorn the journey of the spiritually aware, the humble seekers, the refined lovers; those ones who have learned to vanish and re~appear through the Veil woven between matter and pure spirit… Art is the soul’s whisper relating of the glimpses it captures amid its immersion in Hu, Art is that sacred! The experience of such luxurious frenzy is for those who no longer have anything to say after some tender, unexpected Visit left them amazed! Those silenced ones who exist eyes and ears closed to allow the Eye and the Ear to relate of their pre~cosmic Glow. Art is for those whose senses flirt with Stillness and Breath, alternately… Art is Bliss’ remnants making themselves known to pull us even more toward the Unknown… Therefore we explore, allowing the invisible hand to lead us wherever it may…

(c) 2009 Aïda Touré

Fallacy of Competition

The negative energy of competition reflects the culture of materialism. Instilled in us from a young age by educative institutions, this culture serves the elitist system’s agenda whose prosperity depends on exclusion and destruction of fellow beings. This type of functioning based upon fear and covetousness cripples the spirit of abundance and generosity that originally constitutes us, it imposes a false notion that erodes many people’s natural potential because the greatest oppression is the oppression we subject our inner selves to. Competition is a manifestation of the ego’s crudeness and misery, therefore it represents a fierce oppression to the soul of the one who practices it.

In a Universe that comprises more than a hundred billion galaxies, there is no place for competition because everything, every atom has a specific and unique purpose, every inanimate and animate thing has its definite task, its form of expression and way of being; all permitted out of magnanimity, all ordained by The Divine One. So in such a vast reality, why contract and oppress oneself by fearing others’ expansion and attempt to interfere with such a natural process?

Considering the cosmic order of existence helps see the fallacy of competition, there is no such thing as that, it is a materialistic notion… Unfortunately this false notion continues to cause such destruction: I have seen it cause the death of innocent children in families, I have seen it destroy blood ties, friendships and even couples and it is so sad because we perpetuate it with such force it is systemic as it is visible in all fields of life. Like automatons we perpetuate the false standards of unlawful systematization and it causes such harm and regression which eventually come back to those who practice it.

We do have the capability to transform this oppressive energy and to find our fullness, once we do, we stop functioning based on fear because that’s what competition is, it is fear of others’ expansion, fear of others’ prosperity, how toxic this can be! Isn’t it wiser to focus on one’s own development, that way, instead of coveting others’ richness we rather learn to discover our own,  we learn to uncover more of our innate treasures; everyone has some! We do benefit from the Universe’s perpetual expansion, so why fear our fellow creatures’ one? It’s backward to observe such unfruitful patterns as they clearly lead to self-destruction.

(c) 2009 Aïda Touré

A Love like the Sun

Perched on the ego’s perception, experiences unfold with such turbulence, life loses its vibrancy in the eye of the wounded heart. Love remains a mystery to many of us, as it evolves through the different phases of our consciousness, with each transformation that we go through…

The higher our vibratory frequency, the deeper our capacity to experience love, which itself is in its purest form through the state of being, through presence; love is not spoken yet it deeply is expressive, it doesn’t flirt with noise nor chaos, it doesn’t cultivate nor nurture vice, it always reflects virtue… A true love is like the Sun: it just is, it offers itself constantly with the quiet intent to help evolve.

On this Earth, the rare beings who express  love in this manner are most admired yet at the same time feared by their peers, this unbalanced sentiment often aimed at those lovers creates an aura of “aloofness” around them while spiritual intimacy is their activity, they seem to stand alone even amid crowds… they revel in the majesty of Silence, they are elusive yet present, they just accomplish their task without any distraction nor expectation for gratitude, indeed such a love is like the Sun…  the reward for such manifested love is with The Divine only…

In homage of the suns in human form who touched my life…

(c) 2009 Aïda Touré

News & Wishes

Peace & best wishes to all. I hope that we know greater peace within so that our world may begin to reflect it as well…

Thank you all for your emails, I’m always submerged with much work but I intend to reply to each one of you inshAllah.

Sometime this year, in due time inshAllah, I plan to release my fourth book of poems, a musical album as well as the new paintings I have been developing these past months…

One thing I do realize more and more is how precious time is, so let us cherish the time we have and make use of it in a way that is meaningful because life is so short, and the soul is eager to accomplish itself while we journey here so let us have mercy on ourselves and do what is purposeful…

I also uploaded new songs on myspace for the meditative music lovers …
Light & Peace!

Tehuti’s Gems to Dinga

Greetings of Peace, I composed “Tehuti’s Gems to Dinga” in two phases, it was one of the most pleasant creative processes… the song is an homage to the human souls who reclaim the Tradition of Light, their treasure: the spirituality that has always been the reality of all Creation; this spirituality which gave birth to excellence in all advanced civilizations and which has been coveted by dark forces for eons, this spirituality that clothes all living things, that spark without which nothing could evolve, that elusive yet powerful spark without which no one could exist, whether consciously or unconsciously…

“Tehuti’s Gems to Dinga” evokes the spiritual transmission of this most precious spark which is ongoing since our precosmic condition, the prophets (as) gracefully spoke of it… la  ilaha illa Allah…  This luminous tradition cannot be extinct and is an heritage to all as it is sustained by The Almighty (purity be on Him/Her)… it’s only natural that we return to this tradition through the cycle of life and the greater Life which is commonly known as “death”…

In Soninké, my paternal culture/dialect, “Dinga” can be translated as “King”. Dinga is the ancestor of the Soninké people, he migrated from the Nile Valley to West Africa. In the context of this musical composition “Dinga” is an allegory for the innate state of spiritual royalty of mankind… Toward such a state of humble highness, let all of humankind converge; especially those who encourage the usurping unlawful system and the harm it has caused to Nature, Children and Mankind…

(c) 2008 Aïda Touré

A Poem by an Unknown Friend

Wasalamalaikum, greetings of peace. I’m going to do something unusual today: I want to share a poem by an unknown friend named Abuzuhri. By coincidence I came across his poem “Embracing Majesty Veiling of Beauty :” written with such sensitivity, it really moved me. I tried to get in contact with him to let him know but to no avail… Maybe one day he’ll come across this post inshAllah… I must say Beauty is indeed the language that lovers speak, with no word, they converse with one another in their own secret way, and we stare baffled by the undulations of their spacious proximity… thank you Abuzuhri…

Embracing Majesty
Veiling of Beauty :

“A stranger, poet, wayfarer
masterless samurai, chun tzi,
teahut attendant, student of rumi
chinese tea admirer
hafiz faraway disciple
keeper of tao teh ching
friend of kemala, edita
larra, khalil gibran, goethe
aida toure, eva hanim…

O those who yearn for
an image of sensory shadow
we desire not fame
power possession
love, praise or recognition
but a spirit that soar
into the realm of meanings
rekindle secrets of past
renewing the lights that
fall unto our path and
garden of contemplation
how my pen are broken
my brush stroke astray
but the pure echo remains !”

by Abuzuhri http://abuzuhri.blogspot.com/

Contemplation & Love

To be alone with oneself, to find one’s center and to learn to enter it at will is the greatest savior anyone can have. We tend to look outside of ourselves for sentiments of comfort and peace yet the reservoir to such luxury is within and it is limitless. Everyone possesses it and how beautiful it is! The soul by nature is nurturing therefore it constantly calls toward itself in the quietest way, we are the Soul’s guests, it ever invites us to feast at its table of delicacies and when it does everything stops!

Being a giver comes from that innate state of love, women embody it with such ease because they are the pure soul manifest; light itself hangs on to women through the womb, the physical receptacle of Mercy… There also is a spiritual feminine state that pervades existence, and this state is expressed in all, it is the expression of calm and refinement, some men do celebrate that spiritual state, they are attuned to their authentic nature. I think this is what we should teach children from the youngest age, we must show them it is regal to be oneself, to be a soul of fine feeling that has no fear of its capacity to feel, no fear of its own latitude, with nothing to restrain its own depth. Stillness hides the Treasure humans seek in external, material sources; contemplation heals and gathers us, it is the way to fulfilling our full potential as souls…

(c) 2008 Aïda Touré

Corridor of Gracefulness

Grace is the quality of manifesting beauty, every soul innately possesses it yet by conforming to the disharmonious ways of society, we tend to lose our grace as we abide by materialistic, coarse standards of life that distract us from our true whole selves. The further away from conformism, attachment, and fear of the fast-paced life of compulsion, the greater our grace and refinement. Often, in regions remote from materialistic society are found deeply evolved graceful people, it’s ironic that at some point in history they were labeled as “uncivilized” when they, in fact, are most cultured and civilized as their peaceful ways toward other beings and Natures suggest.

In this age, one great impediment to grace is the widespread rigidity imposed on us by the usurping establishment. Besides those who strive to preserve their grace (those who consciously resist all forms of societal imposition), I have found that the most graceful beings seem to be babies, children and the elderly, which is interesting because they respectively represent the pure soul who has just come to experience the world or who is preparing to exit the world to mingle anew with the majesty of Subtlety. Thus, grace is primordial, it is the consequence of spiritual Surrender; our natural state. One who has grace is most gentle as such a soul is in harmony with the peaceful atmosphere of the highest spheres, by just being itself it contributes to an essential aspect of evolution within the collectivity … so let us re~cultivate the heart that leads through the corridor of gracefulness…

(c) 2008 Aïda Touré

Virtues of Slow Rhythm & Stillness

The prosperity of the soul is conditioned by rhythm, the slower our rhythm the more harmonious our life, our aspirations and our being. All of life manifests by a myriad of rhythms: our world, which is institutionalized to accommodate the boisterous ego and to tame the spiritual soul, mirrors a fast rhythm which results in disconnection, chaos, a very tangible condition of our dimension.

Every soul has the capacity to choose which rhythm to tune to and to channel, the key to such an accomplishment is the breath. If the breath is in harmony with the currents of the soul, its rhythm manifests outwardly in a peaceful, slow fashion; when it does, that state of consciousness is aligned with all life which is experienced as its own self. All healing and revelation only begin after we have adopted slow rhythm which allows the brain to vibrate on higher frequencies; thus it can mirror the Love~Light that pervades the Cosmos. Suffering, pain, failures are meant to tilt us into a slower rhythm, once we do, we awaken to our authentic Nature, to our qualities, our gifts, our true self and inner Voice: our Hidden Treasure; which reminds me of this sacred saying of Prophet Muhammad (saw): “Whoever knows oneself, knows one’s Lord.”

A spontaneous teacher of slow rhythm between human beings is Love. Love pulls us toward one another so that we learn to cultivate the deeper, nobler vibration of Life which is gentleness: its cultivation should endure and be projected beyond the object of our Love, it should perpetually expand until we shed our selves, our forms. Thus the eventual outcome of slow rhythm is stillness, the station wise souls blossom in and dance in and out of. The mastering of slow rhythm and stillness is the highest form of activity. The first condition to know one’s self and to accomplish the soul’s authentic works in this life, is to reclaim one’s slow rhythm. The usurping system of our world imposes a fast rhythm to mankind so that the life force is oppressed, which implies subjugation for exploitative purposes, dis-empowerment, complete amnesia of our higher identity and thus separation from our Source.

(c) 2008 Aïda Touré

On the Edge of Union (the painting)

Salamalaikum, I just completed the painting “On the Edge of Union” I worked on it for about 4 months. Ecstatic union is the ultimate goal to the soul so with pleasure, I endured the slow development of this piece; the poem that offered it may be read here, the entire piece and description may be viewed here. I also composed a song that continues the painting, hopefully it will be part of my first album coming out soon inshAllah. “On the Edge of Union” is the invitation to attune to our polarity and to allow ourselves to surrender to its Source and to just flirt with the grace birthed of that harmony… If the lover’s soul tilts in the Absolute, slips in and out of it or dissolves, let it be; this is the majesty of existence unfolding… We welcome the Bliss of such love~annihilation, we revel in that kind of melting, that divine healing… Love is the Way.

(c) 2008 Aïda Touré

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Open Door to Infinity

As microcosms of the Macrocosm, our alignment with The Divine One is innate. Whether we preserve it and live our lives from our higher nature or whether we act from our lower nature is all up to us. The say of the world as an institution does not matter, because the soul does not recognize nor abide by it. It purely is natural to resist the perversion of our light, it is indeed our right to resist the negative energies that were condensed into systematizations that dishonor the Divine Order of Life. Yes the soul does not conform to falsehood! Now if we do, it is our own choice, our own ignorance expressing itself. To breathe the sacred Breath year after year on this Earth and not use it to seek the Highest form of Ambrosia is a waste of time and energy, life is most precious as the authentic measure of success will be determined by standards the world does not dare to evoke, mention nor reflect out of its own backwardness. By feeling threatened by such standards, the world has isolated itself from love, it has locked itself into the prison we are now seeing. Founded to despiritualize, our current institutions can never prepare mankind to reclaim their attributed grace, majesty and freedom therefore some works we must do on our own … the Mind is an open door to Infinity, the Universe is within… We must remember this.

copyright 2008 Aïda Touré

Muslimahs Speak Up Blog Carnival

The new Muslimahs Speak Up Carnival, hosted by Sister Umm Layth, has been posted, it has beautiful entries as always.

Blessings of Marriage

Marriage is the seed that grows watered by consciousness. A woman and a man who connect from that conscious space naturally gravitate toward one another, they revolve around one another and reap the grace within their love as long as they both remain conscious and focused on their individual and common purpose. True marriage is a teacher of ultimate balance, as it gathers the dualities of all existence through two souls who interact and intertwine on those levels that are accessible to them according to their degree of awakening.

The rose of marriage is love, it keeps the union fragrant and leaning toward Light itself. In a true marriage the quintessential dynamic reposes upon giving, love seeks to give first, and in the giving, the lower self withers, thus the way is clear to behold the spiritual attributes that constitute our being… this is what makes the union between a man and woman purposeful, it is inviting of their respective full potential, their soul’s qualities and each mate serves as a mirror to the other, mutually reflecting their growth as well as the difficulties that can come with evolving.

In order to experience such love, we need to understand our deepest needs, our emotions, longings and most of all our selves. If we are not in touch with those yet, it’s wiser to be patient and nurture ourselves instead of rushing into marriage seeking to be nurtured by someone else with not much depth to bring to them. Let love take the time it needs to offer itself, there is no such thing as isolation in this Universe, eventually love always finds us, yet we need to inwardly prepare for it. An healthy marriage reflects peace, compassion, reliance, trust, tolerance, forgiveness, patience, selflessness and generosity. It is important to learn to cultivate those qualities that would lead to an harmonious atmosphere between husband and wife before bringing children in the world.

copyright 2008 Aïda Touré

Divine Unity

Bismillah… there are parted curves of being yet spiritual emotions flow from body to body, from breath to breath, do you see our oneness? There are infinite ways to experience this, just like the kiss that conveys the Sun’s secrets to the lovers…

Now the poets’ pen lays on the floor, souls departed from the world, yet another child will be birthed to hold that same pen, to know that same Breath that squeezes out the same old golden ink! My love do you see the continuity in all this?

Observe the leaf fall from its branch, gracefully and with perfection, only to remind you of your own constant fall in Surrender~Islam wherever you are, there is no escaping from this bliss! I wish I could sit by you and count with you these myriads of glittering Pearls here, there, within, without, everywhere, exhibiting how wild and cosmic this intimacy is! Gather your true self and come, hold some hand, leap inside of this sweet, sweet Music our souls shed, attune my dear, embrace your own light, it is all yours to love! Come and let us move beyond the outward lines eyes see, it is but illusion, Ruh (as) weaves our connectedness without any interruption… and time stands still…

copyright 2008 Aïda Touré

Arabic Calligraphy 2

Wasalamalaikum, I came across another calligrapher whose work is awesome, her name is Sana Naveed. To me her work exudes such spirituality it speaks for itself, it’s indeed beautiful!

Blog Carnival~Muslimah’s Speak Up

Salaams all, Sister Aaminah published the Muslimah Speak Up Blog Carnival, it has very interesting entries, everybody check out the different voices of Muslim ladies!

Another Octave of Creativity: Music

Wasalamalaikum, I finally have found the time to explore Music: the first form of spirituality that I consciously observed as a child. The mysterious beauty and invisible nature of Music captivated me and directly made me contemplate on The Creator’s Majesty. I still am amazed by Music that is an expression of Wisdom, its language and affinity with Love, its lessons on Surrender, on connectedness and on Remembrance of the Palace we inhabited aforetime… I revere the high purpose of Music. I can appreciate all genres that serve this purpose of awakening within us.

I recently started to develop songs that my paintings let escape… Al hamdulillah, I revel in the continued phase of Arts, I do experience them as one endeavor… Everywhere we look, there is Music, the sight of the Creation itself is Music, our movements, pulse, spiritual emotions are music… there is no way to remove these harmonious sounds of the Sound from our lives. In my African cultures, Music is the very fiber of life, it accompanies our development from birth to transition unto the other World.

InshAllah my first album will be available sometime this year. In the meantime, I’m sharing excerpts of two songs “She, the Black Light” and “Marundu’s Thousand Veils”.

Thank you to all those who came to the NYU exhibition, it was a pleasure to meet all of you.

NYU Islamic Awareness Week Exhibit ~ “Cultural Canvas: Islam Paints the World”

Wasalamalaikum, I have been focusing on much work lately but I hope to get more free time to blog soon again inshAllah. I’m going to participate to the NYU Islamic Awareness Week Exhibit “Cultural Canvas: Islam Paints the World” on Friday April 4th 2008 in New York University from 6-10 pm.

Like a Veiled Woman

The soul is like a veiled Woman, elusive, graceful and kind; generous in her gestures of love, she receives the treasures the Source of life offers with such abundance, centers in her proximity open to be quenched by the constant sublimity she lets out… She is a door through which Paradise leaps in and out in quest of other lovers to lavish… Don’t we all secretly exist to know The Divine who breathed of Itself into our selves with such Love we cannot stop longing for Its Kiss?

Being involves receptiveness, this natural position of the soul can only pull us toward knowing Love. A soul who knows Love is quietly receptive to its lover’s presence, its state of being is a constant smile over the lover, an unending nurturing no space nor time can dissuade. When such love flows between beings, words and physicality seem so superfluous, even irrelevant…

(c) 2008 Aida Toure.

“And enter thou My Paradise!” ~89: 30 Holy Qur’an

Diarabi (My Love)

Kayindi, I have loved you

from the moment I was born,

you are the membrane

of my soul, the orange

cloak you wear is my glow,

you are wrapped around me

always, even from afar

Kayindi my love, my Dad...

copyright 2008 Aida Touré

Tulane University’s Annual Symposium (Exhibit)

Exhibiting artworks created by artists from the Muslim World and the United States, Tulane University’s Annual Symposium “Relations Between the U.S. and the Islamic World” create a channel of communication bridging the gap. This exhibit will help introduce the contemporary artworks created by Muslim artists to the American people and art community.

Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer, Tulane University is delighted to host the First International Art Exhibit as part of the Second Annual Symposium on the Relations Between the United States and the Islamic World. The exhibition will be held on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 from 8:30am to 5:30pm in Tulane University Center, Kendall Cram Lecture Hall.

The First International Art Exhibit features diverse works by contemporary artists from different backgrounds. The exhibition aims to serve as a bridge between cultures and introduce to the New Orleans art community and the public unique international artistic experience. Different art styles from calligraphy to impressionism, realism and abstraction are represented in the exhibition. Artworks will be offered for sale and 30% will be donated for the Payson Center to support its mission.

The art exhibit is curated by Haitham Eid and sponsored by the Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer, Tulane University. Beside the art exhibit lectures, workshops, music and entertainment will be offered. Admission is free to the public.

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Marundu’s Thousand Veils

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Salaams all, I had been away for a little while as my schedule has been hectic but I hope to be able to post more frequently inshAllah.

I also completed a new oil painting entitled “Marundu’s Thousand Veils”. I wanted to do something with the “Veil” theme to celebrate head covering. I have noticed that for materialists, it is one of the main reasons they despise Islam as they claim “the veil” is a sign of oppression of Muslim women which is strange I think because head covering relates to modesty, to the value of one self’s beauty. Besides, head covering is an old tradition that has been observed for eons in many cultures and this beyond gender and religions.

Growing up in Gabon, I can’t even count the number of women I saw wearing head scarves without even being Muslim yet they observed modesty and were graceful! So I painted this piece for this reason: to honor all the modest women on all continents who beautifully wear their veils or head scarves in face of all the prejudice they encounter at the work place, in educative institutions or wherever superficial, uncultured persons can not stand another people’s refusal to be whatever alien forces want them to be… On the part of materialists, this simply is an intolerance of a divinely appointed phenomenon: diversity.

There is also an inner meaning to the “Veil” theme in this painting: the mysteries of existence are hidden from our physical eyes yet the soul is immersed in those mysteries which can become perceptible by the Will of The Divine only. When this occurs, all the concealing “veils” lift and at last, we behold the true blissful Reality… so the “Thousand Veils” here symbolizes abundance, unraveling spiritual ecstasy, “dying before death”, the continual process of false ego dissolution for the surrendered ones.

Also I must explain “Marundu”! “Marundu” is the name of a Princess in my maternal culture. I used “Marundu” in this piece’s title as an allegory for the soul as it innately is royal due to its properties, attributes and its origin.

The poem that inspired “Marundu’s Thousand Veils” can be read here and the entire painting is here… and the song on myspace.

Many blessings to all.

Copyright 2008 Aida Toure.

Center of the Sun

We are brewing something,
divesting ourselves of our selves
and every notion of knowing.

We swirl up, soul lulled by the music
of the Breath, pulse propelled with
every Qur’anic sura and verse

that atoms let escape in chorus,
helplessly nursing our Return
toward the Center of the Sun.

copyrights 2007 Aida Toure.

Academia Folly

I take great pleasure in dwelling on words that carry the scents of the Word. I must confess that I sometimes can re~read one word for a long time, basking in the Love energy it conveys. I easily am amazed when it comes to the manifestations of Love. “…Forget the rigid structures of academia and intellectual pride! Real Knowledge does not alienate one from his/her light!” This still resounds in my mind…

Fifteen years ago, one September morning, I abruptly broke away from formal education to revel in Stillness; the impulse to be in Silence finally overcame me! Lo, there were now impetuous teachers in the humility that came with “not belonging” and not abiding by established standards and their false sense of security/identity. I then learned to repose, to study specific subjects, to live in patience; since it was finally alright to honor my nature, thus to be quiet, I learned to listen to the movements of Love… There had been some Majesty there behind each event; the sorrowful with the joyful, now gigantic loops of Sound and Beauty… I just fell from existence as I knew it …

In hindsight, secular irrelevant curriculum stifled and bombarded me with so much noise and restlessness; pure reflection of an unnatural spiritually oppressive world system, obstinate in its “dismissal” of the all-pervading Spirit; a fierce system always on some quest to repress, to usurp, to dissimulate the truth, to disturb the natural Order of things… but only The Divine reigns supreme, indeed! La ilaha illa Allah.

Solely in Silence and Love does the Truth interweave with the heart, how threatening the sublime treasures it threads in and around it! As it was intended by universal mathematics, Love unfurls constantly, it runs through our fingertips and ends up as efflorescent imprints inside the minds of other lovers who in turn whisper: “let us just whirl like surrendered pearls and make this Intimacy a cosmic one!”

You see why academia seems so futile?

copyright 2007 Aida Toure.

“Had I been to school, I would have been an educated fool.”

~Bob Marley

“Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clot. Read, for your Lord is most Generous, Who teaches by means of the pen, teaches man what he does not know.“

(~96: 1-5 Qur’an)

“Confound not truth with falsehood, nor knowingly conceal the truth. “

(~2: 42 Qur’an)

Arabic Calligraphy

Salaams. I like to share arts that I come across and that have this rare uplifting spirit to it. One thing about such work is that no matter how many times you lay your eyes on it, the effect remains the same, it transports you like a gentle breeze carrying the Word.

There is this young calligrapher, Abd el Malik Nounouhi, whose work has this effect on me, the sensitivity and poetic quality of his art is truly majestic. What I enjoy the most is the quietness of its discourse… His work reminds me bit of Hassan Massoudi’s…

Al Fattah ~ The Opener (the painting)

Wasalamalaikum. I just finished this painting I had started working on during Ramadan. “Al Fattah” (The Opener) is one of the 99 sacred Names of The Beloved. I immensely enjoyed developing this art piece that seemed vertiginously well defined and nocturnal from the start.

I must say that the “opening” theme is dear to my heart because it’s the first condition for love, spiritual intimacy and the gracefulness of existence itself. The most amazing testimony to such “Opening” is the prophets (as) as they were able to convey the divine Message to us only because The Opener, Allah (swt) bestowed this grace upon them. The poem that goes with “Al Fattah: The Opener” can be read here… more about the painting here.

copyright 2007 Aida Toure.

Imposition of Authentic Value

When a financial system is based upon usury and speculation, it is bound to collapse because it’s out of phase with the Divine Law. All prophets (as) of The Creator prohibited such irreverent practices as they deplete natural resources, exploit humans/workers and thus cause suffering, chaos, poverty and overall abuse of Nature itself.

I think that with all the conflicts that are currently going on around the world plus the difficulties surprisingly experienced by the illegal system itself, it’s more important than ever for individuals to “create” value as in time the monopoly of the planet’s wealth by an elite always ceases and thus transforms with the potential to finally expand the way it was intended to by the Divine law… In order to welcome this transformation it becomes necessary for all excluded populations to “create” value, but real value not unfair, arbitrary, artificial value that elitists imposed to the world for centuries. Real value relates to the higher scheme of things and therefore is timeless in essence as it comes from the Truth; it naturally exposes it instead of concealing it at the expanse of the collectivity. Authentic value is inherent to all, it is accessible to all, it’s free flowing, uncontrolled and abundant.

For years, sages have said that mankind is being ushered into a new age where serious systemic crisis will force us to be more independent from so-called leaders (and the system they preserve), to turn inward and and thus to live with more humility, compassion and love. For the first time I think that we are beginning to see signs of this confrontation of the ego culture and its colossal failures.

copyright 2007 Aida Toure.

“Those who live off the interest on loans will never stand up, except in the way those whom Satan knocks down with a fit rise up again. That is because they say: “Trading is just like taking interest.” Yet God has permitted trading and forbidden taking interest… “ ~ 2:275 Qur’an