00:00Mohamed Meher Hadri, a calligrapher and embroidery artist by trade, has completed a remarkable
00:12work of art. Over a period of eight years, he has scripted the world's first Quran entirely
00:17written in embroidery.
00:19In the beginning, the idea was to do something that didn't exist before.
00:23Scripts are written with pen and ink, so we wanted to do something new that didn't exist.
00:28So we invented the method of writing with thread and needle.
00:32In the beginning, of course, we wrote very small verses for experience and learning.
00:37Then we wrote a picture, which is a picture of reality on a large scale.
00:42Many people around us liked it.
00:44So we came up with the idea of writing the Quran entirely, which is a completely new idea.
00:49We succeeded in designing the first page.
00:52After we designed it, it took us about two months to complete the page.
00:57And we succeeded, God willing, in writing it.
01:00The Quran, after about eight years, was completed after eight years.
01:07The writing was done in several stages.
01:11The first stage was when the writing was done without crumpling.
01:15Then the page was cleaned of the small threads.
01:18Then it was crumpled.
01:20After the crumpling, it was shaped and embroidered.
01:23And the name of the picture was written, and the part number, and the page number.
01:27The leather was worked on after we finished.
01:30We worked on the leather in a manual way, in the same way as we worked on the leather.
01:33The Quran, after it was finished, came out in a size of about 60x80.
01:37The total weight of the Quran is about 200 kilograms.
01:40There are 12 volumes. Each volume contains two and a half parts of the Quran.
01:44Of course, we worked on it systematically for two years, letter by letter.
01:49When Mohamed was first inspired to undertake this remarkable task,
01:53he recalls receiving mixed reactions about his idea.
01:56Some people considered it a strange idea, a crazy idea.
02:01Some people even accused me of being crazy.
02:04They said it was impossible.
02:07But this gave us the motivation to move forward.
02:10We had to accomplish something.
02:12Alhamdulillah, after a lot of hard work,
02:16with the help of the people around us and their encouragement,
02:20we were able to complete the first copy of the Holy Quran,
02:23written by hand, all over the world.
02:25The embroidered Quran contains 426 pages,
02:28and is worth an estimated 24 million dirhams.
02:31The artwork, along with live demonstrations of Hadhri's skills,
02:34can be seen at Dubai Chamber of Commerce
02:36as part of the Dubai International Holy Quran Awards
02:38every day between 10 p.m. and midnight till the end of this month.
02:42Nadia Al-Demardash, Gulf News.
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