Tracing Faith and Memory: The Story of Omar ibn Sa’id and the Legacy of Writing the Qur’an from Heart to Hand
Have you heard of Omar ibn Sa’id? A Muslim American slave. I read his biography recently and loved reading about his life in his own words.
After realising Omar was an educated man, his master had asked him to write about his life before being captured as a slave. What stuck out for me the most was how he starts his writing off with surah Al Mulk.
This he had done after many years of captivity and slavery and therefore he wrote it out from memory.
The commentary talks about why Omar might have picked this specific surah - as Allah discusses being the owner of the Mulk, The Dominion and it is possible Omar related his slave status only to Allah.
I told my children Omar’s story. I asked them if they had to choose a surah when telling their own story, which one would they pick?
Writing the Qur’an from memory was practiced throughout Africa and still is. Unfortunately, here in the West that is something we weren’t taught, I was not taught to write Arabic. I had to learn it in adulthood.
I’ve been working to change this for my own children as they are regularly having to dive into already memorised portions of the Qur’an.
This is where the tracing of Juz Amma comes into play - I’m hoping by tracing over the surahs they have memorised, the children can strengthen their relationship with Allah’s words - for the carving of the Qur’an in their hearts to be even deeper - and so one day, with His Permission, they can write out His Words from memory. Allah make us people of the Qur’an.
Kindly gifted by @qurantraceofficial ♥️
After realising Omar was an educated man, his master had asked him to write about his life before being captured as a slave. What stuck out for me the most was how he starts his writing off with surah Al Mulk.
This he had done after many years of captivity and slavery and therefore he wrote it out from memory.
The commentary talks about why Omar might have picked this specific surah - as Allah discusses being the owner of the Mulk, The Dominion and it is possible Omar related his slave status only to Allah.
I told my children Omar’s story. I asked them if they had to choose a surah when telling their own story, which one would they pick?
Writing the Qur’an from memory was practiced throughout Africa and still is. Unfortunately, here in the West that is something we weren’t taught, I was not taught to write Arabic. I had to learn it in adulthood.
I’ve been working to change this for my own children as they are regularly having to dive into already memorised portions of the Qur’an.
This is where the tracing of Juz Amma comes into play - I’m hoping by tracing over the surahs they have memorised, the children can strengthen their relationship with Allah’s words - for the carving of the Qur’an in their hearts to be even deeper - and so one day, with His Permission, they can write out His Words from memory. Allah make us people of the Qur’an.
Kindly gifted by @qurantraceofficial ♥️