Committing It to Heart
Muslim students dedicate their free time to memorizing the Qur'an
While some of us struggle to commit our Italian vocabulary lists to memory, a number of Muslims at Columbia are attempting to memorize the Qur’an. They are studying to become huffaz: Muslims who are able to recite the entirety of the Islamic holy book from memory.
Although not a requirement, becoming a hafiz (singular of huffaz) brings honor and spiritual rewards. “On the day of judgment, every verse we know will send us higher up in heaven,” Faisal Khan, CC ’09, says.
In the Muslim Students Alliance prayer room, Faisal Khan, Imran Khan, a graduate student in SEAS, and Athar Abdul-Quader, CC ’08, sit holding the Qur’an. After several minutes of reading in silence, Imran says quietly, “I’m ready.” He begins to recite his passage in a rhythmic manner, even though the Qur’an is not intended to be sung.
“[During Ramadan] everyone is at their most spiritual, when you’re fasting and listening you recognize the beauty of it [the Qur’an],” Faisal recalls from listening to recitations this past September. “I really wanted to be closer to it [the Qur’an].”
“It’s very hard to learn, and very easy to forget if you don’t work on it,” he adds. He estimates six to eight years for someone of college age, although children can learn it in a couple years if they attend special schools, the madrasa.
Hafiz studies at Columbia are divided into a “brothers” group and a “sisters” group. Members of both, however, stress that the division is not due to any religious laws or discrimination.
“There are no gender differences as to who learns the Qur’an,” Mehvish Poshni, a graduate student in SEAS and a member of the sisters group, says. “I just feel more comfortable that way,” she explains. “I don’t have a singing voice, it’s embarrassing. So it’s a very sisterly thing.”
Children begin learning the Qur’an from their parents or in school. Many Muslims already know the last chapter, which is recited five times in daily prayers. As their studies progress, Muslims move backwards—many verses repeat and as Muslims learn the words, they learn to recite them with the right rhythm and tones. Learning recitation technique alone can take up to eight years, according to Athar.
Suzanne Motwaly, BC ’09, notes the difficulties of discerning the actual meaning of the words—although she was raised in Egypt, her Arabic dialect is very different from that of the Qur’an. “None of us are very familiar with the Arabic language,” Faisal says sheepishly, looking around the room. “You need to get your Ph.D. [to really understand the meaning of the Qur’an],” Suzanne says.
Even though almost every mosque has a program to helps prospective huffaz, the students opt to stay at Columbia. “It’s a community thing,” Imran says. If any of them desire to use the title hafiz before their name, however, they will have to pass rigorous tests at a nearby mosque.
Faisal insists that learning to be a hafiz is not an added stress or chore: “The idea of having to balance daily life with Islam—you must understand that Islam is a part of your life, you shouldn’t have to balance it with anything, it shouldn’t take away from anything.”