Beauty of God's Words: The first pages of most copies of the Qur'an are
elaborately decorated. The most expensive copies, made for rulers or nobles, might
be decorated throughout. In some periods geometrical designs would have been
fashionable, in others curved patterns or, as here, floral compositions. They would
take months or even years to complete, but such attention would be appropriate
since what the artist was touching and the reader reciting is regarded by Muslims
as God's actual utterance.
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The Qur'an, Sura I, the Opening: "In the name of God, the merciful,
the giver of mercy: Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, The merciful, the giver
of mercy, Sovereign of the Day of Judgment. You alone we worship, To you alone we pray
for help. Show us the straight path, The path of those whom You have favored, Not of
those who earn Your anger or of those who go astray."
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