By Gabriel Evans
Daanyaal Qureshi memorized the full Quran by the time he was a teen to live his life by the core teachings of Islam.
He is what the Islamic community refers to as a Hafiz. “It means guardian or protector of the Quran,” said Qureshi.
Industrial and systems engineering student, Daanyaal Qureshi committed to being able to rehearse the entirety of the Quran to memory by the age of 16.
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam. It contains 114 chapters with over 6,000 verses, all in Arabic. The text itself is said to be over 1400 years old, according to qurananalysis.com.
Daanyaal Qureshi said he credits his parents for his success in memorizing the Quran. “When we were very young, me and my brother went to after school lessons,” he said.
Daanyaal Qureshi said he decided that he wanted to memorize the Quran when he was 12 years old.
“I thought, what better way to ensure that I do that than to memorize the entire book of Allah?” Daanyaal Qureshi said.
SJSU alumnus and Daanyaal Qureshi’s older brother, Jibraan Qureshi said Daanyaal Qureshi is the “Only one in our family to do it, including our extended family.”
Daanyaal Qureshi said when he was 13 years old, he joined a program called Hifz, memorization of the Quran, an afterschool system that teaches Quran recitation to the youth.
He said during these lessons he was taught from the Qayda, a book that taught the Arabic alphabet and basic pronunciations. He said the program taught him how the Quran is read in original Arabic.
“There are different rules to pronounce certain letters, which ones to elongate, where you should make a certain sound and how to make that sound,” Jibraan Qureshi said.
During elementary school, Daanyaal Qureshi said he and his peers were taught Islamic studies alongside the basic subjects that are normally taught in America.
“The program was Monday through Friday. It started around 8 a.m. and ended at 1:30 p.m.,” he said.
Daanyaal Qureshi said he spent three years memorizing and reciting 10 pages a day. After going home and doing his school work, he spent the rest of his evenings reciting the text.
He said when he was 16 years old, he had officially memorized the entire Quran, which confirmed his title of Hafiz.
“I had a ceremony where I recited the last portion of the Quran in front of the entire community,” Daanyaal Qureshi said.
Daanyaal Qureshi said he then spent two additional years memorizing and reciting the scripture daily.
“I spent as much time as I could, to recite as much as I could, to do six juz (chapters) a day,” he said.
The Quran was revealed verbally, and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) would recite the verses, and his companions would memorize them or write them down, according to Lumen Learning.
Political science freshman Sayed Mujtaba said, “They were the first people who preserved the scripture directly from our Prophet Muhammad-peace be upon him.”
Daanyaal said this was done as a way of preservation, as there have been events in history where copies of the Quran were burned, and Muslims were attacked for their religion.
“They had Hafaz who had been reading and reciting the Quran for their whole lives, and were able to rewrite the physical copies” Daanyaal Qureshi said.
He said the concept of Hafaz, the plural form of Hafiz, is the method of preserving the Quran for future generations.
“I want to live my life according to the rules and regulations provided to us through the Quran” Daanyaal said.
