An imam's mission to guide community recite the Quran with precision

KUANTAN - To assist the community in delving into the Quran, an Imam tirelessly leads the local community to learn and recite the holy scripture correctly for the past 15 years.

Mohd Hanifah Seman, 40, said his students came from various age groups, but he focused more on correcting the reading of the Quran among adults and the elderly.

"There are about 100 students who are studying here at the mosque, but I limit it to only 40 students each day.

"I do not accept too many students at once because I want to ensure that each student's pronunciation and reading, especially the tajwid and makhraj are accurate," he said in an interview at the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Mosque, Indera Mahkota, here, yesterday.

The Hafiz (the person who has memorised the Quran) from Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MUIP) added that one of the biggest challenges in teaching adults, especially the elderly, was correcting their tajwid and articulation of letters because most of them have no foundation in Quranic recitation with tajwid.

Therefore, he said, special tajwid classes were held weekly to ensure that students were proficient in the theoretical aspects of tajwid.

He added that this learning process required quite a long period to master.

"Majority of my students are retirees and housewives, so teaching tajwid cannot be rushed. It takes me about two to three years to complete the tajwid theory alone," he said.

"Tajwid is closely related to the Quranic recitation and without it, the Quran is flawed and intentionally leaving it out is considered sinful," he said.

Responding to suggestions on using the ThinkQuran application in his classes, Hanifah said the application helps people to better understand the Quran in simple language.

He described how this handy feature allowed people grasp the Quran at their own pace during their spare time.

"The application is specifically designed for people to understand the words of the Quran and it also includes exercises. This is a good and beneficial application.

"I will introduce it to the students as an additional value for understanding the Quran," he said.