Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Palestinian young woman Fidaa Obeid
scrutinizes Quranic verses from an electronic copy of the Holy Qur’an written
in Kufic script, before transcribing them onto large white papers. These papers
will constitute, later in the year 2023, the first handwritten Qur’an in Kufic
script in the Gaza Strip.
With great care, Obaid, 28, trained
to write Quranic verses before reproducing them with this drawing from ancient
and complex Arabic calligraphy.
This experience in writing is not
the first of its kind, but rather an extension of a series of experiments that
Obeid went through before she actually started writing parts of the Qur’an in
Kufic drawing, about 3 years ago.
Obaid uses a ruler and a set of
pens to write the words in Kufic script, giving each letter a certain length
and width of several centimeters or less.
Obaid says that she estimates the
size and length of the words relatively, so that they fit the words similar to
them and transferred from the electronic Quran, which she obtained from a
library in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in 2019, as she did not find a copy of
it in Palestine. After she finishes writing the words, she fills in the letter
spaces with different colors to highlight them clearly.
The Kufic script, one of the oldest
Arabic scripts, is believed to have originated in the seventh century AD in the
city of Kufa in Iraq, and was used in writing the Qur’an in particular.
Majestic experience
The experience of copying the Holy
Qur’an in Kufic script is the second of its kind in Obaid’s life, as she
previously copied the Qur’an in Ottoman script during the period between the
end of 2014 and the beginning of 2019. Obaid had the idea of copying the Qur’an
when she was running a competition in the Qur’an at the level of the regions of
the Gaza Strip.
In that competition, Obaid was
asked a question stating, “The Qur’anic verse says: (On the day when their
tongues and their hands will bear witness against them) .. What did you present
to the Qur’an?”
Although Obaid memorized the Qur’an
and won first place as the fastest memorizer in Gaza in 2012, this question
fell like a thunderbolt on her and a state of silence prevailed at the time,
according to her saying.
And she adds, "I was unable to
answer that question, and it remained stuck in my mind until I started copying
the Qur'an in the Ottoman script, for the first time in 2014."
And before the actual start of
copying the Qur’an at that time, Obaid subjected herself to a period of
training in Ottoman drawing and composition, which lasted about two years,
before she embarked on the actual copying of the Qur’an.
She says about her first
experience, "It was somewhat scary, as people usually question their
daring to write the Qur'an, especially when it is a copy that will be approved
for printing and publishing."
And she adds, “The main fear was to
forget or make mistakes in writing some combinations of dots or letters.”
Copying one page used to take Obeid
about a full week, but after the training, her rate of copying Qur’anic verses
increased, as she used to complete an entire part in one day.
She points out that she succeeded
in transforming "the fear she had at the beginning of writing into
achievement."
And in 2019, the young woman Obaid
handed over her first copy of the Qur’an, which she copied in the Ottoman
drawing on A4 paper, to the Dar Al-Quran and Sunnah Association, which checked
this work.
And she continues, saying: “The
Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in Gaza informed me that I am the first
girl to copy the Qur’an with the Ottoman drawing.”
At that time, Obaid formed an
inspiration for a group of girls who began copying and writing the Qur’an in
their homes to confirm its memorization.
And she added that she had
received, on social media, multiple messages from girls who started copying the
Qur’an.
And based on her belief that
“preserving, fixing and writing the Qur’an is a blessed matter and provides her
with positive energy and success,” she decided to “re-copy it, but this time
with Kufic drawing.”
When Obeid presented the idea to
scholars of the Holy Qur’an in Gaza, and others, due to the difficulty of this
type of calligraphy, she was not encouraged. However, she expressed confidence
in her ability to do so, and in 2019 she began searching for a copy of the
Qur’an in Kufic writing, until she found it in Baghdad.
"fun and blessing"
Immediately after obtaining the
electronic copy, Obaid began to compare what was written inside it with the
Holy Qur’an, and when she was sure of the correctness of what was stated in it,
she began to practice drawing the letters.
This task was daunting for Obaid,
but at the same time it was “enjoyable and full of blessings,” she said.
And she adds, "Writing letters
in Kufic script, because it is not formed with dots or letters, is a bit
cumbersome for those who do not know and are not used to this type of font."
The copy of the Qur’an written in
kufic script, this time will be larger than the size of the Qur’an copied in
the Ottoman script, with a length of one meter and a width of 70 centimeters.
In this Mushaf, every word
abrogated in kufic script is superimposed with its interpretation in the
Ottoman script attached to its own diacritics, in order to facilitate its
reading. The young woman, Obaid, on the left and at the bottom of the page,
allocated a space to copy the interpretation of the Qur’an by Imam “Ibn
Katheer” of Damascus, but in the Ottoman drawing. It is scheduled that Obaid
will finish copying this entire Qur’an later this year, expressing her hopes
for printing and publishing it.
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