Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

"The Museum of Islamic Art is more influenced by the mosque of Ibn Tulun than any other building. This mosque is very austere and beautiful, and it has the most refined geometry. What inspired me most was the small ablution fountain in the middle of a large courtyard. The little building is a poem."

-I.M. Pei, The Architect

I learnt something invaluable during my visit to Qatar's Museum of Islamic Art, and that is: even brilliant minds find their inspiration in the works of others.

As I approached the entrance of cubically-shaped museum, I knew that I had seen it somewhere... in fact it felt as if I had been to it before. I had read a bit about how the architect had travelled the Islamic world to gather ideas on traditional Islamic architecture to manifest them in the Qatari museum... but I had never thought that he would use one small feature from Ibn Tulun's mosque to create a whole museum...

See if you can spot the similarities for yourself:



A word about the exhibition on display: the treasures this tiny building contains are preeminent jewels of the Islamic civilization. I could not tell whether the artwork on display originated from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Spain, or China...a testament that Muslims shared one cultural identity throughout the ages.

Musings of a sleepless writer...

It’s been a long week and I’m exhausted. I spent the past hour in bed, wide awake. Forcing my eyes shut, I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. Something’s on my mind. I know that I won’t be able to get any sleep tonight unless I write…

It must be guilt that’s keeping me awake… the guilt of not fulfilling my promise to myself. Every morning as I run down the list of to-do’s on my daily agenda, I keep promising myself to carve at least half an hour of writing… but for the past two days work kept getting in the way.

Finally the week’s over. I’ve had so many thoughts since writing my last blog post. Thoughts about future blog entries, thoughts about books to read, but most importantly…thoughts about my next novel.

I have ideas that come to me that seem absolutely brilliant…I take note of them in my leather notebook. But what’s strange is that I get other ideas, completely unrelated to the previous ones, which seem like “the” idea….

Actually, thinking of ideas for a novel is like falling in love…. Every idea seems like “the one,” but then you realize it was just the illusion of another oasis on the mirage…After a while, you start giving up because you learn that it’s hopeless.

But that’s when I have faith in inspiration. When I wrote my first novel, or at least I like to consider it as such, there were signs everywhere I looked, and the story unfolded so spontaneously. And since I’ve written a novel before, I know that I could do it again…

So I’ve decided to settle on an idea, albeit might not be the best one. I’ve even chosen the characters and the setting of the novel like a painter who chooses his colors and the landscape to adorn his canvas. But I am missing the most important ingredient… the storyline.

At the end of the day, it’s the storyline that makes or breaks a novel. I’m currently reading a novel by a renowned author, who is an all-time best seller. Although I don’t necessarily admire his writing style and find his descriptions quite dry, I have to admit that what keeps me turning the pages of his novel is the plot. I’m eager to find out what will happen to the protagonist five pages later. So where does one find the storyline? From experience, this is where true inspiration comes to play. As I was writing my past novel, my surroundings were constantly flashing props I could use in the theater that had become my novel.

But it all starts on the page… One needs to be in writing mode to be receptive to these elements that constitute the storyline. This is what brings me to this blog again…

I pull up the anchor and set the sails. Only by finding the courage to aimlessly drift out to sea will I be able to stumble upon the ideas I need to get started on my second novel…I know that the wind may blow me off course, but as long as I have my eyes on the stars… I will eventually find my way to the destination that awaits me.

Coming out of the shadows

I’ve been avoiding this blog for quite some time. At first, I thought it was the insecurity of revealing too many of my inner thoughts that led me to revert to my personal diaries. That wasn’t it because I stopped writing in them as well. I then embarked on my biggest writing project yet, writing my first novel. After completing it in one shot in a span of five months, I thought that I had gotten writing out of my system for the time being…

As I embarked on the jet set career of a consultant, I thought that I had put writing behind… that it was something of my past. I would make excuses to myself… the most common one of them being, “I’m too busy… I don’t have time.” But all along, I had felt something missing…. It dawned on me that I had avoided writing all along because I was afraid…I was afraid that what I would pen wouldn’t be as sumptuous as I thought I was I was able of writing. I was like a knight who had fallen off his Arabian stallion, fearing that he would never be able to ride gallantly once more. It was better living the dream of being the self-proclaimed writer without actually being one.

Ever since completing my novel, I had felt like I had achieved the greatest feat of my life. I had squeezed every drop of my mind’s creativity into that work… and I had learned a lot from it. It was like reading a delightful novel where I was making up the storyline as I read along. Just like those novels that stay with us for a lifetime, the ideas, thoughts, and emotions that had gone into my novel have become a part of me. I discovered things I had never known about myself all along.

This is why I return to this blog, and this is why I return to writing. Writing gives my life meaning…it put my jumbled and incomprehensible thoughts into lucid perspective and gives me blissful peace of mind.

This is not one of my apologetic “back to writing” posts… after depriving myself of writing for so long, I have realized the value it has given me. I have also realized the wisdom behind the Hippocrates’ words when he said, “That which if used develops, and that which if not used wastes away.” I have been blessed with my intellect… actually I believe we have all been blessed with minds of the same capabilities. He who is blessed is the one who realizes the magnificence and brilliance of what God has given him and works hard to mold something beautiful with it. Creating beauty with my words is one of the ways I glorify God. I write to show that world that what I am God’s creation and my words are his inspiration.

This is what I return to this blog. Because I know that the more I practice with my God-given abilities, the better I get at writing and the more inspiration will descend upon me. I come out of the shadows for the first time by making this blog known to my friends and acquaintances. I want to share with them my passion. I might inspire someone with an idea or two with my writing…

But there is also a very selfish motive behind my return… it is because I never want to give up on my dream of becoming a writer someday. I pray that I will never write for riches or fame, or any other ulterior motive for that matter. I pray that my writing will always be genuine and sincere. I pray that my writing could give hope and solace to others…

My first novel may never become published…and if that is the case…well, and then I’m grateful that God had given me the opportunity to have such a great learning experience. I am glad that He is giving me a sign that I should work harder on my next novel. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about life is that preparation is key. Whether its preparation for an exam, preparation for an interview, and preparation for war… victors are those who prepare. So in my case, all the writing I have done hitherto may very well be a means of preparation… for I know that the day will present itself when I will be given the opportunity to produce brilliant works with my words…

Until then, I will keep returning to this blog to prepare…