Koran - Hafiz
Reader comment on item: [Al-Hudaybiya and] Lessons from the Prophet Muhammad's Diplomacy
in response to reader comment: Koran

Submitted by IZ (United States), Oct 27, 2006 at 18:24

Zia's comments are accurate. A person who memorizes the Koran (conventional spelling by English-speaking Muslims is Quran or Qur'an), is called "Hafiz" or "Hafiz Quran". I personally know 5 Hafiz. I'd estimate that at least 1 in 1000 Muslims is a Hafiz, based on my interactions with Muslims, though that might be an underestimation. If that is true, then there are 1 million in the world.

A Hafiz not only memorizes the original Arabic Qur'an word-for-word, but also inflection-for-inflection as Prophet Muhammad recited it. There are now generally four slight variations on how the Quran is recited, but in my opinion, they all sound quite nice, and there are no variations in the text itself, whether Sunni or Shia or some other branch of Islam. It generally takes a Hafiz about 1 to 1.5 hours per night, depending on how fast they recite, over 28-30 days to recite the whole Qur'an during the month of Ramadan. Even if you don't believe in God, it's quite a nice experience to witness, like experiencing a Catholic confirmation or a Jewish bar or bat mitzvah.

All nice experiences that bring people and family together, it's just too bad those who are not committed to their own religion or have no religion at all have to pick on religious people. I won't pick on atheists either, however, because there are many thoughtful ones who really believe in bringing about a balanced world, and regardless of a people's belief system, there are good and bad people among all the lot.

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