Ex-cop ‘invents’ technique to hand-knit Holy Quran on pencils

Khan Shahnawaz Malhi, a retired Sindh police official, used a unique technique to hand-knit all verses and chapters of the Holy Quran on around 8,000 pencils.

Malhi, who retired in 2014, said he is the first artist to have weaved the entire holy book with thread on pencils, a technique he learnt from prison inmates during his years as a serving policeman, according to Arab News.

His work is now on display at the National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi. The exhibition will run through March 19.

Completing the project took up to eight hours of painstaking labour daily over a decade, and Rs3 million in donations from family and friends.

The former cop even sold his house and moved into a smaller one to use the leftover funds to support the project.

“This is the first Holy Quran in the world which has been weaved,” he told Arab News at the opening of his exhibition on Saturday. “It’s the outcome of Rs3 million and hard work of 10 years.”

Malhi called the technique an “invention” in the calligraphy form: “In it, only thread and pencil are being used and the fingers have weaved it … You neither need an ink, nor a pen, or paper and nor a piece of cloth.”

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The former policeman said he had been drawn to art since he was a schoolboy and nurtured the instinct through his life. In 2002, he wrote the names of Allah in calligraphy and exhibited the work at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi.

Now, as his labour of love and time is on display in Karachi, Malhi hopes he can get sponsors and show it to the world.

“I wish it should be exhibited in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Turkey and the US as well,” he said.