Artist's Statement

Men take off their shoes before entering into a large room to sit close to each other in a circle. Women do the same on the other side of a curtain that separates them from the men.

Someone turns the white tube lights off. All is silent except the faint humming of the outside world. They begin a rhythmical recitation of God’s name, channelling their breath to strike at their hearts with a sharp downward movement of their heads at each invocation.

This is an inhalation of God’s remembrance into the deepest recesses of their soul. The rhythmical striking is to unlock the fleshy knot in the heart that prevents them from seeing things as they really are. The Sufis use zikr (God’s remembrance) to internalize belief in one God, from the tongue to the heart. Zikr is a journey into the self, a knowledge that looks inwards.

The Sufis believe that subsuming their self in God’s remembrance will chase away all fears but to lose the self, in today’s world of religious confusion and evangelism, is itself a fearful proposition.

Hamra Abbas
2009

• This work was commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial Production Programme