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Nisther M H
Doha
Doha-based fashion designer Mohammed Sultan Sheikh is a man on a mission. The 51-year old, who owns two boutiques in Qatar, has been working tirelessly towards his goal — to display his calligraphically-written Holy Quran in the Qatar Islamic Museum and enter the Guinness Book of World Records.
Sheikh has spent 10 years writing the entire verses of the Holy Quran on large parchment papers (30x24 inches in size). Each written letter of the Holy Quran is then dabbed with gold water and decorated with sparkling beads of crystals. The letters of the Holy Quran glow brightly while placed under a soft light, and are a treat to watch.
Each handwritten page of the Holy Quran needs around 40,000 expensive Silversky Australian crystals.
“Since I want to complete the project in another two years, I have hired seven workers to help me with the decorating works,” Sheikh told Qatar Tribune recently.
The project, once completed, will be verified by seven Quran jurists at the Awqaf.
Sheikh is bringing out each juzh of the Holy Quran separately because of its huge size (30x20 inches), and thickness (6 inches). Each juzh weighs around 15 kgs. So he will need as much space as for 30 books to display it in the Islamic Museum.
There was a time when designing clothes for Bollywood celebrity-actress and former Miss World (1994) Aishwarya Rai was a passion for him. He spent a lot of money and time designing dresses for Aishwarya, who is the daughter-in-law of Indian cinema’s former superstar Amitabh Bachchan. However, Sheikh could never meet the actress and this left him disappointed.
His current ambition took roots later in his life when he met a religious scholar in Qatar, and was attracted by his teachings. “I decided to devote my entire time, money and energy on Islamic art works,” said Sheikh.
Keeping the Holy Quran project in his mind, he learnt the art of calligraphy in 2006. Once he picked up this art, he started with initially making large wall frames (2x3 metres in size) of Islamic symbols like Quran aya’h, zikr and mosques of the holy cities of Mecca and Madina etc. Soon, his wall frames started becoming popular and he started exhibiting his works in malls and souks.
“I continued this art for four years — from 2006 to 2010. This experience gave me a big boost to prepare myself for my pilot Holy Quran project.”
Sheikh has spent almost all his savings on the Holy Quran project. “I am running out of money and am on the lookout for sponsors who could fund this project,” he said.
Doha
Doha-based fashion designer Mohammed Sultan Sheikh is a man on a mission. The 51-year old, who owns two boutiques in Qatar, has been working tirelessly towards his goal — to display his calligraphically-written Holy Quran in the Qatar Islamic Museum and enter the Guinness Book of World Records.
Sheikh has spent 10 years writing the entire verses of the Holy Quran on large parchment papers (30x24 inches in size). Each written letter of the Holy Quran is then dabbed with gold water and decorated with sparkling beads of crystals. The letters of the Holy Quran glow brightly while placed under a soft light, and are a treat to watch.
Each handwritten page of the Holy Quran needs around 40,000 expensive Silversky Australian crystals.
“Since I want to complete the project in another two years, I have hired seven workers to help me with the decorating works,” Sheikh told Qatar Tribune recently.
The project, once completed, will be verified by seven Quran jurists at the Awqaf.
Sheikh is bringing out each juzh of the Holy Quran separately because of its huge size (30x20 inches), and thickness (6 inches). Each juzh weighs around 15 kgs. So he will need as much space as for 30 books to display it in the Islamic Museum.
There was a time when designing clothes for Bollywood celebrity-actress and former Miss World (1994) Aishwarya Rai was a passion for him. He spent a lot of money and time designing dresses for Aishwarya, who is the daughter-in-law of Indian cinema’s former superstar Amitabh Bachchan. However, Sheikh could never meet the actress and this left him disappointed.
His current ambition took roots later in his life when he met a religious scholar in Qatar, and was attracted by his teachings. “I decided to devote my entire time, money and energy on Islamic art works,” said Sheikh.
Keeping the Holy Quran project in his mind, he learnt the art of calligraphy in 2006. Once he picked up this art, he started with initially making large wall frames (2x3 metres in size) of Islamic symbols like Quran aya’h, zikr and mosques of the holy cities of Mecca and Madina etc. Soon, his wall frames started becoming popular and he started exhibiting his works in malls and souks.
“I continued this art for four years — from 2006 to 2010. This experience gave me a big boost to prepare myself for my pilot Holy Quran project.”
Sheikh has spent almost all his savings on the Holy Quran project. “I am running out of money and am on the lookout for sponsors who could fund this project,” he said.
