HILYA
Tirmidhi, in the late ninth century, quotes a hadith in which the Prophet
promises: "For him who sees my hilya after my death it is as if he
had seen me myself, and he who sees it, longing for me, for him God will
make Hellfire prohibited, and he will not be resurrected naked at Doomsday."
The hilya (literally, "ornament") consists of short descriptions
of the Prophet's external and internal qualities, drawn from early Arabic
sources. It is told that the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid bought such
a description from a wandering dervish, rewarding him lavishly; the following
night he was honored by a vision of the Prophet, who promised him eternal
blessings.
According to other popular traditions, the Prophet himself advised his "four
friends," the first four caliphs, before his death to remember his
shama'il-nama, that is, the description of his looks and qualities. One
who stitches the hilya in his shroud will be accompanied on his last way
by a thousand angels who will recite the funeral prayer for him and ask
forgiveness on his behalf until Doomsday.
Out of the simple, sonorous Arabic descriptions of Muhammad's qualities
more artistic forms developed. It seems that veneration of the hilya was
especially widespread in Ottoman Turkey. There the calligraphers developed
a peculiar style of writing it during the sixteenth century, which was perfected
by Hafiz Osman, the master calligrapher of the late seventeenth century.
These hilya, often imitated, are round, and beneath the circular frame that
contains the description of the Prophet, the line "Mercy for the worlds"
is written in large letters.
Even today, the hilya is usually printed according to the model set by Hafiz
Osman and his disciples, and is kept in homes, to convey blessings upon
the inhabitants. To execute a hilya in fine calligraphy was considered a
work of great merit: one Turkish woman, widowed and childless, said she
regarded the nine she had completed during her lifetime as a substitute
for nine children, hoping that they would intercede for her at Doomsday.