A Common Word
Islamic Museum of Australia
17 April - 18 July 2026
The title of this exhibition is inspired by words from Surah Al Imran in the Holy Quran.
This famous Quranic passage affirms a common understanding between Islam, Judaism and Christianity - the people of the scripture - and has been the basis for dialogue between the Abrahamic faiths.
This exhibition explores this message of commonality at the heart of Islam – that the worship of the one God is shared with the earlier Abrahamic revelations. In this time of growing polarisation and conflict, the fact that we are the creation of the one God, to whom we are called to submit, is an essential reminder of our shared unity.
A Common Word attempts to reorient ways of looking at this message of universality at the heart of Islam through the use of light, video and drawing.
Say [Muhammad], ‘We [Muslims] believe in God and in what has been sent down to us and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes. We believe in what has been given to Moses, Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We do not make a distinction between any of the prophets. It is to Him that we devote ourselves.
Quran 3:84
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:
Whoever believes there is no God but Allah, alone without partner, that Muhammad is His Messenger, that Jesus is the servant and messenger of God, His Word breathed into Mary and a spirit emanating from Him and that Paradise and Hell are true, shall be received by Allah into Heaven.
Sahih Bukhari 3435
Corrected Perspective, 2015 - 26
Hand-blown glass, neon and argon gas.
With thanks to Laksh Madan.
What does it mean to invert our habitual understanding of the map of the world?
Corrected Perspective is inspired by Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq (Arabic: نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق, ("The Excursion of One Eager to Penetrate the Distant Horizons"), a famous world map compiled in 1154 by celebrated Islamic cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi.
Idrisi’s map was researched by teams of cartographers who travelled the known world under his direction. It remained the standard for subsequent world maps for over 300 years.
Idrisi’s map was oriented to the South with Mecca, Arabia at the centre. Northern oriented world maps only became commonplace from the time of European colonial conquest. The European orientation has become so ubiquitous that it is now an unquestioned convention, or way of seeing.
Corrected Perspective upends the habitual image of the world map as a call to reimagine experience and to show that distinctions between North and South, centre and margin, near and far, are learnt ways of seeing the world. They are cultural and colonial inventions that when reoriented call for new ways of being in the world. In this case the continent known as Australia, where this neon map was made is placed at the centre. The selection of colours is derived from old maps of the world.
Islam, Iman, Ihsan
Lightwork comprising three stainless steel frames with embedded LED lighting, sandblasted water cut float glass, diachroic film, Zigbi WIFI-controller, Rasberry Pi.
With thanks to Huw Severnsmith, Tiger Zheng and Reem Alsulami.
The three circles of this artwork function like an optical viewing device - each circle mirrored within the next - with reflections linking each circle.
The first circle contains the Arabic Quranic statement that is central in Islam:
Bismillahi ir-Rahman ir-Rahim. بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم in the name of Allah, the most most Gracious, the most Merciful
This phrase commences each chapter of the Quran and any action undertaken by a Muslim.
The second circle provides an English rendering of this statement of the two names and qualities of God, the Infinitely Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.
The largest circle is a mirror of dichroic glass that shifts colour depending on the angle of approach. It is lit by a green LED light for most of the day. Green colour carries a quite emblematic significance in Islamic culture: It was among the colours that the Prophet ﷺ used to wear. It appears in evocations of Paradise, woven into garments, gardens and the promise of renewal. Over time, it has come to be widely associated with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in cultural memory, even though early sources do not firmly establish it as his preferred colour. Within this work, green becomes a contemplative gesture: a reflection on nature as a field of divine signs (ayat).
At the times of the daily prayers the circle turns a warm golden colour, signifying the transcendent experience at the heart of the prayers. Muslims pray five times a day at dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset and night-time. The prayer times change in accordance with the movements of the sun, varying slightly from day to day and dramatically across the seasons.
As the title suggests, the three circles of this artwork allude to the three dimensions of Islam, Iman and Ihsan that are explained in the Hadith* of Gabriel (Jibreel).
The Hadith of Gabriel (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1) (Sahih Bukhari, Book 2, Hadith 43)
The Hadith of Gabriel is one of the most famous hadiths.
The hadith tells of a man in very white clothing and very black hair coming to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions. No mark of travel was visible upon him, and no one recognised him. This in itself was unusual given the small desert community in which the early Muslims of Medina lived.
Sitting down before the Prophet ﷺ, the stranger said: “Tell me Muhammad about submission to Allah (Islam)”. He replied, “Submission means that you should bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger. That you should perform the ritual prayer, pay charity, fast during Ramadan and make the pilgrimage to Mecca if you are able to go there”. The man said, “You have spoken the truth.”
Then he said, now tell me about faith (Iman). Muhammad ﷺ replied, “faith means you have faith in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers and the Last Day, and that you have faith in divine decree, both its good and its evil.” Remarking that the Prophet had spoken the truth, he then said, “Now tell me about excellence (Ihsan).” Muhammad replied, "excellence means that you should worship Allah as if you see Him, for even if you do not see Him, He sees you.”
When the man left, the Prophet ﷺ informed his astonished companions that the Angel Gabriel had come to teach them about their religion.
This famous Prophetic hadith reveals the inner and outer dimensions of Islam that may be imagined as three interwoven circles.
*Hadith (narrations) are the recorded sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
The Noble Rock 2025.
Digital manipulations of historic photograph of the Noble Rock, taken from the canopy of the Dome of the Rock, Al Quds, Palestine, 1900-1920 from the Matson (G. Eric and Edith) Photograph collection at the Library of Congress. Archive print.
Right of Return: Unfinished Series, 2024-6
Coloured pencil on black cartridge.
Right of Return: Survivors
Right of Return: the Return
Right of Return: Colonial Landscape
Right of Return: Rafah
Right of Return: Dr Hussam Abu Safiya
Right of Return: Khan Younis
The Beloved
Digital Video.
Found video sourced from Tik Tok of released Palestinians reunited with loved ones in October 2025.
Duration 13:30 minutes.
Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
how it sings of separation:
Ever since they cut me from the reed bed,
my wail has caused men and women to weep.
I want a heart that is torn open with longing
so that I might share the pain of this love.
Whoever has been parted from his source
longs to return to that state of union.
Jallaluladin Rumi
Translated by Kabir Helminski
"Love is A Stranger," 1993, pp. 50-52
With heartfelt thanks to the following video accounts on Tik Tok. I use this footage to amplify your story in a time of silencing and censorship.
@salim.h96
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@user6123446982101 Issam Rimawi
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@aaa248.0 Raya.Orouq
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@francesbxxx
