Month: October 2010

Description: One night I was sitting and my eyes rested on my beige guitar and all of the sudden I saw it painted with interesting patterns so I gathered my brushes and paint tubes and I started working on it right away… I entitled the piece “La Note Orange”.
Year of Creation: 2006

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Description: This painting is a celebration of the prostration, with all the universes that unfold during this prayer position where the lover is closest to The Beloved. This piece has elements I had been longing to express for the longest time so it was a true celebration of the joy of Salat (prayer). The prostration position in Islamic prayer is one of the most moving experience the soul can journey through. Even though to many it may be considered as just a physical position, prostration is the moment when we are closest to Allah (swt), we shed our ego and the grace unfolds… During his prayers alone, our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) used to stay in prostration for a long time and he would often shed tears. Year of Creation: 2006

~ The Prostrated ~

Paint brush and pen in hand,
you wander the rug of gravity,
silenced by the Speech,
heart is the only canvas
upon which reality unfolds,
the visible phase of it
is but a remnant of these
marvels the soul beholds.
See, the lover matters not,
let the Veil be lifted;
it is that divine show
that all secretly want!
Whether the lover
is unknown or renown,
why does it matter?
Do not focus on the one
who is lost in sacred intoxication,
look beyond his helpless form;
seek the object of his love,
the Cause of his prostration
and move your lips like angels
do during Fajr prayer,
draw closer to the Light
of all that exists and say:
Al hamdulillah ir Rabil Alamin!

© 2009 Aïda Touré. | visualsufipoetry.com

Description: 36″x24″ acrylic on canvas. “Guiaalala” means “the light” in Gisir, my maternal dialect. This piece is about the flamboyant dance that pervades our being as we mingle with the wild things Light does. It’s a celebration of our bewilderment with The Beloved. The poem I incorporated in the painting was written in French, for its English translation, please see below . It took me three months to complete this painting. Year of Creation: 2006.

~ Guiaalala (the light) ~

She observes the spectacle
of your magnitude,

Humbled by appearance’s
insignificance, her reign

mingles with the Presence
that wants her.

In her, a luminous Voice:
“Come back to Union!”

And in seven dimensions
this lover evolves toward us.

O! Divine, O! Beloved,
Annihilate this ego

Which wounds femininity
and her latitude; between

being and not-being,
She wanders you.

© 2007 Aïda Touré

~ Guiaalala (La Lumière/The Light) ~

Elle observe le spectacle
de ta magnitude,
humiliée par l’insignifiance
du paraitre,
son règne s’assimile
à la présence qui la veut
en elle une voix lumineuse:
“revenez à l’Union!”
et dans sept dimensions,
cette amoureuse se chemine
vers nous…
O! Divin, O! Bien-Aimé,
anéantissez cet égo
qui meurtrit la fémininité
et sa latitude,
entre être et non-être,
elle Vous parcourt!

© 2007 Aïda Touré

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This painting symbolizes the dissolution of the ego with the inner ambrosia that follows… the poem that inspired it can be read here
Year of Creation: 2005

~ Honey-Existence ~

In the presence
of the Friend,
be quiet.

Should you know
of His eloquence,
assume a death:

the one which has
countless resurrections,
you know, the sunlit one!

Those who deeply are
in Love do that, they
open the seven windows

inside their being and in
the waiting, they die, silently
till the mystic wind begins

to circulate, lo! They bask
in the exquisite exchange,
it rocks them like the Word

rocks the heavenly stars;
in that sacredness,
their souls exude a cry

“al hamdulillah!
We are sanctified.”

Then some passers-by
intrigued by the joyful sobs
approach, to inquire about

the cause of that high
and the lovers ever-kind,
whisper through the ether,

“become complete now
before the Friend,
Separate not your will
from His. Surrender as
if you don’t mind being
killed by a softness,
by a wandering tenderness,
this way, you shall know
the same honey-existence.”

(from Nocturnal Light)

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: The “Inner Palace” is the space which unfolds after we have conquered our ego and all its turbulence. It is the hidden palace where only the Divine Presence reigns to guide us toward the accomplishment of our appointed, individual tasks in this life… read more

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
This piece was inspired by the Prophet Muhammad’s (saw) Miraj or Ascension, the nightly journey through which he met the other prophets’ (as) of God and prayed with them. This painting is also one of my favorite because it opens up to the Messengers’ (as) oneness.
Year of Creation: 2005

~The Prophets’ Gathering~

The breath of Allah (swt) in you,
your heart swells with Love,
whirling in seven directions
to attune its own chords
to the cosmic flute-playing
Ruh (as) echoes through
everything like this:
“Welcome to ourselves!
This is the sign of the Return!”
I, broken loose to those words,
gesture in orange-silver like
the night sky that witnesses
the nocturnal gatherings
of prophets (as) and saints.
After this, no more station of being…

© 2006 Aïda Touré

(14″ x 11″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: The pure heart’s buoyancy.
Year of Creation: 2005

Description: 18″x24″ acrylic on canvas panel. “Zuhrtime Beads” represents the inner spectacle that can occur when one practices the ritual of Surrender, Zikr and praising of The Divine which all stir the soul to some ecstatic dance we can’t fathom … The whirling energy of this painting captures our harmony with the spheres and the secret activity of all surrendered atoms of the Creation. Read the poem below.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ Zuhrtime Beads ~

We are beads in human form
abandoned here to whirling
and buoyancy,
we perform

for the sake of Love
just like the planets,
the Sun and Jesus’ heart (as).

We are beads,
revolving at Zuhrtime
in Remembrance of our
union with The Divine.

© 2007 Aida Toure

Description: The Black Hole 18″x24″ was published in the textbook “Imaginez“.

This piece developed from the poem Black Hole I wrote in 1999. The term Black Hole here is multidimensional and thus transcends the region of space from which there is no return; it can be associated with the Breath or any current that pulls creation anew toward The All-Embracing.
Year of Creation: 2006.

~ Black Hole ~

In the black hole of breath
I daily disappear

to meld with inaudible waves
that take the form of poems

soon as I will to grace
any hand exuding calmness

a cyclone of light is set off
for the fortication of

starving human souls.
I ever embrace this globe

as the ink flows
I carry out the connection

with my zillion selves
who continue to ignore

that in the black hole of breath
I daily disappear

to become all that exists
until the abused essence of men

is restored and enhanced.

(from Unmanifest Poems)

© 2007 Aida Toure.