intellect photos on Flickr

documenta kassel 2022 D15 PRESS CONFERENCE at the stadium by Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel : Artist

Collaboration beetween Biennalist and Ultracontemporay

Art Format

www.emergencyrooms.org/formats.html

Documenta From Wikipedia,

The Fridericianum during documenta (13)

documenta is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural Show) which took place in Kassel at that time.[1] It was an attempt to bring Germany up to speed with modern art, both banishing and repressing the cultural darkness of Nazism.[2] This first documenta featured many artists who are generally considered to have had a significant influence on modern art (such as Picasso and Kandinsky). The more recent documentas feature art from all continents; nonetheless most of it is site-specific.

Every documenta is limited to 100 days of exhibition, which is why it is often referred to as the "museum of 100 days".[3] Documenta is not a selling exhibition. It rarely coincides with the three other major art world events: the Venice Biennale, Art Basel and Skulptur Projekte Münster, but in 2017, all four were open simultaneously.

Etymology of documenta

The name of the exhibition is an invented word. The term is supposed to demonstrate the intention of every exhibition (in particular of the first documenta in 1955) to be a documentation of modern art which was not available for the German public during the Nazi era. Rumour spread from those close to Arnold Bode that it was relevant for the coinage of the term that the Latin word documentum could be separated into docere (Latin for teach) and mens (Latin for intellect) and therefore thought it to be a good word to describe the intention and the demand of the documenta.[4]

Each edition of documenta has commissioned its own visual identity, most of which have conformed to the typographic style of solely using lowercase letters, which originated at the Bauhaus.[5]

History

Stadtverwaldung by Joseph Beuys, oaktree in front of the museum Fridericianum, documenta 7

Art professor and designer Arnold Bode from Kassel was the initiator of the first documenta. Originally planned as a secondary event to accompany the Bundesgartenschau, this attracted more than 130,000 visitors in 1955. The exhibition centred less on "contemporary art“, that is art made after 1945: instead, Bode wanted to show the public works which had been known as "Entartete Kunst" in Germany during the Nazi era: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Blauer Reiter, Futurism and Pittura Metafisica. Therefore, abstract art, in particular the abstract paintings of the 1920s and 1930s, was the focus of interest in this exhibition.

Over time, the focus shifted to contemporary art. At first, the show was limited to works from Europe, but soon covered works by artists from the Americas, Africa and Asia. 4. documenta, the first ever to turn a profit, featured a selection of Pop Art, Minimal Art, and Kinetic Art.[6] Adopting the theme of Questioning Reality – Pictorial Worlds Today, the 1972 documenta radically redefined what could be considered art by featuring minimal and conceptual art, marking a turning point in the public acceptance of those styles.[7] Also, it devoted a large section to the work of Adolf Wolfli, the great Swiss outsider, then unknown. Joseph Beuys performed repeatedly under the auspices of his utopian Organization for Direct Democracy.[8] Additionally, the 1987 documenta show signaled another important shift with the elevation of design to the realm of art – showing an openness to postmodern design.[9] Certain key political dates for wide-reaching social and cultural upheavals, such as 1945, 1968 or 1976/77, became chronological markers of documenta X (1997), along which art's political, social, cultural and aesthetic exploratory functions were traced.[10] Documenta11 was organized around themes like migration, urbanization and the post-colonial experience,[11] with documentary photography, film and video as well as works from far-flung locales holding the spotlight.[7] In 2012, documenta (13) was described as "[a]rdently feminist, global and multimedia in approach and including works by dead artists and selected bits of ancient art".[12]

Criticism

documenta typically gives its artists at least two years to conceive and produce their projects, so the works are often elaborate and intellectually complex.[13] However, the participants are often not publicised before the very opening of the exhibition. At documenta (13), the official list of artists was not released until the day the show opened.[14] Even though curators have often claimed to have gone outside the art market in their selection, participants have always included established artists. In the documenta (13), for example, art critic Jerry Saltz identified more than a third of the artists represented by the renowned Marian Goodman Gallery in the show.[14]

Directors

The first four documentas, organized by Arnold Bode, established the exhibition's international credentials. Since the fifth documenta (1972), a new artistic director has been named for each documenta exhibition by a committee of experts. Documenta 8 was put together in two years instead of the usual five. The original directors, Edy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann, were unable to get along and stepped down. They were replaced by Manfred Schneckenburger, Edward F. Fry, Wulf Herzogenrath, Armin Zweite, and Vittorio Fagone.[15] Coosje van Bruggen helped select artists for documenta 7, the 1982 edition. documenta IX's team of curators consisted of Jan Hoet, Piero Luigi Tazzi, Denys Zacharopoulos, and Bart de Baere.[16] For documenta X Catherine David was chosen as the first woman and the first non-German speaker to hold the post. It is also the first and unique time that its website Documenta x was conceived by a curator (swiss curator Simon Lamunière) as a part of the exhibition. The first non-European director was Okwui Enwezor for Documenta11.[17]

TitleDateDirectorExhibitorsExhibitsVisitors

documenta16 July – 18 September 1955Arnold Bode148670130,000

II. documenta11 July – 11 October 1959Arnold Bode, Werner Haftmann3381770134,000

documenta III27 June – 5 October 1964Arnold Bode, Werner Haftmann3611450200,000

4. documenta27 June – 6 October 196824-strong documenta council1511000220,000

documenta 530 June – 8 October 1972Harald Szeemann218820228,621

documenta 624 June – 2 October 1977Manfred Schneckenburger6222700343,410

documenta 719 June – 28 September 1982Rudi Fuchs1821000378,691

documenta 812 June – 20 September 1987Manfred Schneckenburger150600474,417

documenta IX12 June – 20 September 1992Jan Hoet1891000603,456

documenta X21 June – 28 September 1997Catherine David120700628,776

documenta118 June – 15 September 2002Okwui Enwezor118450650,924

documenta 1216 June – 23 September 2007Roger M. Buergel/Ruth Noack[19]114over 500754,301

documenta (13)9 June – 16 September 2012Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev187[20]904,992[21]

documenta 148 April – 16 July 2017 in Athens, Greece;

10 June – 17 September 2017 in KasselAdam Szymczykmore than 1601500339.000 in Athens

891.500 in Kassel

documenta fifteen18 June 2022 – 25 September 2022 in Kasselruangrupa[22]

2012's edition was organized around a central node, the trans-Atlantic melding of two distinct individuals who first encountered each other in the "money-soaked deserts of the United Arab Emirates". As an organizing principle it is simultaneously a commentary on the romantic potentials of globalization and also a critique of how digital platforms can complicate or interrogate the nature of such relationships. Curatorial agents refer to the concept as possessing a "fricative potential for productive awkwardness," wherein a twosome is formed for the purposes of future exploration.[23]

Venues

documenta is held in different venues in Kassel. Since 1955, the fixed venue has been the Fridericianum. The documenta-Halle was built in 1992 for documenta IX and now houses some of the exhibitions. Other venues used for documenta have included the Karlsaue park, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, the Neue Galerie, the Ottoneum, and the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof. Though Okwui Enezor notably tried to subvert the euro-centric approach documenta had taken, he instigated a series of five platforms before the Documenta11 in Vienna, Berlin, New Delhi, St Lucia, and Lagos, in an attempt to take documenta into a new post-colonial, borderless space, from which experimental cultures could emerge. documenta 12 occupied five locations, including the Fridericianum, the Wilhelmshöhe castle park and the specially constructed "Aue-Pavillon", or meadow pavilion, designed by French firm Lacaton et Vassal.[24] At documenta (13) (2012), about a fifth of the works were unveiled in places like Kabul, Afghanistan, and Banff, Canada.[13]

There are also a number of works that are usually presented outside, most notably in Friedrichsplatz, in front of the Fridericianum, and the Karlsaue park. To handle the number of artworks at documenta IX, five connected temporary "trailers" in glass and corrugated metal were built in the Karlsaue.[25] For documenta (13), French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal constructed the temporary "Aue-Pavillon" in the park.

Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus Rucker und Co.

A few of the works exhibited at various documentas remained as purchases in Kassel museums. They include 7000 Eichen by Joseph Beuys; Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus-Rucker-Co; Laserscape Kassel (1977) by Horst H. Baumann; Traumschiff Tante Olga (1977) by Anatol Herzfeld; Vertikaler Erdkilometer by Walter De Maria; Spitzhacke (1982) by Claes Oldenburg; Man walking to the sky (1992) by Jonathan Borofsky; and Fremde by Thomas Schütte (one part of the sculptures are installed on Rotes Palais at Friedrichsplatz, the other on the roof of the Concert Hall in Lübeck).

documenta archive

The extensive volume of material that is regularly generated on the occasion of this exhibition prompted Arnold Bode to create an archive in 1961. The heart of the archive’s collection comes from the files and materials of the documenta organization. A continually expanding video and image archive is also part of the collection as are the independently organized bequests of Arnold Bode and artist Harry Kramer.

Management

Visitors

In 1992, on the occasion of documenta IX, for the first time in the history of the documenta, more than half a million people traveled to Kassel.[26] The 2002 edition of documenta attracted 650,000 visitors, more than triple Kassel's population.[27] In 2007, documenta 12 drew 754,000 paying visitors, with more than one-third of the visitors coming from abroad and guests from neighboring Netherlands, France, Belgium and Austria among the most numerous.[28] In 2012, documenta (13) had 904,992 visitors.[21]

References

Adrian Searle (June 11, 2012), "Documenta 13: Mysteries in the mountain of mud", The Guardian.

Roberta Smith (June 14, 2012), Art Show as Unruly Organism The New York Times.

Arnold Bode coined this phrase for the first time in the prologue of the first volume of the catalogue: documenta III. Internationale Ausstellung; Catalogue: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Sketches; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Print; Kassel/Köln 1964; p. XIX

Kimpel, Harald: documenta, Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Köln 1997, ISBN 3-7701-4182-2

Alice Rawsthorn (June 3, 2012), A Symbol Is Born The New York Times.

The documenta IV Exhibition in Kassel (1968) German History in Documents and Images (GHDI).

Helen Chang (June 22, 2007), "Catching the Next Wave In Art at Documenta", The Wall Street Journal.

Roberta Smith (September 7, 2007), "Documenta 5" The New York Times.

Gimeno-Martinez, Javier; Verlinden, Jasmijn (2010). "From Museum of Decorative Arts to Design Museum: The Case of the Design museum Gent". Design and Culture. 2 (3).

dX 1997 Archived 2013-06-14 at the Wayback Machine, documenta XII.

Stephan Valentin (June 12, 2007), An art show in Kassel, Germany, rivals Venice Biennale The New York Times.

Roberta Smith (June 14, 2012), Art Show as Unruly Organism The New York Times.

Kelly Crow (June 8, 2012), A Party, Every Five Years, for 750,000 Guests The Wall Street Journal.

Jerry Saltz (June 15, 2012), Jerry Saltz: "Eleven Things That Struck, Irked, or Awed Me at Documenta 13" New York Magazine.

Michael Brenson (June 15, 1987), "Documenta 8, Exhibition In West Germany", The New York Times.

Michael Kimmelman (July 5, 1992) "At Documenta, It's Survival Of the Loudest", The New York Times.

Jackie Wullschlager (May 19, 2012) Vertiginous doubt Financial Times.

Julia Halperin, Gareth Harris (July 18, 2014) How much are curators really paid? Archived July 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine The Art Newspaper.

Holland Cotter (22 June 2007). "Asking Serious Questions in a Very Quiet Voice". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-08-29.

Ulrike Knöfel (8 June 2012). "What the 13th Documenta Wants You to See". Der Spiegel.

"904,992 people visit documenta (13) in Kassel". documenta und Museum Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH. 16 September 2012. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2013.

Russeth, Andrew (2019-02-22). "Ruangrupa Artist Collective Picked to Curate Documenta 15". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-05.

"In Germany, Disguising Documentary As Art". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-28.

Stephan Valentin (June 12, 2007), An art show in Kassel, Germany, rivals Venice Biennale International Herald Tribune.

Roberta Smith (June 22, 1992), A Small Show Within an Enormous One The New York Times.

d9 1992 Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine, documenta XII.

Adrian Searle (June 19, 2007), 100 days of ineptitude The Guardian.

Catherine Hickley (September 24, 2007), "Documenta Contemporary Art Show Draws Record 754,000 to Kassel", Bloomberg.

Carly Berwick (May 17, 2007), "Documenta 'Mystery' Artists Are Revealed; Buzz Strategy Fizzles", Bloomberg.

Rachel Donado (April 5, 2017), German Art Exhibition Documenta Expands Into Athens, The New York Times.

Catherine Hickley (November 27, 2017), Documenta manager to leave post after budget overruns The Art Newspaper.

Further reading

Hickley, Catherine (2021-06-18). "This Show Sets the Direction of Art. Its Past Mirrored a Changing World". The New York Times.

Nancy Marmer, "Documenta 8: The Social Dimension?" Art in America, vol. 75, September 1987, pp. 128–138, 197–199.

other biennales :

Venice Biennial , Documenta Havana Biennial,Istanbul Biennial ( Istanbuli),Biennale de Lyon ,Dak'Art Berlin Biennial,Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial ,Bienal do Mercosul Porto Alegre.,Berlin Biennial ,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial .Yokohama Triennial Aichi Triennale,manifesta ,Copenhagen Biennale,Aichi Triennale

Yokohama Triennial,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.Sharjah Biennial ,Biennale of Sydney, Liverpool , São Paulo Biennial ; Athens Biennale , Bienal do Mercosul ,Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art

www.emergencyrooms.org

www.colonel.dk/

lumbung

Short concept by ruangrupa for documenta 15

"We want to create a globally oriented, cooperative, interdisciplinary art and culture platform that will remain effective beyond the 100 days of documenta fifteen. Our curatorial approach aims at a different kind of collaborative model of resource use—economically, but also in terms of ideas, knowledge, programs, and innovation."

ruangrupa’s central curatorial approach for documenta fifteen is based on the principles of collectivity, resource building, and equal sharing. They aim to appeal not just to an art audience but to a variety of communities, and to promote local commitment and participation. Their approach is based on an international network of local, community-based organizations from the art and other cultural contexts and can be outlined by the Indonesian term lumbung. lumbung, directly translatable as “rice barn,” is a collective pot or accumulation system used in rural areas of Indonesia, where crops produced by a community are stored as a future shared common resource and distributed according to jointly determind criteria. Using lumbung as a model, documenta fifteen is a collective resource pot, operating under the logics of the commons. It is an agglomeration of ideas, stories, (wo)manpower, time, and other shareable resources. At the center of lumbung is the imagination and the building of these collective, shared resources into new models of sustainable ideas and cultural practices. This will be fostered by residencies, assemblies, public activities, and the development of tools.

Interdisciplinarity is key in this process. It is where art meets activism, management, and networking to gather support, understand environments, and identify local resources. These elements then create actions and spaces, intertwine social relations and transactions; they slowly grow and organically find a public form. This is a strategy “to live in and with society.” It imagines the relations an art institution has with its community by being an active constituent of it. Strategies are then developed based on proximity and shared desires.

The main principles of the process are:

• Providing space to gather and explore ideas

• Collective decision making

• Non-centralization

• Playing between formalities and informalities

• Practicing assembly and meeting points

• Architectural awareness

• Being spatially active to promote conversation

• A melting pot for and from everyone’s thoughts, energies, and ideas

#documentakassel

#documenta

#documenta15

#artformat

#formatart

#rundebate

#thierrygeoffroy

#Colonel

#CriticalRun

#venicebiennale

#documentafifteen

#formatart

#documentacritic

#biennalist

#ultracontemporary art

protestart

after the rain by mony_

The etiquette of a dua, supplication, is that a sadqa, charity above what is obligatory, is a requisite before its utterance.

His Prayer for My Parent

Last year I discovered that the month of Rajab was the month of sowing seeds. Sha’ban was the month, Subhanahu had said, of watering them. I didn’t know what that meant until now.

I used to say water comes from the skies and the earth and since the month is Nabi Kareem’s (salutations and greetings upon him and his family as much as the drops of rain that fall from the sky from the beginning of time till the end of it), I thought it meant nothing had to be done. It was to be effortless ease!

I was right.

Exactly a week before the month ends I have discovered that the water was dua – supplication, invocation, prayer. That’s what it was. It was effortless because the words were already chosen. The need was expressed in another’s need. But not just any other. Only the most favoured, honoured other who was handpicked by Subhanahu amongst billions and trillions of souls.

My other was Imam Zain ul Abedin (as).

And why not? My tie to Damascus are so overwhelming, just thinking about it either placed me in elation of memories past or tears of sadness from separation from it. Damascus is Paradise said the Beloved of Allah (salutations and greetings upon him and his family as many as there are his Creator’s Names, those which I have learnt and those which I may not learn). The Maqam e Mahmood of that Paradise is the shrine Mubarik of Bibi Zainab (as).

The two experienced the harrowing event of Karbala hand in hand. Aunt and nephew. They witnessed it and survived it. I know the Imam (as) being my other for the words I choose to pray was her gift to me.

All writing serves the purpose of being a two sided mirror. That is its innate beauty. I know when I read something I await the word or line of another's that will be mine. The splendour of the prayer of the especially blessed is similar but its effect is much deeper for there are three involved. The Imam (as) is the conduit that connects the asker and the one being asked for. He is the water in which asker sees themselves and they see the one they ask for.

But it is not any water for he is not any writer!

Recently I translated three verses from Surah An Nahl. They came in a row and had appeared more than once for me in randomly opening the Quran while reading it at Hazrat Pir Turat Murad Shah’s (ra) shrine at Bagh e Jinnah. I was taken by the words that appeared at the end of each verse regarding the Ayaat of Allah in the Universe, His Signs.

The signs were in nature, of harvests and crops and fruits and the sun and the moon and the night and the day and my favourite, colours. They were for the qaumi yattafakkaroon, the people who reflect, ya’qiloon, who use intellect and reason, yaddakaroon, who remember!

I arrived in my village a few days later. I was reading parts of Dalail al Khairaat, which is a manual of prayer and translates as A Guide to Happiness. The book that held in it the promise of happiness started with an advice:

وإذا رأيت النفس منك تحكمت

وغدت تقودك في لظى الشهوات

فاصرف هواها بالصلاة مواظباً

لا سيما بدلائل الخـــــــــــيرات

And if you see the ego controlling you

And it comes to lead you into the fire of debased desires

Banish its desires by perpetual blessings

Especially with Dalail ul Khairaat.

Subhan Allah! It was definitely an intro and a half!

In it I would come across endless variations of how salutations are sent upon Nabi Kareem and his blessed family. All of them blew me away, the expressions of love that seemed infinite. The ones that had to do with nature were especially striking for me.

I was staying up after Fajr and going for walks around 6am which was a first for me. There were only so many routes I could take but each time I was left speechless. Probably because the words of the verses from An Nahl appeared before me in perfection. Then they would connect with the blessings upon Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon him and his family as many are blades of grass and branches on trees in all of Creation) that I was reading in Dalail ul Khairat.

Every sunrise and sunset was spectacular.

Allahuma, salle ala man fadat min noori-hi jamee ul anwaar!

Dearest Allah, bless the one at whose light all lights burst forth!

The scent of the orange blossom left me in a daze as I stood by trees inhaling deeply and thinking of Fes where I first discovered it. It’s my absolute favourite flower in the world, possibly a tie with the rose.

Allahuma, salle ala man taffataqat min nuri-hil azhaar!

Dear Allah, bless the one from whose light the flowers bloomed!

Just staring at trees, which is a favourite pastime for me in Lahore as I look out the window of my car with music pounding in my headphones, for those who want a flavour www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_DTmIK0Kc4, became changed.

Allahuma salle ala man ikh darat min baqiyati wuduhi il ashjaar

Dearest Allah, bless the one whose ablution water turned the trees green!

The book moved in waves from sending blessings upon the Seal of Prophethood (salutations and greetings upon the Mercy of the Universe and his family) to praising Subhanahu and just calling him. My favourites were the ones that connected Him with again, nature.

O Allah! I entreat You by Your Names which You have given to the night so it becomes dark,

And to the day so it becomes bright,

And to the clouds as they send rain

…

Being in the village, seeing it all, the book actually did make me happy. The signs were a manifestation of Subhanahu’s Exalted Names and Attributes and His Beloved (send salutations and greetings upon him and his family, O Lord, with the best of Your Grace) was the reflection of the Essence of those Names and Attributes. It was like I was seeing him everywhere. It’s hard to describe.

I placed the exegesis of the three verses at the end of the piece because I wrote something for a friend to raise some money for an extraordinary project she is doing but got many emails asking for the contact which was in the body of the email. Since my writing tends to be long, I guess people didn’t see it.

But I don’t want anyone to miss the point of this piece because a bond with a parent is a universal experience. One may not be one, like I am not, but everyone has them. The relationship has its place and its pull. Whether they are dead or alive.

I had seen the title of the prayer in the most well-known book of prayers for the Muslims, the Saheefa e Sajjadia, by the most blessed Imam Zain ul Abedin (as). I had been telling friends and foes alike about it. It had changed my life irreversibly. There is no doubt I will be obsessed with it for the rest of my life. www.duas.org/sajjadiya/sajjadiya.htm

There was nothing not in it; his prayers in worrisome tasks, in seeking refuge from Subhanahu, confessing to Him, when he was sick, when he saw the first moon, for the beginning of Ramadan, seeking good outcomes, forgiveness, release from sins and pardon, when something made him sorrowful, for well-being, in difficult affairs, when he repented, gave thanks, sought humility, remembered death. On and on and on it went. It was like discovering Zamzam, something never ending!

For I did not know before this that it was as easy as that to be at peace. Giving a sadqa that fed a hungry person and saying a dua, invoking my Rabb who raises me with gentleness, in the words His Chosen Ones to receive whatever I want and more so what I need.

My initial focus was entirely on akhlaq, manners. I had been reading and re-reading two prayers almost daily; No. 8, seeking refuge from hateful things which was short and No. 10, Makaram al Akhlaq, the desire for excellence in behaviour, which was fairly long. Perfect really for the vigil nights.

I was dying for excellence in my character. It was the foundation of my Spiritual Master’s focus in his own life. Ghaus Pak (ra) paid attention to only two things he said; feeding the hungry, excellence in manner.

Both came from his following Nabi Pak (salutations and greetings upon the one and his family who are the epitome of khair, goodness, among and for Creation):

عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَمْرٍو أَنَّ رَجُلاً سَأَلَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم

أَىُّ الإِسْلاَمِ خَيْرٌ

تُطْعِمُ الطَّعَامَ وَتَقْرَأُ السَّلاَمَ عَلَى مَنْ عَرَفْتَ وَمَنْ لَمْ تَعْرِفْ قَالَ

Abdullah ibn Amr reported: A man asked the Prophet, “Which deed in Islam is best?”

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,

“To feed the hungry

and to greet with peace those you know and those you do not know.”

And the hadith mubarik:

Buistu li utamima makaramil akhlaq.

“I was sent to perfect excellence of character.”

From the first I had discovered defects in my akhlaq that I did not even realize were a shortcoming. I thought they were just a part of my personality, possibly a part of my charm.

Astaghfirullah!

I never assumed anything was wrong in them. That sharpened my focus obviously.

Then I read started reading the prayers that asked for forgiveness. On I went to asking for gratefulness and humility. Each word of each line was indescribably exquisite. I would read the Arabic, then the English in books that I placed on each leg, tracing my finger first on one, then the other.

I was seeing the title “His prayer for his parents (as)” but I didn’t venture to the page. I never thought about my parents. My family mentioned my mother a lot and I liked that. My father seemed to be relegated to the same place while he was alive; oblivion.

Still I had been intending to read it because I assumed it was for parents who were deceased. I thought it would be good for me to pray for them. It seemed like such a huge part of the way the faith is practiced in my country. My elders and even some of my cousins my own age were vigilant about marking the days of the deaths of theirs.

Then on a perfect day, whilst sitting in the garden of my family’s ancestral home, I started reading the prayer for the first time. Within a minute I came across line that made it clear that it was not for parents that were deceased but those that were alive so I stopped. I went to the English and perused the pages quickly to confirm that. I was wrong. The tense moved from the present to the past to the future. I went back to it again.

I read the whole thing with a dry eye.

Later in the afternoon as I lay on the grass staring at the skies, I thought about how it would have been one of the most amazing things in my life if I had known that the prayer existed while at least one of my parents was alive. Because when they were alive the only time I ever prayed for them was when they became sick and I thought they were going to die. Once when my father was going to have an open heart surgery and when I first learnt my mother had cancer in her 40’s.

My relationship with my mother was complex as it turned out but extremely satisfying because I lived to please her. I sought her raza constantly. It wasn’t a struggle. It was difficult occasionally no doubt but it was a deep source of happiness for me. Being the one she relied on. I’ve always loved writing about her. My friends love those stories. The personal history pieces I call them courtesy of the New Yorker!

A couple of weeks before she passed away, when she spent most of her time, in her bedroom lying on her bed, I came in to get something. She was reading. As I left, I turned to her and said, “I heard when I was born you wailed because I was a second girl.”

I already knew that to be the truth. I had heard the story many times from others. It didn’t make me feel bad. Nothing she did made me feel bad except temporarily. I had infinite understanding for anything she did. All her cousins had sons at the time. She was dying for one.

She had had a difficult life with only dreams that had been broken by others. Intentionally or unwittingly, that was her reality. She was prone to depression, something she discovered in her adolescence in the same village home I was returning to more and more. She was deeply sensitive and to me, she was only extraordinary.

She looked up for a moment, then lowered her head again.

“Yes,” she admitted without any emotion. She could tell from my tone I was being playful. It couldn’t be anything else. Boundaries of regard were strictly drawn from the beginning.

“And now?” I asked smiling ever so slightly, “Are you happy I was born?”

That epitome of obedience and service I thought I had been, I had never received recognition of that in sound. She liked to write letters instead and expressed love then in a way that was mubeen, clear. That was their style, the feudal parents she belonged to and had become; reserved.

She looked up at me again and simply said, “Yes.”

I let out a little laugh and walked out the door happy. It’s probably my last memory of her so it’s a favourite.

My father on the other hand was not around to begin with so my heart was used to his absence. He never sought entry into it anyway so he remained outside. That relationship never found any resolve.

He left all his children marooned in little boats floating in seas of sadness or anger that mixed with each other their entire lives. All of us were left bewildered, feeling bad for each other, feeling bad for ourselves.

The upside for me was the same for both parents in that I was obedient to him as well. He just never thought anything of it. Everybody was the glass half full with him, a disappointment. None of us ever knew why. I used to think that if I had known the reason for why his darkness had come to prevail over his light, it would have been helpful. Perhaps I could have excused it.

But now that I do have a reason for people’s madness because it is disclosed to me, I find that I am not forgiving of them because of it at all. I can’t deal with them and have to avoid their company. So I realize with him too it wouldn’t have ultimately made any difference. Any understanding I might have lent him would have been temporary. It would have evaporated.

I had made my peace with him being who he was while he was alive but that peace was just turning away with the consolation that anything he had asked me to do, I had done. That it couldn’t make him happy was his demon and not mine. But there was a hardness in that, an arrogance that I was a better human being.

Astaghfirullah!

But I wasn’t. When my mother died and he entered our lives, we didn’t know him. So when he went for me, I went for him. Head to head. He trained me to do that in a sense. Then I became better at it. It was disgusting. Yes, in those days there was no other choice. I had to step away from it.

But the Imam (as) said to me that was wrong.

Allahuma, he prays,

fill me with awe of my parents,

the awe one has towards a tyrannical King,

and let me be devoted to them

…

I just stared at the words. A tyrannical sovereign. Was my father worse than that? No, I have to say I don’t think so. And even if he was, my utterance of the prayer wanted me to feel awe, not complain and curse that state of his. It was incredible!

I had even forgotten my own role in being the worst child. Worse than my siblings who offered no obedience at all. They were just shell-shocked the whole time in a stupor at his behavior with them. They were never disrespectful like I was.

Everything he did was so blatantly “wrong” I was constantly fueled by righteousness. I became warped in anger within myself. It was again the words of the blessed Imam’s (as) that reminded me that what I had done had been so deeply wrong.

Allahuma,

and whatever harm has touched them from me,

detested thing that has reached them from me,

or right of theirs which has been neglected by me,

allow it to alleviate their sins,

raise them in their degrees,

and add to their good deeds!

He who changes good deeds into manifold good deeds!

It was fascinating how he worded the prayer. Everything was admitted and the admission was then offered as a plea to benefit the other. I had never ever seen anything like it. For the first time in the days that I had been reading the duas from the book I realized what was happening.

Each line seemingly about me was for whoever I was reading it for and each line apparently about them was for me. Every single letter linked us with what was missing; love.

But it was the part about what they might have done wrong that held my heart’s attention completely.I was waiting for it. How would he describe the injustice that came upon me undeservedly. And then he goes and says it like this:

“Allahuma!

Whatever word through which they have transgressed against me,

act through which they have been immoderate with me,

right of mine which they have left neglected,

or obligation towards me in which they have fallen short,

I grant it to them

and bestow it upon them,

and I beseech You

to remove from them its ill consequence

for I do not accuse them concerning myself,

find them slow in their devotion towards me,

or dislike the way they have attended to my affairs, my Lord!

The effect of this part is each person’s to experience. It took me a full three days of reading the prayer before I finally broke down uncontrollably.

Later for hours I could not stop thinking that the prayer I had read purely out of curiosity, what would have happened if I had come across it when my father was alive. Would it have left me weeping endlessly then? Probably. It was extremely tough for the relationship with the only living parent to be so hard when I was so desperate for it to be good.

For what the Imam (as) described in terms of a difficult parent was all encompassing, not to mention extreme, yet all he expressed for them in return for their wrongs was the one single thing every child’s heart yearns to express but is unable to do so; again, love!

I couldn’t stop thinking about how those tears would have jump-started my heart to feel something for him, soften towards him, perhaps even ask for his forgiveness, perhaps also forgive him. Not just say the words and hope they were true but actually exchange forgiveness, even if he wouldn't be able to utter the words.

The Imam (as) would bestow it to me on his behalf! The thought alone blows a hole in my heart.

The words of the prayer absolving him of every single thing, coming with such sweetness, such tender gentleness, from my own tongue, through the blessed Imam (as) who wrote it for me and for people like me whose parents had not been able to come through for them, it was too much bear.

Why? Because his own father was not such any Chosen One of Subhanahu’s. His father was the most exalted Imam Hussain (as), whose place before his Lord is uniquely singular in the rank of eesar, sacrifice. There is no one in Creation who was even standing next to him there.

Having a father like that who was the epitome of offering softness and love and then writing a prayer that anyone could recite for their parent no matter who they are and what they are like, I don’t know if there is anything more extraordinary than that in terms of healing a wounded heart.

Because the wound from a parent, who is unaware of it or refuses to acknowledge it, takes the longest to heal. Nope, its not even the longest, it never heals.

I decided I would read the prayer as often as possible. Because there was a part of it for my present whether they were in my life or not:

Allahuma!

Let me not forget to remember them after my ritual prayers,

at every time throughout my night,

and each of the hours of my day!

Basically my whole existence! In my tongue and in my heart even now though they were gone. Yadakkaroon, they remember! In a mind like mine that is psychotic in its ability to compartmentalize and block anything with ease as if it never happened at all. It would remember.

In the end it turned out the prayer was much more for me than it was for them. That is in fact the magic of prayer. It’s softening of the heart towards anything that it fears or detests the most. I had realized that partly from the reading of the prayers on akhlaq, manners. I had seen it happen to me when I read the prayer on aafiya, well-being, which requires its own piece.

Prayer was the only way that when forgiveness was not sought and never would be sought, whether it was between one’s own self and the nafs or with another, it could still be tendered. I guess that’s why the words had to be from someone special to Subhanahu and not one’s own because I could have never come up with the words to allow such acknowledgement nor such forgiveness.

I would be controlled by my nafs which would be trapped by justifications whispered to it by Iblis. Forever!

The other lines that left me dazed were for the future. That one day we would meet on the other side. I had thought about that previously, about meeting my mother but never my father. I was so detached I didn’t care if I saw him there. Some part of me was likely still afraid that he would behave in the same way.

And then the Imam’s (as) words made all that go away because he said:

Allahuma!

If Your Forgiveness reaches them first,

make them my intercessors,

and if Your Forgiveness reaches my first,

make me their intercessors…

So if he was forgiven first, perhaps that would be his absolution, that he would pray to God to save me from fire that he couldn’t save me from here because he thrust me in it himself. The naar that was humiliation, deprivation, disappointment. His prayer would save me from it there.

And if I was forgiven first, I would pray to Allah, no I would likely beseech my Ghaus (ra) and my Rasool (salutations and greetings upon him and his family being my intercessors as the ones given permission of it first by their Lord) to save him. That possibility alone was encased in only forgiveness. It warranted it here, in this world.

Thus I begin to prepare my prayers for Ramzan that starts at the behest of a moon in a week. I will read the blessed Imam’s (as) prayer for the occasion. The new moon and the beginning of the month.

The thing I have discovered of late about Allah Subhanahu is that anything in the world that seems impossibly hard or unjust, in His Infinite Wisdom as Allah Al Hakeem, in His Perfect Fairness as Allah Al Adl, it turns out it, it can all be borne with a prayer, a dua. For the asker and the ones they ask for in equal portions. That simply!

I learnt something extraordinary recently that infinite patience and forgiveness only exists for the relationships that run through Subhanahu. Then everything can be borne, sometimes even with a smile. The ones that run through the nafs and the world end. Usually badly preceding with a lot of ugliness!

The dua, the invocation, it forces that running through Allah and it connects the asker and the asked by making them inseparable through gentleness. It renders softness even if the utterance is hesitant, disbelieving at first. In the end, like all paths this one also has to begin with truthfulness, sidq, sincerity, ikhlas. Do I want my heart to be soft or have i relegated it to be hard till the day I day, only becoming harder? The healing is handed by the blessed Imam Zain ul Abedin (as) for anyone who wishes it.

For absolution is the need of the soul. Not for itself. It’s already pure. It is its need for the nafs which it loves. Which becomes persistent and insistent about its stubbornness in its selfishness and arrogance. That is how Ghaus Pak (ra) defines the Jahileeen, the ignorant, the Kuffar, who deny the truth, the ungrateful, whose hearts becomes sealed because of egoism which becomes lodged in them because all they want to do is control and overpower others. And it increases and seizes them making them of the Munkireen, the refusers, so they become deaf to the caller and the call of Allah.

Yet the soul asks for forgiveness for it and prays for it to come back through its guide who comes only by way of Subhanahu’s Noor al Anwaar, Nabi Kareem and his blessed family!

There is a verse in the Quran that leaves children with crazy parents bewildered because of its emphatic siding exactly with that parent.

۞ وَقَضَىٰ رَبُّكَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوٓا۟ إِلَّآ إِيَّاهُ وَبِٱلْوَٰلِدَيْنِ إِحْسَـٰنًا ۚ

إِمَّا يَبْلُغَنَّ عِندَكَ ٱلْكِبَرَ أَحَدُهُمَآ أَوْ كِلَاهُمَا فَلَا تَقُل لَّهُمَآ أُفٍّۢ وَلَا تَنْهَرْهُمَا وَقُل لَّهُمَا قَوْلًۭا كَرِيمًۭا ٢٣

And your Lord has decreed, that (do) not worship except Him Alone

and to the parents (be) good.

Whether reach with you the old age one of them, or both of them,

then (do) not say to both of them a word of disrespect and (do) not repel them, but speak to them a word noble.

Surah Al Isra’, Verse 23

Tafseer e Jilani

Wa: And how can you take a god except Him given that, indeed, He…

Qada Rabbuka: Your Lord has decreed and commanded, deciding, finalizing, unchangeably…

Alla ta’budu: that you will not worship i.e. you will not worship, Ayyohal Mubaalighoona, who are excessive, crossing the boundary of obligation…

Illa iyyahu: other than Him alone because no one is deserving of worship and following except Him, because He is Al Mustaqil, Permanent in His giving your form and your appearance, without a partner and help so upon you is that you exalt Him and honour Him and humble yourself with the depths of humility and submission.

Wa: And (He has also decreed) that you will be good…

Bil walidayni: with your parents who are the overt reason for your nourishing and your appearance…

Ehsaan-an: with goodness, obediently, absolutely, happily, without mixing it without stress of it as a favour and giving them grief, especially…

Imma yablughanna: when they reach…

Ayndika: while being with you, Ayyohal walid, O child (of theirs)…

Al kibra: old age i.e. the age of being old such that they are helpless in taking care of their own selves

Ahdohuma: one of them, the parents…

Au kilaahuma: or both of them together…

Fala taqul lahuma: so do not say to them in all of their states, especially when they are old and elderly…

Uff-in: Uff (exasperation) i.e. any sound of intensity that shows scolding of them and preventing them (from expressing themselves)…

Wa: and if they both exit from the requisite of being of aql, sound mind, or do something that makes it compulsory for you to turn away from them because of it…

La tanharhuma: (still) don’t reproach them and don’t be angry with them, scolding them…

Wa qul lahuma qaulan kareem-an: and always speak to them submissively, observing polite manners.

It’s difficult to understand how Subhanahu grants the parent such leeway that the sound of exasperation “Ufff” cannot be uttered, yet the parent can do so much irreparable harm.

But this is where the exegesis of Ghaus Pak (ra) offers light. In the second part of the verse where in a mere translation the word, wa, only can mean “and”:

Wa: and if they both exit from the requisite of being of aql, sound mind, or do something that makes it compulsory for you to turn away from them because of it…

So at least it is made clear that if need be, one can turn away from them, but with the order remaining; do not accuse, do not be angry, do not scold, always speak to them politely.

The answer I have found to that for myself is that the instruction is entirely for the benefit of the child. I had nothing to gain from my show of impropriety except heartache and regret. Not to mention the anger that spilt over into every single thing I touched, ruining it and poisoning my life for years. There is no victory against a parent in any circumstance. Even in a victory hides only defeat.

Sometimes I have wondered if the reason for that one-sidedness is because the child will also one day become a parent. Be imperfect and inevitably fallible. But more than that I think it is for keeping our own hearts soft in all their states.

The effect of the trauma from a parent only appears in the interaction with another. Anything disruption in a relationship of love triggers the abandonment, wreaking havoc. The hardest layer of hardness encasing a heart is related to them. If it breaks, it must crack if not entirely shatter all the other layers. Then it could change to mercy.

For it is the Sunnah of His Beloved (salutations and greetings upon him and his family for the mercy poured into their hearts by their Lord that spills into ours)! His family, whilst his being an orphan, save one of his uncles, went for his life itself when he declared himself as a Prophet of God which threatened their way of life. Yet, through the entirety of their relentless attacks on him and his followers, he never hardened his stance against them no matter what they did. Ever!

I have personally never participated in conversations around the verse. I learnt early in life after being endlessly confused about the two main topics that confuse women who are Muslim, the law of witnessing where two of us are required for each male and the law of inheritance where we receive half of the male child, that I there is no choice for me but to yield to Subhanahu’s Wisdom. The alternative for someone of my constitution was only a restlessness worse than hell.

Hence the verse:

وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِۦ عِلْمٌ ۚ

إِنَّ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْبَصَرَ وَٱلْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْـُٔولًۭا ٣٦

And (do) not pursue what not you have of it any knowledge.

Indeed, the hearing, and the sight, and the heart all those will be [about it] questioned.

Surah Al Isra’, Verse 36

Tafseer e Jilani

Wa la taqfo: And do not pursue i.e. do not follow, Ayyohal Mo’min Al Mo’qin, O Believer who is certain, who is the seeker of reaching the rank of Tauheed, Allah’s One-ness…

Ma laysa laka bihi ilm-in: what you do not have of knowledge i.e. what you do not have in relation to your knowledge in it from following (others) or from making guesses yourself because you, on the Day of Judgement, will be asked about your utterances without knowledge and (you will be asked about it) your moving forward because of them with any bodily part or faculty and your saying it forcibly (without knowing) the unseen.

Inna as sam’a: Indeed the ears, (Subhanahu) mentions it first because indeed, what is attached to it is most of what is made up as fabrication and lies…

Wal basara: and the eyes because without doubt the nafs, the self, indulges itself in most of the trials and what creates devastation with the means of seeing…

Wal fua’ad: and the heart which is the root of the rising of lies and delusions…

Kullu ulaika: all of these i.e. each one of these faculties…

Kana: will be on the Day of Judgement…

Anhu masoola: asked about their use, making them stand (before Him) about what happened from them in sin so then the owner of these faculties will be publicly disgraced in front of witnesses.

I asked Qari Sahib about the order of the faculties and he said that Shaitaan's first approach is through a whisper so its comes into the ear.

The truth is when one parent is completely nuts, the other appears perfect. Then the child starts to glorify that "perfection." But it is only relative. One of the beauties of the prayer for me was that all the while I was thinking about my father, it naturally included my mother as well. There felt like a a reunion in this world before the next!

There might not be many days or weeks or months in which one has the capacity to extend one’s own hand to receive that balm from Subhanahu's Blessed Ones and place it on the wound of their own heart. But Ramadan? It is the month when, if nothing else except as a trial, his book of prayer has to be opened and words read entreating mercy that awaits to be received.

There are, as Imam Ali (as) says, only two kinds of days; a day of sabr, patience and a day of shukr, gratitude. Both then become the pillars on which all the other attributes enfold themselves. Those two pillars are earthed in forgiveness. For the first hadith recorded is:

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ الرَّاحِمُونَ يَرْحَمُهُمْ الرَّحْمَنُ ارْحَمُوا مَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ يَرْحَمْكُمْ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ

“The merciful will be shown mercy by the Ar Rahman, The Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth, and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.”

The womb (tie of any relationship) is named after mercy!

The prayer for my parents forced that mercy. It made me seek forgiveness, it made me offer it, something beyond my capacity and capability. The number of times I have come across those two words in the tafaseer of Ghaus Pak (ra) is countless. Everything is granted to a soul based on those two parameters; capacity, capability.

And then the utterance of a dua of Allah's Loved One pushes the limits of those out to the horizons then to the heavens and beyond!

Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon him and his beloved family which reverberate in the Universe) said:

عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ

الدُّعَاءُ مُخُّ الْعِبَادَةِ

“Supplication is the essence of worship.”

In another lecture I heard: In the whole life cycle of worship, dua is the deed which creates the greatest ability to cause self-contentment for the nafs.

At the end of the day that is what we all need. Relief! For the nafs from its own madness that I forced it into. Now when a moment presents itself for me to alleviate that pain so easily, how can I turn away?

Ramadan is the month in which my harvest will be reaped, promised Subhanahu. What that entails, who can say, but one thing is certain. When I invoke my Lord through the purified being of Imam Zain ul Abedin (as) preceding it with, what I have chosen as the most beautiful entreaty for myself from the Guide to Happiness for him to answer my prayers,

"Grant me, Ya Rabbi who raises me with gentleness, my prayer for the sake of Your Love for Your Beloved, and for the sake of Your Beloved’s love for You,

whatever comes by way, will only come by way of Paradise.

www.duas.org/sajjadiya/sajjadiya.htm No. 24

Verses referenced in the piece:

447. Indeed in nature is a sign for the ones who reflect - yatafakkaroon

يُنۢبِتُ لَكُم بِهِ ٱلزَّرْعَ وَٱلزَّيْتُونَ وَٱلنَّخِيلَ وَٱلْأَعْنَـٰبَ وَمِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ ۗ

إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةًۭ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ ١١

He causes to grow for you with it, the crops and the olives and the date-palms and the grapes and of every kind (of) fruits. Indeed, in that surely (is) a sign for a people who reflect.

Surah An Nahl, Verse 11

Tafseer e Jilani

And also…

Yunbitu lakum: He grows for you i.e. for your sustenance which gives your strength for your disposition…

Bihi az-zar’a: a cultivation with different kinds of growth so you can take from it selectively…

Wa zaitoon: and (He has grown for you) olives for gravy…

Wa nakheel wal an’aab: and dates and grapes as fruits and livelihood also.

And overall: He grows for you with it…

Min kulli samaraat: all kinds of fruits, completing the matters of your livelihood and nourishing your nature so you can reflect in His Signs and His Blessings and you remember His Being so that you can be successful in gaining His Ma’rifat, His Recognition and His Tauheed, His One-ness.

Inna fi dalika: Indeed in this i.e. His Bestowing of such great blessings mentioned…

Li ayatihi: surely are His Signs Grand and clear proofs, lit…

Li qaumi yattafakkaroon: for the people who reflect i.e. they use their aql, intellectual power, in the reflection of the Signs of Allah and His Blessings so they gain regularity in the offering of gratitude for them.

448. And in the sun and the moon and the night and the day are signs for those who use their aql and reason

وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ ٱلَّيْلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَ وَٱلشَّمْسَ وَٱلْقَمَرَ ۖ وَٱلنُّجُومُ مُسَخَّرَٰتٌۢ بِأَمْرِهِۦٓ ۗ

إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَـٰتٍۢ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَعْقِلُونَ ١٢

And He has subjected for you the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, and the stars (are) subjected by His command. Indeed, in that surely (are) signs for a people who use reason.

Surah An Nahl, Verse 12

Tafseer e Jilani

Wa: And from among His Signs, Subhanahu, concerning the planning of your states, indeed He…

Sakkahara lakum al layl: made subservient to you the night so you can gain rest in it and relief…

Wan nahar: and the day so you can gain life in it and earn…

Wa: and also…

Ash shamsa wal qamara: (He made subservient to you) the sun and the moon to ripen your sustenance, making delicious your fruits…

Wa: and He made subservient for you…

An Najoom: the stars also so they guide you by them in the darkness of the land and the sea, even though they are all…

Musakharraat bi amri-hi: subservient to His Command, controlled by His Order and His Judgement, upon their calculated orbits or everything subservient is in the control of His Decree. He changes it according to His Will and His Desire upon His Majestic Planning.

Inna fi dalika: Indeed in it i.e. this subservience mentioned…

La-ayaat: are signs i.e. in all of them a clear argument and crystal clear proof…

Li qaumi ya’qiloon: for the people who use their intellect and they gain guidance from the signs towards the Creator of the Signs and from creation towards the Most Wise Originator.

449. And in the colours are signs for people who remember

وَمَا ذَرَأَ لَكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مُخْتَلِفًا أَلْوَٰنُهُۥٓ ۗ

إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةًۭ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَذَّكَّرُونَ ١٣

And whatever He multiplied for you in the earth (of) varying colors. Indeed, in that surely (is) a sign for a people who remember.

Surah An Nahl, Verse 13

Tafseer e Jilani

Wa: And He made subservient for you also…

Ma daraa: what He grew and created…

Lakum fil ardi mukhtalifan alwaanahu: for you all the separate colours in this Earth, their shapes and their nature (benefits) (of everything that comes from the ground), according to your desires and your dispositions, concerning your needs for your tastes and your amusement.

Inna fi dalika la ayaat al qaum-in yadakkaroon: Indeed in this are signs for the ones who gain admonition and they gain lessons from them about the honor of Man amongst all of Creation and of His being the Vice-Regent and His being the Successor of Allah.