Imagine taking the first phrase of the Bible--"when God began creating the sky and the earth"--jumbling all the letters and using them to make a picturesque calligraphy design. While that would be unusual in Western religious iconography, it is common practice in Islam, with the difference being, of course, that the words in question are the opening of the Quran. 

The pendant pictured above is an example of what in the Islamic tradition is referred to as "Bismillah," which literally means "In the name of God." "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful" is the phrase that opens the Quran, and art based on this recurring dedication abounds in Islamic culture.

(Of course, if you're a non-Muslim and the term "Bismillah" sounds strangely familiar, you probably heard it in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, when they sing "Bismillah, we will not let him go.")

That so much Islamic art (including jewelry) revolves around words and not images is not an accident. A longstanding interpretation of Islamic law is that the faith prohibits images of living things. According to one story in the hadith or reported sayings of Muhammed, "Whoever makes a picture, Allah shall torture him with it on the Day of Judgment until he can breathe life into it, and he will never be able to." As another saying elaborates, to make an image is to try to imitate the creative power of God, a sin of the highest order.

Forbidden to make pictures of animate beings, Islamic artists often turn to calligraphy to express the sublime. As we shall see over the course of our posting in the Blingdom of God, this tradition not only rivals the greatest achievements of abstract art in the West; it reflects even more fundamental patterns in nature.