Abu Idris

 

A friend of mine from Turkey shared this Mushaf with me. The calligrapher wrote each line the length of Surah Ikhlas and the pages the length of Ayat ad-Dayn. It's very similar to the standard Madinah Mushaf. The repeating words of the Quran align symmetrically on the pages in many cases, even where the divine utterance is touching on closed pages. See the example below from Surah Yasin. The entire Mushaf is available to read online here . See more interesting things like this at Serdar Kilic's blog .

  The entire story, translated into English: Ibn al-Mubarak said: "I arrived in Mecca, and I found that the people were suffering from a drought, and they were praying for rain in the Masjid al-Haram. I was among the people near the Bani Shaybah gate when a young black boy came carrying two pieces of cloth, one of which he had wrapped around himself, and he placed the other one on my shoulders. He stood in a hidden spot next to me, and I heard him saying: 'Oh my God, you have created faces with numerous sins and flaws, and the rain from the heavens has been withheld from us to discipline the creatures for their deeds. I ask you, O Most Gracious, O He who knows His servants better than anyone else, to send down rain upon them at this very hour.'" Ibn al-Mubarak said: He continued to say, "Send down rain upon them at this very hour," until the sky became overcast. With clouds gathering, raindrops began to fall like the mouths of pitchers, and he remained in hi...

This is an incredible talk by Klaus von Stosch, a Catholic scholar from the University of Bonn about verses in Surah Maidah and their relation to "Imperial Theology," which is referring to Byzantine trends in theology during the time of the Quran's revelation.  Verses discussed: Quran 5:72-75 Quran 5:17 Quran 5:116