The Alif, Ba, Ta’s of the Quran

On a Sunday morning, six-year-old Maeyeshah Monawasah bursts through the doorway of the Muslim school. As she is late, she quickly slips off her shoes, places them in a cubby and rushes upstairs to the classroom. Twelve girls in colorful hijabs giggle as she sneaks past the teacher and perches cross-legged at a floor desk with her other classmates. The teacher eyes her pointedly through a swath of black and white patterned scarves. “Mayeshah, will you offer the first recitation?” she says.

“Jazakallah-Ul-Khair,” Maeyeshah articulates in a singsong, Bangladeshi accent. The words are an Arabic phrase that translates to, “may Allah reward you” and it was the first recitation she learned at the Astoria Islamic Center. The teacher, who declined to give her name, repeats the “jha,” correcting with a guttural, harsh consonant from the back of the throat. Maeyeshah mimics.

The teacher continues and the other classmates join in. First, the alphabet letters, “aliph, ba, ta, tha,” Then conjoined letters and words, “jim, ba” and “li o.” Each repeats the intoned pronunciations syllable by syllable, ending with an elongated vowel.

Another question from the teacher, but the children are silent. “We haven’t learned that one!” says a student near the front of the class wearing a trim purple hijab who, for the first time today, is not two syllables ahead of her classmates. The teacher articulates the phrase and they repeat it several times.

Recitation is an important part of being a Muslim, she tells the children. Just as the angel Gabriel recited the Quran to the prophet Muhammad, they, too, must memorize the words of Allah so it will remain in their hearts.

The Astoria Islamic Center occupies a narrow, whitewashed building that faces a community mosque. Local passersby on their way to the nearby train station can often hear the children’s recitations. A majority of the students are Bangladeshi immigrants, whose parents joined the quiet migration to Astoria, Queens for religious freedom. Here, for six hours each weekend, in an unfurnished second-floor classroom, the children join other Bangladeshis to learn what it is to be Muslim. Here, they learn how to recite.

Maeyeshah crouches over her Noorani Qaida, a text that introduces the primary concepts of Arabic recitation, drawing the eraser of her pencil across a line of Arabic. She enunciates each vowel as her teacher sits across from her, interjecting with corrections. “Thaa Jeem Haa!” she says. “You’ve got it,” says her teacher, approvingly. Maeyeshah returns triumphant to her desk and the line of chatting classmates waiting for a turn with the teacher moves up.

The teacher calls for a short break, before calling for “the line.” The students assemble into a crooked line drawn by the mosque-like carpet pattern. Each student begins to recite each of the five daily prayers, as the teacher paces the room, remarking on posture, vocal tonality and accents. “Make your voices beautiful, clear,” she reminds. “The praises to God must be respectful.”

The children quiet down as they await the final lesson of the day: the Zuhr call to prayer. The voice of the Imam, their spiritual leader, reverberates across the loudspeakers in a crisp, clear tone as the children mouth the words of the midday prayer. A glance between one another sparks a contagious, unspoken rapture in the communal harmony of addressing their maker in one collective, melodic voice.

The Astoria Islamic Center is located 22-21 33rd Street, Astoria, NY 11105.

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