Arz-o-Samawat – (Earth and the Heavens)
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October 8, 2025
Description
This awe-inspiring ceiling mural by Sadequain, housed in the Frere Hall, Karachi, is among his most monumental achievements — a cosmic symphony painted across the heavens of one of Pakistan’s most historic buildings. Completed in the 1970s and titled “Arz-o-Samawat” (Earth and the Heavens), it transforms the ceiling into a vast celestial map, where swirling suns, planets, and abstract cosmic forms converge in a grand meditation on creation and eternity.
The mural’s dynamic geometry and vibrant color palette evoke movement, rotation, and the perpetual rhythm of the universe. Deep reds, golds, and blacks radiate from intricate circular centers, symbolizing both the birth of galaxies and the spiritual energy of divine order. Sadequain’s distinct linework — both lyrical and architectural — weaves science, philosophy, and mysticism into one unified vision.
Frere Hall’s neo-Gothic architecture frames the painting like a sacred vault, enhancing the experience of standing beneath it — as if witnessing the unfolding of cosmic creation itself.
This masterpiece encapsulates Sadequain’s lifelong pursuit: to reconcile faith and reason, art and intellect, the human and the divine — all through the universal language of form and motion.