GUJRAT – A Pakistani Muslim woman, Naseem Akhtar, form the small town of Gujurat, spent 32 years of her life sewing the Qur’an which she claims is the only hand-embroidered one in the world, AryNews.tv reported.
“I sewed it all alone with no help from anybody. I decided to sew a Qur’an at a very young age, but due to some unforeseen circumstances couldn’t start it until I was married in 1987,” Akhtar informed.
“Firstly, I got this cloth delivered from Faislabad; 12 piles. The width of which was 45 inches and length was 900 inches. I then cut it and this took me a lot of time. Then I arranged it in order,” she explained.
Not being a very easy job, Akhtar mentioned that it took her an entire day to sew between one and three lines as she had to be super cautious of not making any mistakes.
“I copied it from another Qur’an. It wasn’t that easy to make because I also had to read from the other Qur’an while sewing,” she said.
Naseem now wants her Qur’an to represent her country worldwide.
“I want this Qur’an to be taken by Pakistan to be submitted in the Guinness Book of World Records. There is no Qur’an which is hand embroidered. It’s my wish that I get this precious product represented in Al-Madina Al-Munawwara on behalf of my Pakistan,” the old woman hopes.
Pakistan’s major religion is Islam with 96.4% of its large population adhering to it. The South Asian country has the 2nd largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia.
The Qur’an literally means “the recitation” in Arabic and it’s the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from Allah.
It’s widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature. The holy Qur’an is divided into chapters or Surahs, which are then divided into verses or Ayas.
Miraculous Book
Muslims believe that the Qur’an was verbally revealed by Allah to the final Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through the archangel Gabriel.
This process of revealing the Qur’an was gradual over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was 40, and concluding in 632, the year of his death.
Muslims regard the Qur’an as the most important miracle of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), a proof of his prophethood, and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The word “Qur’an” occurs some 70 times in the text of the Qur’an, although different names and words are also referencing to the Qur’an.
According to the traditional narrative, several companions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after the Prophet Muhammad’s death, the Qur’an was compiled by his companions who wrote down and memorized parts of it.
These codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthman’s codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Qur’an known today.
The Qur’an has variant Arabic readings with mostly minor differences in meaning, the readings are based upon the Arabic dialects of Arabized and Arab tribes of the Arabian Peninsula.