On blessed Friday, March 18 (9 Jumada al-Thani, 1438 of Hijri calendar) at Kyiv Islamic Cultural Center, the Muslims congratulated the new Hafiza, Gana Ahmed Taha, Syrian by birth. She has completed the reading of the Holy Qur'an by heart, her mentor was Sheikh Haider al-Haj.
New Hafiza told her sisters in faith that she had not the possibility to devote much time to studying of the sacred texts in her mother country. Moreover, she was sure it was beyond her power to learn the Qur'an by heart. After she had moved with his brothers to Ukraine, Gana Ahmed Taha began to attend the Islamic Cultural Center – first, she went to the mosque, then she joined the women's social organization "Maryam". When she found out, that she could attend lessons in Tajwid and in studying of the Qur'an, "Firdaus", she decided to test her strength and she took this classes. To her great surprise, she realized that she could learn the ayats by heart quite easily, because she was acquainted with the Holy Book since her childhood, she often re-read the Qur'an – thus, a year passed after the course had started and she has already received the congratulations from fellow believers on the title of Hafiza.
Thus, there are already six women who received knowledge in Kyiv ICC and became the Huffaz (plural form of Hafiz) of al-Qur'an – the guardians of the Islamic heritage, who learned by heart all the ayats of the Qur’an. Besides, the knowledge of the Qur'an word by word lets Hafiza teach in the women's madrasa, and be a spiritual mentor of the students during their studying of the Koran.
It will be recalled that the first ethnic Ukrainian woman, who had learned the Koran by heart, became Vera Fryndak. Before her, in the whole history of independent Ukraine, the Huffaz were only the men, mostly, Crimean Tatars. Vera Fryndak completed learning all the 114 suras of the Koran by heart, last year, in March.
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The ayats of the Qur'an and the hadiths were learned by heart during the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and they were passed on from generation to generation. Huffaz were the real guardians of the Islamic heritage. The tradition of the oral transmission of the Qur'an and hadiths still exists, along with the writing transmission.
