Anika Fine Art

07/11/2024

Got back to an old project. Painting my illustrations for a rhyming seerah(Muhammad’s PBUH biography)I wrote years ago.

I tried to imagine what it looked like at the time of the first revelation. Imagine being up there in cave Hira, high on top of Jabal al Nur (mountain of light); looking out at the vastness of the night sky, the stillness of the landscape. You could probably hear your own heartbeat and the rhythm of your breath- inhale, exhale…

It was a moment like this when a presence was felt by Muhammad PBUH; asking him PBUH to read:

Read in the name of your lord, who created humans from a clinging clot.
Read! and your lord is Most Generous…

An unlettered prophet was asked to read….in the stillness of the night, light spread in all directions and took over the darkness of that night. And the world changed forever…

Here I am in 2024…trying to imagine that moment in time in 610 A.D.; and I feel like I can almost touch that serenity that was there before the light entered that space.

Muhammad PBUH was 40 at that time..he was overwhelmed by the light and the voice and the otherworldliness.

He was an earthly being, like you, like me.

We are not creatures of light, we are not adorned with glorious wings that spread over the horizon. We are grounded to the earth- we are from the earth and we will return to it.

But our souls are not from here…it keeps searching for the light that flickers ever so often in its primordial memory. Once we let that light in, our souls sore high and it is finally home.

Our eyes look horizontally but we will only reach home when we search vertically.

15/03/2024

https://youtu.be/M_ZvzG1WtlM?si=WWyHyXZyzRnm5ipb

OnePath Network travelled all the way over to North Queensland to meet with the Muslim Community of Mareeba.They are a small rural community of Albanian farm...

15/02/2024

Clement
(a true Palestinian story of a 3 year old boy called Emaad Abu al- Qura 14 Feb 2024)

A Clement judgement for a boy
A boy who wants a clementine
The sweet and tangy citrus fruit
his only desire a clementine

Rubble and stones, dust and bones
But all he sees is a clementine
at a vendor’s stall, an orange ball
his only wish is a clementine

His beloved aunt, with a heart of gold
holds him by his hand
they walk the street of death that day
to the street vendor’s stand

No clemency was spared that day
for the boy who wanted a clementine
A sniper shot them down to the ground
Red is the colour of clementine

Bleeding hearts and bleeding souls
lay on the street for all to see
A plank is placed by his sweet hands
It will bring him to safety

He reaches out his little hands
He holds the plank, he wants to live
a final gaze at his aunt’s face
Sweet clement child, what love you give

A crowd of people gathered by
to pull him into safety
A snipper shoots and ends his life
Emaad Abu al- Qura was only three!!!

How could it be!!
How could it be!!

The monsters lurk in broad daylight
their hearts devoid of clemency

They fear no one, not even God
In whose name they crusade
Protected by the haughty ones
Who plunder and invade.

04/02/2024

04/02/2024

Vengeance 🍉

Let their hands burn
Let them be disgraced!
They’re burning the children!
The children are defaced!

They’re charring their flesh
Deep into their bone
They’re shelling the children!
With bombs from their drone!

Run baby run! Hide baby hide!
Hide from our eyes
So we may sleep at night!

Hide from the world
Stay in your body bag
Let mama zip you up
Let daddy pick you up
Let your cradle be grave
Let the cold earth keep you safe.

31/01/2024

Pound of flesh

By the ice cream trucks
The parents mourn
Blankets cover
Limbs torn

Fathers carry
Dead children in bags
Blood stained
White flags

Trembling children
Fear in their eyes
As the monsters kill
In plain sight

Tear stained cheeks
Blood stained eyes
Watch buildings fall
And friends die

A little boy
Shot in the chest
His brother runs
To cradle his head
Reminding him
To profess his faith
And joins him
In the same fate

A young mum
Sings a lullaby
One last time
One last time
She sways forth
And sways back
A shrouded baby
In her lap

A shrouded baby
Shrouded babies
Fill my screen
Fill my screen

I’ve witnessed things
We’ve witnessed things
Things that
Should never be seen

God is Great
God is Great
God is sufficient for us
They say
God is the our witness
They say

Their fingers raised
To Heaven’s door
As they bear witness
On bloodied floors
As we bear witness
On computer screens
On a greater day
It will be seen
For every drop of blood
That shed
The Shylocks that took
pounds of flesh.