Paradis (c) 2006 Aida Toure

(12″ x 16″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This painting started from the poem ” Paradise is here, now!”
Year of Creation: 2005

~ Paradise is … ~

Paradise is here, now!
We take walks in it
constantly mingling

with the Presence
that pours Its light
in our secret lamps

to extinguish the self
of its dire poverty:
we are those lit receptacles

Ruh imparts luminescence to.
This love-transfusion
pulls us to the Garden,

singing in our veins
with the spheres,
“Paradise is here, now!”

Bewildered, we throw
ourselves to the ground,
rolling by turn in laughter

like children,
we kiss that divine wildness
that began when Allah said

“And know that
you are to meet Me.”

(from Nocturnal Light)

Honey Existence (c) 2006 Aida Toure

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This painting symbolizes the dissolution of the ego with the inner ambrosia that follows… the poem that inspired it can be read here
Year of Creation: 2005

~ Honey-Existence ~

In the presence
of the Friend,
be quiet.

Should you know
of His eloquence,
assume a death:

the one which has
countless resurrections,
you know, the sunlit one!

Those who deeply are
in Love do that, they
open the seven windows

inside their being and in
the waiting, they die, silently
till the mystic wind begins

to circulate, lo! They bask
in the exquisite exchange,
it rocks them like the Word

rocks the heavenly stars;
in that sacredness,
their souls exude a cry

“al hamdulillah!
We are sanctified.”

Then some passers-by
intrigued by the joyful sobs
approach, to inquire about

the cause of that high
and the lovers ever-kind,
whisper through the ether,

“become complete now
before the Friend,
Separate not your will
from His. Surrender as
if you don’t mind being
killed by a softness,
by a wandering tenderness,
this way, you shall know
the same honey-existence.”

(from Nocturnal Light)

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

The Beloved (c) 2006 Aida Toure

The Beloved
(private collection)

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: The majestic Name.

Inner Palace (c) 2006 Aida Toure

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: The “Inner Palace” is the space which unfolds after we have conquered our ego and all its turbulence. It is the hidden palace where only the Divine Presence reigns to guide us toward the accomplishment of our appointed, individual tasks in this life… read more

Year of Creation: 2005

The Prophets' Gathering © 2006 Aïda Touré

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
This piece was inspired by the Prophet Muhammad’s (saw) Miraj or Ascension, the nightly journey through which he met the other prophets’ (as) of God and prayed with them. This painting is also one of my favorite because it opens up to the Messengers’ (as) oneness.
Year of Creation: 2005

~The Prophets’ Gathering~

The breath of Allah (swt) in you,

your heart swells with Love,

whirling in seven directions

to attune its own chords

to the cosmic flute-playing

Ruh (as) echoes through

every thing like this:

“Welcome to ourselves!

This is the sign of the Return!”

I, broken loose to those words,

gesture in orange-silver like

the night sky that witnesses

the nocturnal gatherings

of prophets (as) and saints.

After this, no more station of being…

© 2006 Aïda Touré

"Saints' Heart" (c) 2005 Aida Toure

(14″ x 11″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: The pure heart’s buoyancy.
Year of Creation: 2005

Inflamed with Divine Love © 2006 Aïda Touré

(14″x11″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: when inflamed with divine love. “Inflamed” the poem can be read below. This piece was my very first acrylic painting so it is dear to me. Once one has known the inflamed presence of Love, it’s impossible to step away from it in order to sustain mundane standards based on the superficiality of materialism, social status and peripheral desires, the soul refuses to abide by them no matter the seductiveness created around them to make them seem most appealing. Surrender, music, virtue, beauty, compassion, mastery of oneself are truly the gems every soul deserves to be exposed to, there is no appeal in any phenomena deprived of their primordial, pristine harmony. Everything has been tainted and stifled by the domination of the ego on this earth, it will remain so until the heart gets polished anew to shine like a mirror that reflects its light source, and not just for the sake of appearance and seduction but for the sake of Love itself, which is unconditional, timeless, ascending~

Year of Creation: 2005

~ Inflamed ~

Carpets of precious words
intermingle in a song
Dawood’s (as) harp sung,

stroked by the breath of Ruh (as),
strings perfectly loose
to fit the latitude of Love,

their Sound pervades our pulse
lo! we enter unseen worlds,
Zaboor in our hearts,

continuously we fall
from the divine lips
as “Kun” is revealed,

we lean on the prophets (as),
our cheeks against theirs,
now Injeel’s pages flutter by

and then the Qur’an’s follow,
each, clothed with
the Light of Ramadan;

look, the Sun is up in
the middle of the night,
Who can take more of this?!

The galaxy slips in our chest,
lo! We expand, mouths full
of our own dancing souls:

“we are inflamed with you,
O Beloved, our whirling atoms
on the edge of not-being,

now we’re shedding our form:
Reality upon Reality,
Heaven tastes like this!”

copyrights 2007 Aida Toure