ISLAMIC
COLONIAL
Even before the coming of Spanish Colonizers,
Islam was already well entrenched in
Southern Philippines, when it continue to be
culturally dominant and strong.
• Islam said to have significant grounding in
Sulu as early 13 century. However it was in
the arrival of Sayyid Abbubakar of Arabia in
15 century that led to a significant turn of
events. He married Princess Piramisuli,
Daughther of Rajah Baguinda. When his
father in law died, Abbubakar succeded the
throne and stablished the Sultanate of Sulu.
•
Aside from introducing holy text via holy bible Quran
and building a house of prayer Abbubakar was
recognized of building a religious school, also known
as madrasa that facilitated the teaching of Arabic
writing during 16 century.
Filipino Muslim recognized that they are
belong to an ummah or community of
believers. Central to the Islamic faith is the
doctrine of Tawhid or Unity of God. This belief
emphasis the impermanence of nature and the
incomprehensible greatness of the divine
being .
According to Prof. Abraham Sakili we can
then relate this with two aspect of reality, One
is the object perceive by an ordinary sense
while the other is the sense of nothingness, a
space or a void empty of all things: to evoke
that God is above and beyond all things
TAWHID
Tawhid, also spelled Tauhid, Arabic Tawḥīd, (“making
one,” “asserting oneness”), in Islām, the oneness of God, in
the sense that he is one and there is no god but he, as
stated in the shahādah(“witness”) formula: “There is no god
but God and Muḥammad is His prophet.” Tawhid further
refers to the nature of that God—that he is a unity, not
composed, not made up of parts, but simple and
uncompounded. The doctrine of the unity of God and the
issues that it raises, such as the question of the relation
between the essence and the attributes of God, reappear
throughout most of Islāmic history. In the terminology of
Muslim mystics (Ṣūfīs), however, tawhid has a pantheistic
sense; all essences are divine, and there is no absolute
existence besides that of God. To most Muslim scholars, the
science of tawhid is the systematic theology through which
a better knowledge of God may be reached, but to the Ṣūfīs,
knowledge of God can be reached only through religious
experience and direct vision.
In a Islamic art we can observed how artist
are influenced in the notion of Tawhid.
Considering the goal of negating materiality,
we will find the interior of mosques are
covered with elaborating patterning in the
form of relief to draw the attention way from
the concrete object in other words away from
human form and nature “toward the
contemplation of the divine”
How Philippine Muslim organize space in
architecture is also telling of their adherence
to the Tawhid and other Islamic belief. For
example part of mosque like mihrab or niche
or the Qibla wall are oriented toward the
West may it be in Sultan Kudarat or in
Quiapo Manila in order to fulfill the
requirement that all Islamic building must
be oriented toward Mecca as an expression
of oneness with the larger Islamic
Community.
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