Double delight for 2 Dongri school students

Updated on: Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Out of the over 11 lakh students who passed the SSC examination this year, two stand out. They cleared the board exam with flying colours while almost simultaneously finishing the Hafiz (memorizing the entire Quran) course. Junaid Salim Motorwala and Idrisi Faizan, students of Safa High School at Dongri, became Hafiz (one who has memorized the Quran) a few months before their SSC results were declared. Motorwala, who scored 92% in the SSC exam, wants to take up medicine after 12th while Faizan aspires to become an aeronautical engineer.

Following in the footsteps of Prophet Mohammed's companions, who would commit to memory the verses of the Quran as they were revealed from Allah to the Prophet, according to the Muslim belief, these two boys have already become local celebrities in the Central Mumbai neighbourhood. Normally, a Hafiz is produced in madrassas as memorizing the Quran needs special training under senior maulvis. Therefore, very few Muslim-managed modern schools dare to put their students in two divergent streams simultaneously. However, the Safa High School's management did it purposefully. "We want our students to become best for both the worlds, here and hereafter. The boys who have become Hafiz and also excelled at the SSC exam have set an example that there is no conflict between religious and modern education if discipline is followed," says S N A Kazmi, the school's principal.

Coming from middle-class families in Central Mumbai, Motorwala and Faizan spent a hermit-like life for one year before their exams of Hafiz and SSC, cramming as they did Maths, Science, English and committing the divine verses to memory. "Every day we would revise the Quran' chapters and we prepared for the SSC exam," says chubby-cheeked Motorwala who, like Faizan, last year led the Tarawih, a special, congregational prayer in the holy month of Ramzan, where verses from the Quran are recited.

Though this is the school's first batch which has cleared the SSC exam, there is already a mad rush from Muslim parents to get their wards admitted to the school. "We don't have enough space to accommodate all the students. Many want to join the Hafiz course as well, but we are very selective and choose only those whose memory is sharp," explains Kazmi.

Times of India

Double delight for 2 Dongri school students

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