Vessels of Spirituality: Merging Faith and Form

Abstract

According to traditional Islamic teachings, natural materials like frankincense, black sesame seeds, and sidr (jujube) leaves are valuable both physically and spiritually. Historically, they have been used for healing and purification. Nowadays, influenced by contemporary science, people tend to overlook their metaphysical value, focusing on their medicinal uses. Similarly, Muslims assign spiritual qualities to the Muqatta’at, the disconnected letters that preface several surahs of the Holy Quran, believing them to contain sacred power. In both of these cases, the material leads to the spiritual. Through material experimentation, informed by religious texts, my thesis combines revered materials with sacred letter forms in unconventional ways, offering a conceptual design framework where material spirituality inspires poetic physicality. By bridging the ancient and the modern, the spiritual and the physical, this work inspires a renewed appreciation of Islamic teachings and material culture