Al Quran has an overbearing effect on the life of a muslim and plays a vital role in all his endeavors. This association with al Quran is widely seen in calligraphy, one of the most important and pervasive element in Quranic art. It has always been considered the noblest form of art and the preoccupation and obsession with beautiful writing extended to all arts including secular manuscripts; inscriptions on palaces; and those applied to metalwork, pottery, stone, glass, wood, and textiles, complex geometrical designs, as well as intricate patterns of vegetal ornament create the impression of unending repetition, which is believed by some to be an inducement to contemplate the infinite nature of Allah. This type of nonrepresentational decoration may have been developed to such a high degree in Quranic art because of the absence of figural imagery, at least within a religious context. Contrary to a popular misconception, however, figural imagery is an important aspect of Quranic art. Such images occur primarily in secular and especially courtly arts and appear in a wide variety of media and in most periods and places in which Islam flourished. It is important to note, nevertheless, that representational imagery is almost invariably restricted to a private context. Figurative art is excluded from the decoration of religious monuments. This absence may be attributed to a Quranic antipathy toward anything that might be mistaken for idols or idolatry, which are explicitly forbidden by al Quran.