The Hand of the Scribe
Shaykh Muhammad and some of his calligraphy  

Below is me writing the second hizb of the Quran using the Sudanic style known as Ifriqiya-Bornawi. It is the style that is prevalent in the Sahelian belt of Africa (Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad & Sudan) and took its root from the area of North Africa known as Ifriqiya (Tunisia & Libya). In turn this Ifriqiya style took its root from the Kufic style which was the earliest Arabic calligraphy style to develop and was normally used to write official Qurans. The amazing thing about this style is that now Africa is the onbly place where it is still used regularly and there have even been found Arabic manuscripts written enslaved African Muslims in the US using the same style.The actual Quran is in black ink, while the name of the chapter, whether it is Meccan of Medinan and the number of its verse along with the 'basmala' is in red.

The connected 'hamza' is indicated by a green circle about the 'alif' and every disconnected 'hamza' is indicated by a yellow circle above the 'alif'. Because there is a distinct difference in the Warsh recitation which gives the sound in some words AYE rather AA, this is indicated by a red circle underneath the letter that has this sound, Every verse ends with gold or orange three graped figuration. Every fifth verse ends with a red lotus and every tenth verse ends with a colored circle with red, green and yellow.

The Quran hizb is divided for purposes of worship and recitation into 8ths (thuman), quarters (rub`a) and halfs (nasf). These are usually indicated by a geometric design to the left of the calligraphy in red ink, with green, and gold motifs and will have the letters tha (for 8ths), ba (for rub`a) and nun (for half). Finally, the beginning of a hizb is usually indicated by a large circular geometric design using red, black, green, yellow colors. Each of these designs never repeat themselves, which means each of the 60 ahzaab (plural for hizb) has a unique designed.
hand of scribe