Activity: Creating a Mosque Lamp

Materials:            

• Small glass lamp-shaped votive candle holders
• Calligraphy models: words and proverbs
• Permanent markers
• Glass paints—air dry
• Brushes
• Glass paint surface conditioner (or rubbing alcohol)

Prepare your lamp by painting over the glass surface of the lamp with surface conditioner or rubbing alcohol.

Plan your design by choosing a word or saying in Arabic to write on your lamp (you may also want to get your name written in Arabic and use that for a personal touch--see the Arabic in an Hour lesson on TeachMideast.org as well as examples of proverbs in Arabic) and geometric or arabesque designs to decorate the rest of the lamp body. A sample is below, but you can also search online for images of “mosque lamps” to see many more examples.

If you want a background color on your lamp, paint it on. Then using a permanent marker or paint, copy the word or phrase in Arabic onto the central part of the lamp. You may want to repeat a single word several times to balance the composition of your lamp. You may want to cut out a copy of the word or proverb you want to feature and tape it to the inside of the lamp to trace over it, or you may find it easier simply to copy it freehand, depending on the shape of your lamp.

Once you have completed the calligraphy, decorate the rest of your lamp with geometric designs, arabesque designs, and borders. Use the sample above and online examples for inspiration. Depending on the kind of glass paint you are using, you may paint over your design with glaze or heat your project according to the package directions to make your design permanent.

The Symbolism of Light in a Multicultural Context

Before the introduction of electricity, the interior of the mosque was lit by a large number of oil lamps. Typically made of enameled glass, these lamps symbolized enlightenment (the knowledge of the Divine) and, by extension, the presence of God in the mosque.

This symbolism is evident in the following Quranic verse, which is written on many mosque lamps in decorative calligraphy:

(verse 24:35)

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth

The parable of His light is as if there were a niche and within it a lamp

The lamp enclosed in glass

The glass as it were a brilliant star

Lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the east nor of the west

whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it

Light upon Light!

God doth guide whom He will to His light

God doth set forth parables for men: and God doth know all things.

Light as a symbol of experience of the divine or general enlightenment is not, of course, restricted to Islamic civilizations. Many cultures use the symbol of light in a similar fashion.

Brainstorm with the class other examples of the use of light in religious traditions, proverbs, historic speeches, songs and other texts (including visual art). You might come up with a list like the following:

Don’t hide your light under a barrel

Bahai light, lamp

Diwali

Hannukah (in which lighting the candles of the menorah symbolizes the miraculous survival of the Jewish people….)check other sources for symbolism of hannukah

And I Will Establish you as a Covenant of the people, for a Light unto the nations. Isaiah 60:2-3

The Star of Bethlehem

Van Gogh’s Starry Night

This little light of mine/I’m gonna let it shine….

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.  ~Chinese Proverb

You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.  ~Arlo Guthrie

Into my heart's night/Along a narrow way/I groped; and lo! the light,/An infinite land of day.     ~Rubaiyat of Rumi

Extension activity: Compare the Quran’s light verse to Aristotle’s allegory of the cave. How are the concepts of light and of knowledge simlar and different?

©MEPC 2008