Keeping on Going: Little Man and Hifz

Little Man and I are having a daily moan-fest at the moment. He wakes up and moans at me, I listen and try not to get annoyed. I come home from work and he moans at me a bit more, I’m a bit more wake at this point (marginally) and listen and try to be encouraging.

He isn’t usually a whingy child but at the moment he is enrolled in before school Quran hifz (memorisation) class. This means he has to go to bed a bit earlier so he can wake earlier. At this point we have been waking him up for fajr (dawn) prayer for about a year and then letting him go back to bed for a while. After about three months of hifz class he is still moaning that “It’s not fair”, “I hate it” and “I’m tired”. The fact that Gorgeous isn’t going to the class yet is another sore point and we had to spend a few weeks calming him down when he was getting really angry with his little brother over seemingly trivial things.

Usually I make my children try something at least once before I let them write it off completely. This has been the exception and we have kept on going through the whinging, despite feeling sorry for him at times. We went through something similar with Little Lady a few years ago when she used to do sports before school and was adamant she hated it, hated the boys who wouldn’t pass the ball to her and didn’t see the point. I asked her to persist for the rest of the term because I had paid and at least she could say she gave it a go and was sure she didn’t enjoy it. It turned out she loved sports, got very good at being assertive about knocking boys out of the way to get the ball and ended up playing for her primary school girls football team (the “Lightning Bolts”), who were pretty terrible but had sooo much fun. I’m happy she still likes sports as I think this is something that will benefit her for life.

It’s the same for Little Man, I firmly believe that memorising the Quran , or even some of it, will bring comfort and guidance to him for the rest of his life. I know as a child I did not enjoy studying Quran and would do anything to get out of it. As an adult I am grateful for what I learned and the little I memorised, my only regret would be to not have done more as a child.

My youngest brother-in-law has memorised the whole Quran mash’Allah, and I remember him as a child trying to get out of lessons and getting in big trouble with his madrassah teacher for it. As an adult his mum is so grateful for the fact that one of her sons is a hafiz (person who has memorised Quran). A neighbour of mine was telling me how her mother was gentle by nature but had to be tough with her youngest son to get him to complete his memorisation and felt sorry for him because of the discipline it took. As an adult he is grateful to his mother for making him stick to his studies and puts his achievement down to her.

So for now, despite the moaning, the early mornings, the tears, I am encouraging him to stick with it. I think he will find a point where it no longer feels like a chore and becomes an achievement. At the same time as trying to be firm and answering his complaints without getting annoyed, I am trying to explain why we are doing what we are doing. At the same time as being a sounding board for him to absorb some of his annoyance and let him vent a little, we are continually reminding about the benefits of memorisation.

It’s making me understand a little, why the rewards and benefits of memorising the Quran are not just for the memoriser but also the people around them, because it requires everyone involved to have discipline and to be motivated to make it happen.

It is narrated from Hadhrat Abdullah ibn Amr (RA) that Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi wasallam) said: Allah will say to a Hafiz (upon his death and on the day of Qiyaamat) 'Recite the Quran and (upon reciting each Verse) climb (a stage in Jannah) and continue reciting as you used to in the world as your abode in Jannah is upon the last verse you recite.' (Mishkaat vol.1 pg.186; Me'raaj)

“Mu'aadh al-Juhani narrates that Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi wasallam) said, 'Whosoever recites the Quran and practices upon its injunctions, the reciter's parents will be given a crown on the day of Qiyaamat. The brightness of that crown will be more intense than the brightness of the sun in your actual house.' Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi wasallam) further said, 'What do you think will be given to the Hafiz (reciter) of the Quran himself?'” (Mishkaat Vol I.)

“Hadrat Abu Hurairah (RA) says: In the house where the Quran is read, the household members increase, virtues and blessings multiply, angels descend upon the house and Shaytaan quits the home.” (Fazail-e-Quran)

A person who memorized the Quran, adhered to that which is permissible, and refrained from that which is forbidden, Allaah will admit him to Paradise and allow him to intercede for ten people of his family, all of whom deserved the fire." (Tirmidhi)

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