By Salihu Lukman, PhD
Twitter Handle: @SalihuLukman
I am one of the happiest persons alive today for witnessing my child attain one of the most coveted positions in Islam i.e. memorizing the complete Glorious Qur’an by heart thereby becoming an Alaramma (in Hausa) and Hafiz (in Arabic) and conferring on us, his parents, special recognition on the day of resurrection whereby we will be clothed with special garments and he will be made to wear a crown of dignity as per the authentic narration from the prophet’s companion, Abu Hurayrah.
Al-Tabaraani has reported that Abu Hurayrah said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The Qur’an will come on the Day of Resurrection like a pale man saying to its companion, “Do you recognize me? I am the one who made you stay up at night and made you thirsty during the day…” Then he will be given dominion in his right hand and eternity in his left, and a crown of dignity will be placed upon his head, and his parents will be clothed with garments which far surpass everything to be found in this world. They will say, “O Lord, how did we earn this.” It will be said to them, “Because you taught your child the Qur’an.”’”
Narrated by al-Tabarani in Al-Awsat.
Sheikh Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid outlined more virtues in Islam Q&A under the topic, The advantages of the hafiz in this world and in the Hereafter.
The Glorious Qur’an consists of 600+ pages, 6,200 verses and 114 chapters. You don’t need anyone to tell you that memorizing such a voluminous book word-to-word is nothing short of a miracle from the Almighty Allah. For someone who does not understand the Arabic language to memorize such a voluminous Arabic text by heart is a great miracle that no one can deny. The Almighty Allah also referred to such capability as coming directly from Him – it could not have come from anyone other than Him - when He says in the Glorious Qur’an, chapter 54 (Qamar) verse 17 that:
“And We have indeed made the Qur’an easy to remember (memorize), then is there any that will remember (or receive admonition)?”
I have many dreams for my kids and one of them is that they should all memorize the Glorious Qur’an. Muhammad started Qur’anic memorization in earnest in 2016 when he returned to Nigeria together with his younger siblings. One of his younger sisters, Maryam, was sharper than him when it comes to memory retention, but as time went by, he became extremely hardworking and determined and would sometime cry in his room alone if he failed to memorize a given portion of the Qur’an. Some are saying that his strong determination and zeal are some of the attributes that he got from me. I don’t know if that is true, but what I know for a fact is that he is more goal-oriented than me. I am also hoping to celebrate the memorization of my girls, Halima (9 years) and Maryam (9 years) soon, probably before the end of this COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. They all started the Qur’anic memorization together, but then he later proved to them that he is not their mate. They started at Professor Ango Abdullahi International School, New Jos Road, Zaria, in 2016 for one session where they almost memorized 1/6th of the Glorious Qur’an. In 2017, they were all transferred to Darul Ilm Academy, Zango, Samaru. For the Qur’anic memorization, I enrolled them at Al-Ansar Part-Time memorization section of the school where they attend on Fridays, Saturdays, and all public holidays.
I am not oblivious of the fact that with the memorization of the Glorious Qur’an comes a huge responsibility and dedication for a life-long revision to ensure that it stays in memory and is retrievable at any point in time, otherwise, one can forget it. I supplicate the Almighty Allah to enable him to revise and remember the Glorious Qur’an in a similar way Dr. Pantami (Minister of Communications and Digital Economy) does. If you have never seen someone with a photographic memory or have heard about Imam Muhammad Ibn Idris Al-Shafi’i’s photographic memory, watch Dr. Pantami’s Qur’anic exegesis (Tafseer) – he is the Imam Al-Shafi’i of our time even, by his admission. May the Almighty Allah bless us with many more Pantamis, amin.
Having achieved such a milestone in his life, he will be promoted to the next level, God willing, where he will concentrate on learning and mastering the Arabic language (and later Qur’anic exegesis and hadith commentary) and web design (HTML coding + at least Python or Java programming language) in addition to exposing him to some basic aspects of robotics and possibly Artificial Intelligence (AI)– yes, you read it correctly, robotics and Artificial Intelligence. What is your plan for your child? Even if you don’t have any now, you can still start planning for your child now, better late than never. They are our greatest gifts from the Almighty Allah, don’t be ungrateful to Allah’s gifts by failing to properly plan for their future. In contemporary times, we need to change the narrative that the government will always provide jobs for our large population. We need to equip our kids with all the necessary skills to enable them to become job creators and employers of labor rather than job seekers. They need to have an entrepreneurial mindset as well as skills to enable them to compete well in our ever-evolving competitive world. We need to open and create a world of endless possibilities for our children. We can all take a cue from the lives of the famous computer programmers and IT innovators the world has ever seen - Bill Gates (Microsoft founder) and Steve Jobs (Apple founder) – how they were exposed to a world of endless possibilities at a tender age. We can all grant our kids similar opportunities. May Almighty Allah bless our little efforts and make us train our kids such that the Prophet Muhammad (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) will be proud of them on the day of resurrection.
