Fwd: HIFZ ul QURAN.....From memory to sexuality, the digital age is changing us completely | Jonathan Freedland

31 views

Skip to first unread message

huzaifa shakir

unread,

Jun 25, 2013, 4:59:42 AM6/25/13

to shabbir...@googlegroups.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mufaddal Zainuddin <muffi...@gmail.com>
Date: 23 June 2013 11:08
Subject: Fwd: HIFZ ul QURAN.....From memory to sexuality, the digital age is changing us completely | Jonathan Freedland
To:

From memory to sexuality, the digital age is changing us completely | Jonathan Freedland

http://gu.com/p/3gn7a

HIFZ al QURAN

is a recent article I came across in the Guardian, a leading left wing newspaper popular amongst the bourgeois of Britain.

I don't think there is much that one can contest in this article. We do live in a world where our memories are outsourced to virtual servers. Long gone are the days when we remembered telephone numbers; we barely can retain the four digit pin codes of our credit cards.

Humanity is being automated, digitised and dehumanised. Yet Moula and Mufaddal Moula, in the face of this tempestuous sea change, have encouraged mumineen to learn, by heart, approximately 80000 words of the Quran, the subtle meanings of which are incomprehensible to even learned alumni of Jamea. Is this not a moment to reflect on just how significant a feat this is? Our children are bombarded with data in all its forms every waking moment, causing their minds to be cluttered with images, sounds, words, faces, events and a plethora of unnecessary matter driven by binary code. It is these very children, our children, Moula's children, Dawats "aawti kaal nu lashkar" who are being readied and equipped to face the onslaught which the digital future has only just begun to throw at them. Their cognitive faculties are being sapped by the unquenchable sponge of the 'i' gadgets and their like. Tragically, Descartes' infamous postulation, cogito ergo sum-I think, therefore I am-is lost on this generation; they are ceasing to 'think' and that is threatening their very existence, their very being.

The steady rhythm of the Quranic tarteel brings about a harmonious equilibrium in the mind of the one who recites. When learning through innumerable repetitions of each ayat, we embark on a journey of introspection. We may not understand the words we learn, but an inexplicable sense of calm envelopes us when we come across them. Perhaps because they are not the empty words of mortal men but the pregnant words of Khuda Taala, filled with infinite wisdom and light. We may not quite comprehend, but these words speak to us; they speak to our souls.

So, as Sherullah dawns upon us, let us wean ourselves from the digital teat of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Samsung and Apple, and pick up, with due reverence and piety the book of Allah, a medium of communication like no other and recite it and learn it, by heart and with heart...so that we may be retain our identity, our humanity and our being.