How to Draw Haykal Correctly

What does Haykal mean?

It simply means the temple in which the light of God is animated.

What is the significance of Haykal in Bayanic faith?

In simple terms, it represents a temple in which has God is manifest. The body of a believer is a temple and is (spiritually) brought to life by God when s/he becomes a believer. Where the Haykal is attributed to a man, it is represented with a 5-Point Star visualized as a human body. The Haykal should not be confused with the Jewish Star as it is significantly different: In Bayanic literature, prayers, divine attributes and verses are often scribed on the edges of the Haykal in beautiful Persian caligraphy. The 1001 Haykals by Subh-i Azal is an example of such work. In is feminine shape, Haykal is represented using 5 concentric circles divided into 19 quarters. In the centre, there is a aquare of 11 x 11 (the numerical value of هو meaning God) cells. Simialrly, the femeinine Haykal is often animated with prayers, divine names and verses

What is the significance in the masculine Haykal resembling a Star?

It is not that the Hakal resembles a star. The Haykal is not meant to be a representation of a star. It is rather that the human body resembles a star. Imagine man who opens his arms (in readyness to receive divine blessing) and spreading his feet to keap balance (in steadfastness).
Man resembling Star

What are the steps to draw the masculine Haykal?

The main features of the masculine Haykal are:

Use of Ruler

The following steps are created using Photoshop but they can be also implemented in other imaging tools. Before you start, ensure that the ruler is turned on to be able to draw measured lines. In Photoshop, this is done by navigating to the 'View' tab at the top and enabling 'Rulers'. This will show rulers on the top and on the left. When drawing an object, Photoshop shows you where you are on the rulers assisting you to draw your object precisely.

Step 1:

Start by drawing a Cross:

Step 2:

Draw the Haykal.

Step 3:

Filling paint into the Haykal.

Step 4:

Remove excess lines.

Step 5:

Making the white space to be transparent.
Now, you have the perfectly shaped Haykal which you can drop into a web page or other imaging tools such as PowerPoint. However, the white space around the Haykal will overshadow other parts of your bacground image. To prevent this problem, the following steps are designed to make those white areas to be transparent. You can download the Haykal image created using the above steps here.

Using the Haykal image to build Bayanic artworks

Now, that you have the Haykal as a single object, you can use it to create your own art work that is inspired by Bayanic concept. For example, below, we have created a circle in Power Point and then dragged and dropped the Haykal we created earlier into the Powerpoint worksheet and reduced it into a smaller image.


We have then positioned the smaller haykal on the edge of the circle. You can then copy the smaller haykal and paste it multiple times and position then along side the circle. In this artwork we have placed 18 smaller haykals around the circle (representing the 18 Letters of Living) and a bigger Haykal in the center representing the Point.
The total number of Haykals 19 representing the Abjad value of Unity (of God) (واحد).