Garden Grove Youth Is Home-Grown Hafiz

On his lap, Muneeb Baig cradled his copy of the Koran, held together with silver duct tape and covered with pencil scrawls.

Although the 13-year-old Garden Grove boy hasn’t needed to refer to the holy book since this summer when he first recited the Koran by heart, its thick binding and worn, gold-trimmed pages comfort him.

Muneeb--who was chosen to lead prayers at the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove this year during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month--is one of a few Southern California students who have memorized the Arabic text’s 6,391 verses, Islamic leaders said. (For comparison, the Bible has more than 41,000 verses.)

The Koran is revered in its original Arabic as the word of God that was passed by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad over a period of 23 years in seventh-century Arabia. According to scholars, it follows no chronological or narrative pattern and the language is poetic and very difficult to grasp, even for Arabic-speaking Muslims. The entire text is recited over the course of Ramadan, which ended Friday. Major celebrations will be held today across Orange County.

“Before we used to bring people who knew the whole Koran by heart from overseas,” said Muzammil H. Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of North America and director and imam of the local Islamic Society. “Now, we’ll have our own, home-grown readers. . . . [Muneeb] has a melodious voice and gives a clear reading with no mistakes.”

New Focus on Koran

Muneeb is the youngest Koran memorizer in Orange County, said Siddiqi, who himself never memorized the Koran but is anxious to teach his grandchildren the holy book by heart. It is a feat considered unusual, particularly in the United States, but one that is becoming more common as “memorizing schools” pop up in Islamic communities and more parents are home-schooling their children to focus on the Koran.

Islamic experts say about 1% of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims have memorized the Koran, including children as young as 5.

“Among Muslims, there are millions of people who memorize the Koran because it’s a tradition that started during the time of the prophet Muhammad,” Siddiqi said. “But here in the United States, we just started this practice.”

According to Mohammad Nadvi, president of Dar-Al-Uloom Al-Islamiyah of America, an Islamic school in San Bernardino that started memorization classes three years ago, there have been only three students who have memorized the Koran’s 114 chapters.

“Most kids memorize the Koran when they are 15 years old,” Nadvi said, adding that it takes an average of two years.

Muneeb’s parents decided to teach him at home and work at memorizing the Koran over two years. Every morning of his sixth- and seventh-grade years, his mother would sit patiently and follow along while Muneeb closed his eyes and recited the text. He said he tried to imagine the beautiful curved Arabic printing of his Koran.

“It required a great deal of sacrifice,” said his mother, Rubina Baig. “For him and for me. I didn’t socialize for a long time.”

It was well worth it, she said.

Muneeb, with an official signed certificate of his achievement, now is considered a hafiz, or guardian of the Koran.

Wearing a traditional white robe and pants called shalwar kameez, the son of Pakistani immigrants was surrounded by his parents and three younger siblings this week in the family’s sparsely furnished living room.

“Morning is the best part of the day for memorizing,” said Muneeb, flashing a mouthful of braces beneath patches of an emerging mustache. “That’s when your mind is fresh.”

A ‘Meritorious Act’

The smell of turmeric hung in the air as samosas fried in the kitchen. His mother had prepared traditional foods for the breaking of the Ramadan fast as the sun sank in the sky. She laid a tablecloth on the floor of their small kitchen where the family will later kneel, pray and eat the savory foods while giving thanks to God.

Muneeb finished memorizing the Koran on March 28, 1999. He then was required to recite the text aloud to a teacher, who would check and verify his work. He spent an hour a day during July and August chanting the complicated classical Arabic--with no mistakes--and received his certificate written in Arabic a week later.

“In the United States, Muneeb is the first generation of the local memorizers,” said his father, Khalid Baig, a software engineer. “It’s a highly meritorious act.”

A Home With No TV

Muneeb’s parents keep a simple home and allow no photographs of their family except for necessary documents, like passport photos and driver’s licenses. In lieu of family photographs on the wall, there are pictures of flowers ripped from magazines and taped to the walls. They keep a “television-free” home and don’t allow their children to go to movies.

“It’s a waste of time,” said Muneeb of movies and television. “It’s a distraction.”

Indeed, his parents are determined to keep their children focused on their studies and away from the myriad “distractions” of daily Southern California life.

“I’m convinced he wouldn’t have memorized the Koran if we had the distraction of a television here,” said his father, who fears his children will lose the moorings of their faith if they fully assimilate.

“We go pray at the mosque three times a day,” said Baig, who said that for fun, his family gathers around their computer to play games, do programming and send e-mail.

The recent push for children to memorize the Koran may well come from parents, who have an incentive for their children’s spiritual achievement, Siddiqi said. He said the prophet Muhammad wrote that parents of children who memorize the Koran will receive a special crown on Judgment Day.

“Every time [Muneeb] reads the Koran, we will also be rewarded--even after our death,” Rubina Baig said. But the parents said they didn’t push Muneeb.

“Memorization absolutely requires the devotion of the child,” Khalid Baig said. “You can force children to read the Koran, but that doesn’t make it stay in their brain.”

Muneeb, who began reading the Koran at 3, said the memorization was his idea. He said the project has improved his schoolwork overall and that he enjoys all his studies, particularly math.

After high school, Muneeb said he wants to continue studying the Koran at an Islamic university in Saudi Arabia. Beyond that, he’s not sure what profession is in store for him--perhaps he’ll be an Islamic scholar.

“Definitely not a doctor,” said Muneeb, with a lopsided grin. “That’s much too hard.”