Me and the Qurʾan, My Grandfather and My Grandmother
My grandfather and my grandmother (they are my mother's parents) deserve great credit for forming the relationship between me and the Holy Qurʾan, and this favor began when I was ten years old..
The story began after I made a decision that was strange for someone my age: to gather my clothes and put them on my back, heading for my grandfather's house (Mulla ʿAbd al-Karim). It is in the same village as our home, but in another neighborhood.. That was during the summer holiday..
I passed alley after alley, opened the door of my grandfather's house and went in, and threw the pile of clothes on the floor.. My grandmother asks me the reason for coming with the clothes.. I told her that I wanted to live with them.. Strange!
In the house, in addition to my maternal uncles, there were.. my grandfather and my grandmother. My grandfather is the Husayni orator and poet of the Ahl al-Bayt (a), Mulla ʿAbd al-Karim al-Ghanimi, blind since he was little.. It was said that his eyes were beautiful, and someone envied him when his mother was visiting one of the villages..
Everyone received my decision with joy, because there were none of the little ones in the house. The news reached my mother and father, and they gave in to the decision, because of the comfort it brought my grandfather and grandmother..
What I would like to mention about my grandmother's favor to me concerning the relationship with the Holy Qurʾan is that in this neighborhood I became closer to the (workshop) of the Qurʾan teacher, Hajj ʿAbd al-ʿAzim (rh). He had been teaching the people of the village, young and old, the Holy Qurʾan for a long time. He taught in his farm, at one edge of which stood an arbor of palm fronds containing the weaving workshop (for which our village – Bani Jamra – is famous), where he would teach and practice weaving at one and the same time..
My grandmother encouraged me to attend (the teacher), and I used to go with a group of my relatives. My grandmother organized my time completely, and my daily program was as follows:
Early in the morning I would get up for the prayer; then she would give me money to buy bread from the nearby baker. While I was bringing the hot bread, she would prepare a big (duck egg) for me and a glass of (fresh milk).. She would take that egg from her farm, where she raised some poultry, and she would insist that I finish the whole boiled egg along with the big glass and a loaf of hot bread.. It was a truly delicious breakfast.. but it took effort on my part..
After that we would play with the children of the neighborhood, then lunch, then the time for (the teacher), when we would cover the distance of another neighborhood, then enter the open country outside the village and cross sand dunes and hillocks in the heat of the sun, to reach the farm of the teacher ʿAbd al-ʿAzim..
When I finished a part of the Qurʾan, my grandmother would make (sharbat – juice) for us to carry to Hajj ʿAbd al-ʿAzim and those who were learning, for them to drink, as a celebration of the achievement. The group of boys with me and I would carry it by putting a stick through the middle of the (thermos – juice flask) so that we could carry it together, each from one end..
Sometimes my dear grandmother would give me a number of duck eggs to give to the teacher, as a gratuity for his teaching..
My daily program continued in the afternoon with a visit to the house of one of my artist friends who were with me at school and in the same class; he was older than me, and we would practice the art of drawing together. I loved drawing very much and learned to master it from my friend, but I turned more toward drawing caricatures..
After sunset I would get ready to sleep in the room where my grandfather slept.. so that a new day might begin after it, with my grandmother taking great care over the time for learning the Holy Qurʾan..
May Allah have mercy on this affectionate grandmother, who encouraged me to become attached to the Holy Qurʾan and to keep on learning it..
As for my grandfather (the Mulla), he had memorized the Qurʾan, even though he had been unable to see since childhood. He was known in the village for the strength of his memory, and he would correct the recitation of the village's leading figures who were known for their learning.
My grandfather would rise to his feet when my mother (who is his daughter) came in to see him at the house, and he would kiss her head. She would try to stop him, saying to him: Who am I that you should stand up for me and kiss my head, father? I am the one who should do that for you.. He would attribute it to her having given birth to me, and he would say to her: You are the mother of Sayed Mahmoud, and he would always congratulate her on me.. All that because I had set out to pursue the religious sciences, and he enjoyed talking with me.. (Of course, this was nothing on his part but encouragement and thinking well of me, for there was nothing in me that deserved that from him.) He was interested in the Arabic language, the Qurʾan and its exegesis, and the Sira in its details..
After the summer holiday ended, I continued to stay at my grandfather's house and went to school from there, but those days did not last.. and I returned to our house again..
In the blessed month of Ramadan every year, I would take part in the recitation of the Qurʾan in the Qurʾanic majlis held at my grandfather's house. I would tremble when I heard my grandfather's footsteps as he was about to enter the majlis, and I would take care not to make a single mistake.. He would set me right and correct the mistake while he had not yet entered the majlis.. This struggle with myself helped me to take care to recite correctly in front of everyone..
My grandfather (rh) was not an ordinary listener to the Holy Qurʾan; rather, he responded to its verses most intensely. He would sit in the majlis in the sitting posture of the Messenger of Allah (s), gathering his legs in with his cloak, and he would lend his hearing and his thought to the Qurʾan..
When a verse came that mentioned punishment and sins, he would begin to make himself grieve and break into sobs.. When a verse came that contained seeking refuge, he sought refuge in Allah from Satan; when the verses of reliance came, he placed his reliance; and when the verses of Paradise and its bliss came, he asked Allah the Exalted for forgiveness and Paradise, and so on..
At times he would laugh at those whom Allah drew on by degrees.. and he would rebuke those who followed the misleaders, encourage the upright, and say amen to the supplication. Thus he had comments on the verses in all their various styles..
With him I felt that the Holy Qurʾan is not merely words that we must recite well and nothing more; rather, it is a vast world full of movement, which makes you enter that world and merge into it, so as to live through all the vicissitudes, transformations and experiences that the prophets of Allah the Exalted went through..
May Allah reward them both with good and make them dwell in the spaciousness of His Paradise.
Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
1431 AH
