ٱلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ/As-salamu alaykum,

Do you remember when you were a child and you'd watch someone write Arabic - a teacher, parent, an uncle, or a sheikh - and your hand would almost move with theirs?

And how is it possible that you can still feel that pull, that recognition, every time you see Quranic script on a wall or a page…

But when you try to pick up a pen and write it yourself now it always seems to fall apart after the first few strokes?

The real question is…

Why can your eye see exactly what beautiful Arabic calligraphy looks like, but your hand refuses to produce it?

This question troubled me for years.

You know when you're trying to follow along with a tutorial and you feel like you're finally getting it…

But it somehow dissolves into frustration after some time no matter how carefully you watch and copy?

After going through this for years, I was starting to believe I would never be able to write a single Arabic word worth looking at…

Until I realised the real reason beginners struggle with Arabic calligraphy is…

Not lack of talent, not insufficient practice time, not the wrong pen - or any other reason the online calligraphy world has led us to believe…

But due to the simple fact that Naskh script is a proportional system governed by precise rules - the Dot System, pen angle, stroke direction - that nobody ever actually explains to a beginner from the beginning.

Meanwhile every tutorial online drops you into letters and strokes with no structural foundation in place.

As a result, we default to pure imitation mode - where we're copying shapes we don't understand, so the moment the reference disappears, so does the result.

That's why we can still recognise beautiful calligraphy instantly…

But struggle to produce even one correct letter today.

Now the question is…