Arabic calligraphy

An interview with an amazing artist (a professor of international relations), illustrated with photographs of his beautiful work.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070617x1.html

snip
ARABIC CALLIGRAPHY WITH A SENSE OF NIHON
Japan's master of an ancient Muslim art

For Kouichi Honda, writing a beautiful line is what life is about. Getting every detail right — the subtle curves, the varying thicknesses and the density of the ink — matters to him as much as life itself.
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Most of you remember the huge controversy about making cartoons or representations of the Muslim Prophet (peace be with him) and many westerners do not understand what the fuss is about. That is not surprising since westerners are often so profane about their own religious symbolism, but that's neither here nor there. I'd like to explain the more positive side of Islamic beliefs and art so as to better understand.
Because Islam does not permit figurative representations of Allah or the Prophet, their written work, their script, has been elevated to the highest art form. This way the actual words of the Quran, including the name of Allah, are a devotional art form and there are practitioners of the highest level of calligraphy. Kouichi Honda, in this article, is an example of an artist who brushes in calligraphy devotional words from the Quran. Also, if you have ever traveled to a country with Islamic decorative art, you will notice that a great care and beauty is placed into the drawing of nature - floral, landscape, animals, harvests... all of these are symbolic of Allah's creation. Kouichi Honda has some beautiful contemporary examples in his work of painting a natural scene and then decorating and embedding script from the Quran throughout the landscapes. Many Muslims do not understand that Christians are not actually praying to the "graven images" of God, Jesus Christ, and the saints. They do not understand that the images are used by Christians as a comfortable mental focus to aid in their prayer discipline, and thus they do not realize that Christians understand that images are not necessary for prayer and are not the recipients of prayer. Likewise, Christians are often not familiar with the artistic way that Muslims do honor Allah and the words of the Quran through arabic calligraphy shaped into natural forms that represent the creations of Allah.
I hope this little post and the wonderful interview with Kouichi Honda help to bridge some of this mystery and misunderstanding.