Light Before Light

Arabic:  الصَّلَاةُ خَيْرٌ مِنَ النَّوْمِ   English Rendition: “Prayer is better than sleep”   This piece brings a gentle yet resolute reminder of the Fajr call to prayer, a phrase heard in the adhan at daybreak since the earliest generations of Islam. Composed by award-winning calligrapher Ahmet Namazi, the words are shaped in Jalī Thuluth, a monumental script whose sweeping arcs and slender uprights echo the rising of the first light.   The lettering rests in a poised istif (Ottoman for calligraphed composition), giving the phrase the dignified bearing of sacred announcement. Rendered in a rich red ink, the script seems to glow softly against the paper, embodying the warmth of dawn breaking through the dark, a call to rise in devotion.