Q70 :My son who is aged 12 is in the initial stage
of memorizing the Qur’an. A friend of mine suggested to me to give him
biscuits to eat after writing on them the surah ‘Al-Fateha’, or the
Opening with saffron. I know the importance of this surah, but I am at
a loss to understand how can it be used as energizer. To support his
argument, my friend has shown me some religious books as reference.
Your netments will be highly appreciated.
A70 : I am too at a loss to understand what your
friend has suggested. You may ask your friend whether it is the
biscuits, the saffron or the surah which helps the memorizing this way.
Or is it perhaps the three together. Will the prescription work if you
use the saffron to write on something other than biscuits? What if you
write it with sugar or a mixture of spices? To my mind, this is an
absolute absurdity. The Qur’an is not to be used in this way. It is far
better for your son to start his session of memorization with reading
the surah Al-Fateha, to put himself in the proper frame of mind for
memorization. You may help him by a little prayer to Allah to help him.
On the other hand, for any mental exercise, it helps if the boy is well
nourished. This is not to say that he should eat before a session of
memorization, but to have enough nourishment generally. Also it helps
if he has enough recreation. In other words, you should not be too
strict with your son, allowing him no time to play in order to attend
to his lessons and memorization of the Qur’an. A boy at this age needs
physical exercise and mental recreation. You say that he showed you
some books as reference, and you call these books religious. Let me
tell you very briefly that not everything you read in a book which the
author or the readers claim to be a religious book is correct. There is
plenty of stuff claimed to be part of our religion which has no
foundation whatsoever. Therefore, when you find something contrary to
netmon sense being claimed to be part of our religion, you should
question it. Your questioning should be on the lines that you will
need supporting evidence from the Qur’an or the authentic Hadith. If no
such support is provided, then you hold it in doubt until you make sure
of its correctness by asking a scholar who should be able to give you
the religious argument for it. If he cannot give you supporting
evidence or a sound argument, then he probably is not a well read
scholar. You then leave that thing altogether.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )