Generosity for our Orphans © 2008 Aida Toure

Description: This piece symbolizes the establishment of Harmony and its triumph over the ills exclusion can cause in communities of men. Terre d’Espoir, a non-profit organization located in Gabon commissioned this painting. Read below the poem incorporated in the painting.

~ Generosity For Our Orphans ~

In every child
a land of hope,
ascending, vast
and in harmony
with the divine
waltz which governs
our lives.

O humankind!
Let us cherish children
for they are ourselves
in some octave of
ever-prostration
to The Omniscient.

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

La Note Orange © 2008 Ada Toure

Description: One night I was sitting and my eyes rested on my beige guitar and all of the sudden I saw it painted with interesting patterns so I gathered my brushes and paint tubes and I started working on it right away… I entitled the piece “La Note Orange”.
Year of Creation: 2006

The Prostrated © 2007 Aida Toure

Description: This painting is a celebration of the prostration, with all the universes that unfold during this prayer position where the lover is closest to The Beloved. This piece has elements I had been longing to express for the longest time so it was a true celebration of the joy of Salat (prayer). The prostration position in Islamic prayer is one of the most moving experience the soul can journey through. Even though to many it may be considered as just a physical position, prostration is the moment when we are closest to Allah (swt), we shed our ego and the grace unfolds… During his prayers alone, our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) used to stay in prostration for a long time and he would often shed tears. Year of Creation: 2006

~ The Prostrated ~

Paint brush and pen in hand,
you wander the rug of gravity,
silenced by the Speech,
heart is the only canvas
upon which reality unfolds,
the visible phase of it
is but a remnant of these
marvels the soul beholds.
See, the lover matters not,
let the Veil be lifted;
it is that divine show
that all secretly want!
Whether the lover
is unknown or renown,
why does it matter?
Do not focus on the one
who is lost in sacred intoxication,
look beyond his helpless form;
seek the object of his love,
the Cause of his prostration
and move your lips like angels
do during Fajr prayer,
draw closer to the Light
of all that exists and say:
Al hamdulillah ir Rabil Alamin!

© 2009 Aïda Touré. | visualsufipoetry.com

Guiaalala, Nur, the Light © 2006 Aida Toure

Description: Guiaalala means “the light” in Eshira, my maternal dialect. This piece is about the flamboyant dance that pervades our being as we mingle with the wild things Light does. It’s a celebration of our bewilderment with The Beloved. The poem I incorporated in the painting was written in French, for its English translation, please click here . It took me three months to complete this painting. Year of Creation: 2006.

~ Guiaalala (the light) ~

She observes the spectacle
of your magnitude,

Humbled by appearance’s
insignificance, her reign

mingles with the Presence
that wants her.

In her, a luminous Voice:
“Come back to Union!”

And in seven dimensions
this lover evolves toward us.

O! Divine, O! Beloved,
Annihilate this ego

Which wounds femininity
and her latitude; between

being and not-being,
She wanders you.

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

Zuhrtime Beads © 2007 Aida Toure

Description: “Zuhrtime Beads” represents the inner spectacle that can occur when one practices the ritual of Surrender, Zikr and praising of The Divine which all stir the soul to some ecstatic dance we can’t fathom … The whirling energy of this painting captures our harmony with the spheres and the secret activity of all surrendered atoms of the Creation. Read the poem below.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ Zuhrtime Beads ~

We are beads in human form
abandoned here to whirling
and buoyancy,
we perform

for the sake of Love
just like the planets,
the Sun and Jesus’ heart (as).

We are beads,
revolving at Zuhrtime
in Remembrance of our
union with The Divine.

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

The Black Hole © 2007 Aida Toure

Description: The Black Hole was published in the textbook “Imaginez“.

Imaginez textbook

This piece developed from the poem Black Hole I wrote in 1999. The term Black Hole here is multidimensional and thus transcends the region of space from which there is no return; it can be associated with the Breath or any current that pulls creation anew toward The All-Embracing.
Year of Creation: 2006.

~ Black Hole ~

In the black hole of breath
I daily disappear

to meld with inaudible waves
that take the form of poems

soon as I will to grace
any hand exuding calmness

a cyclone of light is set off
for the fortication of

starving human souls.
I ever embrace this globe

as the ink flows
I carry out the connection

with my zillion selves
who continue to ignore

that in the black hole of breath
I daily disappear

to become all that exists
until the abused essence of men

is restored and enhanced.

(from Unmanifest Poems)

2007 copyrights Aida Toure.

Le Feminin Noir © 2007 Aida Toure

(18″ x 8″ acrylic on canvas)

Description: This piece was created from the poem Le Feminin Noir in celebration of the Divine Feminine in its Essence and all its manifest octaves.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ Le Feminin Noir ~

… Empreintes lumineuses,
Le Feminin Noir, principe pieux

Immanifeste comme le Elle de Dieu,
Nous sommes le Son sommeillant

En le regard de l’enfant.
Amour, subtilite et beaute

Toutes ivres en la Presence,
Les femmes couvent l’Essence

Comme une prosternation
Elles dissimulent la Proximite.

Qui se cherche se trouvera
En le Elle du Lui, Sa Majeste.

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

Fragrance of Light: Roland et les Anges © 2007 Aida Toure

(18″ x 24″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This painting evolved from and with this poem. I created this piece from a soft, captivating atmosphere of colors and scents … It deeply moved me.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ Fragrance of Light: Roland et Les Anges ~

I wander inward
to be with you,

and to smell
the fragrance

of your light,
it soothes me

and reveals
the Gentle Guide,

the concealed One.
I move to the breeze

of your sound
to save my heart

from the grief
of separation.

You make my ego
supple and it bows to

The Divine! Urged by
love, it vanishes.

That’s how deep
you move me out of

my self to know the
ambrosia of not-beingness.

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

Shamssya a la Harpe © 2007 Aida Toure

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This piece is in homage to the feminine, regenerating properties of the Sun. The sacred Harp concept here accompanies the healing function of the Sun. The painting’s movements relate to the effect of Harp’s sounds upon noble souls who are systemically forced into exclusion… which eventually leads to Revolution.
Year of Creation: 2006

Dervisha © 2008 Aida Toure

(18″ x 24″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: Becoming Sky the poem inspired this painting whose creation brought me the utmost joy: it’s about the swirling inner Sky that unfolds within when we’re not afraid to embrace our true nature: egolessness.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ On Becoming Sky: Dervisha ~

I met your pure eyes
and I became myself,
your sight behind mine
looking at lights’ dance.

With such remote music
lingering on that close,
the human heart softens.

Look at my new weakness,
it’s crawling by your feet!

Being is that vast union,
that grace, that quietness.

Some secret Conversation
curls around us like locks
around Prophets’ earlobes.

Bless me, make speech go!
How many more will join

this love-community
of generous ears inside?
Let us beg them my love:

Be true beingness.
realize your exuberance,
embrace the Essence and
watch all generous hearts
become your companions.
Remember in one, many!
Struggle to be vulnerable,
touch the grace of femininity,
drown in the empty,
swim that deeply,
know Surrender;
fight to be that weak
so you can sense
what true strength is.

Then we fall back within,
inertia buoyantly begins
for the Sky leaps in …
Lo, we all are feminine!

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

(from Nocturnal Light)