I have been making prayer beads (tesbih) for around 20 years now. Some of the most appealing aspects for me are the way that the process mirrors the continual action of nature in rounding off sharp corners, making smooth what is rough and refining the coarse and eccentric into placid concentricity and balance. Making tesbihs is to participate in the process that creates perfectly rounded and smooth pebbles from sharp fragments of rock in streams and on beaches. This process can be seen as a reflection of an inward spiritual process that plays out in our souls, a gradual rounding and smoothening, balancing and centering that results from the repetition of invocations. Read more
