Hajja Maryam al-Rumaymah of Taiz province in Yemen cannot read or write, yet she memorised all 30 parts of the Quran by listening, over about ten years. Amar Desh reports, citing Al-Mushahid, that she was over 82 when the account was published.
She was born in Hadnan, a hill village of Jabal Sabir in Taiz, at a time when village girls had little chance of schooling, and spent most of her life running a household and farming. In 2006, in her sixties, she set out to memorise the whole Quran. When her son, Sheikh Mukhtar al-Rumaymah, opened a Quran school in the village, the path became easier.
Each afternoon she recited what she had learned to a woman teacher in the village and learned new verses. In the evening she listened to recitations on a cassette player and practised again and again, and she rose before Fajr to revise. She loved the recitation of Sheikh Fares Abbad; whenever she finished one cassette, her family brought the next.
Similar verses made parts of Surah At-Tawbah and Surah Ar-Rad hard to keep apart, but repeated listening carried her through. In 2016 she memorised the last verse, wept with joy and fell into prostration in thanks to Allah. Surah Al-Baqarah is her favourite, and she tries to recite it every day.
Her whole memorisation took place during war and siege in Taiz, amid gunfire and power cuts. She has a son, three daughters and 21 grandchildren. Old age and high blood pressure have weakened her and her sight has dimmed; recalling some verses is harder than before, but she keeps up her bond with the Quran.
Photo: Amr Fayez / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
Source: Amar Desh
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