About Qiblah
The astrolabe was the instrument early Muslim scholars used to calculate the direction of prayer. Mariam al-Ijliya, a 10th-century artisan known as Al-Asturlabi, designed some of the most advanced astrolabes of her time.
Behind the painting
With acrylic paint I precisely built layers of carefully sculpted curves and circles in bright gold to represent the metalwork. I added, in my own stylised calligraphy, La ilaha ilallah with gold paint in a nozzle. The background is painted in deep teal, forest green and midnight blue, blended and broken so the colour shifts across the canvas, and this acts as the foundation on which I painted the astrolabe.
Five times a day every Muslim in the world turns to face the exact same point. We are all so different, from so many places, speaking so many languages, and yet we all turn together. That is what this painting is about. Not the instrument itself, but what it was built to find.
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by Siddiqa Juma
Qiblah in your home
Qiblah in your home
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About - Darwaza
On the door of Masjid un Nabawi in Madinah, there is a golden emblem. Intricate, raised, covered in calligraphy and arabesque. This painting is my attempt to recreate what it felt like to stand in front of it, to trace the ridges with your eyes and understand that every detail was placed there with intention. Real gold leaf sits on thick, sculpted acrylic, raised from a pure black ground. It is not a reproduction. It is a memory of a feeling.
