Two men from Maharashtra’s Dhule city have memorised the entire Qur’an after studying at a madrasa. One is a 35-year-old businessman and the other is a 65-year-old retired bank manager.
Mohammad Azim Aslam Ansari, 35, and Haji Mohammad Yusuf Ansari, 65, completed their Hifz at Madrasa Taleem-ul-Balighan, which runs at the Jama Masjid in the Firdous Nagar area. The madrasa works under the supervision of the Makatib Ulama Committee.
The mosque also held a ceremony to honour the two men after Isha prayers on Monday.
Azim Ansari joined the madrasa in 2022, when he was 31. He said becoming a Hafiz had been his wish since childhood, but he had to put it aside as his family responsibilities grew. He had earlier learnt to read the Qur’an at Madrasa Siraj-ul-Uloom in Molvi Ganj.
According to him, the wish returned every time he attended a function held to honour students who had completed Hifz. When he learnt that the Jama Masjid in Firdous Nagar had started classes for adults in Qur’anic recitation, Tajweed and memorisation, he enrolled.
Balancing his studies with daily life was not easy. Ansari is a father of three and runs a dairy and sweets shop in Molvi Ganj, where he handles the daily work himself.
He said he would play Qur’anic recitation on his mobile phone while working at the shop and use that time to learn his daily lesson. After closing the shop at around 1 am, he would sit with the Qur’an, revise the lesson and correct his mistakes. The next day, he would recite it before his teacher.
He followed this routine for four years.
Ansari said watching 65-year-old Yusuf Ansari work on his own Hifz gave him extra encouragement.
Yusuf Ansari served as a manager with the State Bank of India before retiring. After retirement, he decided to spend the rest of his life memorising the Qur’an.
He had memorised two to three paras when the Covid-19 pandemic and growing family duties forced him to stop. He later came to know about the adult Qur’an programme at the Firdous Nagar Jama Masjid and restarted his studies there.
He went to the madrasa every day, took a new lesson from his teacher and recited the memorised part the next day. He said he also practised memorisation after each of his daily prayers and spent around four to five hours every day on Hifz.
Yusuf Ansari has three daughters and a son, all of whom are married.
Maulana Abdul Aleem, a member of the Makatib Ulama Committee, said the organisation runs adult religious education centres at four mosques in the city: Jama Masjid in Firdous Nagar, Ghadiyal Masjid, Banda Nawaz Masjid and Ali Mustafa Masjid.
He said people of different ages, including women, attend these centres to learn the Qur’an and other religious subjects.
Speaking about the two men, Abdul Aleem said they took about the same time to complete their memorisation as other students at the madrasa.
