For Mohammad Sabir Khedri, compiling the pages of this enormous and intricately detaied holy book was a 5 year labor of love.
A master calligrapher has lovingly unveiled the world’s largest Quran in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to a Reuters report released last week. The giant holy book measures 7.5 by 5.10 feet, weighs over 1,000 pounds, and cost half a million US dollars to put together. Its 218 pages are made of cloth and paper and feature complex gold script designs created with the input of nine students. And it is bound in the skin of 21 goats.
Designed by Mohammad Sabir Khedri – a devout Muslim – the Quran symbolizes the Afghani population’s tremendous resilience in the face of prolonged war and destruction.
The Afghan ministry of Haj and Religious Affairs is responsible for certifying this spectacular volume as the world’s largest, its Kabul custodians told Reuters.
Khedri’s Quran was completed in 2009, but it has taken an additional two years to complete the goat leather binding and to build a special room in which it can be stored.
Zahra Naderi – the daughter of the man who founded the Cultural Center tasked with caring for this extraordinary creation – said that “Writing the Koran is one privilege, and…of course if you can make the biggest Koran everyone wants to do it, because they want to show the feeling they have, the biggest feeling inside their heart.”
But Khedri is willing to cede his title to the person who makes the next biggest Quran “as it is serving Islam,” he said.
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Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
What a waste.
Jewish Torah scrolls also use animal skin.
As far as I know these animals are also eaten, so nothing goes to waste. Middle East cultures, at least when it comes to animals, for food, for skin, are not wasteful. They use all the parts. Nothing wasteful about that. Some believe that the spirit of an animal is elevated when it is eaten by a human being… I am not judging, just pointing out the practices and culture of others.