BEQAA, Lebanon – Three Syrian siblings had to live as refugees for years in tents with poor facilities but the experience did not break their spirits, rather they went on to memorise 30 ‘juz’ of the Al-Quran’.
The three siblings Oussama Yahya, 22, Becher Yahya, 20, and Maryam Yahya, 18, each successfully memorised the Al-Quran at Dar al-Fatwa, one of the foremost religious education institutions in Lebanon, which uses the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah method.
The trio and their parents were forced to flee their village in Al-Qusayr, Syria, located about 120 kilometres from the settlement that they have been in for the past eight years, due to civil war.
Sharing his story with Bernama, Becher, who is now an imam at a mosque in the Al-Yasmine camp, said that apart from his deep interest in learning the Quran, his life as a teenage refugee gave him the free time to focus on memorisation.
“As a refugee, I was not able to move freely like other teenagers. spending most of my time at the camp and also in Dar al-Fatwa. Therefore, the best way to show my gratitude to Allah was to memorise the Al-Quran,” said Becker, who spent three years successfully memorising the Quran.
Becher said that even though the three of them have the title of Hafiz or Hafiza, their desire is to continue their studies after high school to a higher level such as university.
“We can only study in high school in Lebanon, but we are not eligible to sit for the end-of-year exams because we do not have a visa and we need a lot of money to cover the tuition fees,” said Becher, who wants to be a pharmacist.
Meanwhile, Maryam said she teaches the Al-Quran for free to Syrian refugee children every day and her efforts have paid off as some of them have succeeded in memorising several juz of the Al-Quran.
“I see that if there are many teachers and a comfortable learning environment, more Syrian children would be interested in learning…they are thirsty for knowledge,” she said.
In the meantime, Union of Relief and Development Associations manager (URDA) Omar Janoun said 70 per cent of the 400,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon drop out of the education system and only three per cent go on to university. URDA is a Lebanese non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to ensuring the human rights of the most vulnerable groups in Lebanon.
“We still need donations to implement more educational programmes such as a school in the bus, literacy and numeracy, as well as sponsorship for outstanding children,” he said. – Bernama
