A comment from my daughter truly got me thinking.

After meeting some of the members of my mother’s interfaith book club, my older daughter came back and told the younger one: 

“Did you know Sitty [grandmother] has friends who are not Muslim?”

The younger one innocently replied: “No she doesn’t, everyone is Muslim.”

This dispute got the four-year-old and six-year-old to talking. The four-year-old proclaimed, “Well, then they are kuffar if they’re not Muslim.”

My mother instantly gasped at her deduction. With everyone's full attention suddenly focused on her, she did what any four-year-old might do. She started to cry.

Through her sobs, she explained she was referring to the kuffar at the Prophet Muhammad’s (S) time. “I’m talking about the people who made fun of the Prophet. Like in the surah it says, ‘Wa itha maaru bihim yataghamazun.’ [and when they, the believers, passed them by, they would wink at one another, the guilty beckoned with their eyebrows and eyelids towards the believers in mockery.” She even remembered that this ayah is from Surat al-Mutafiffeen. She went on to cite other examples of kuffar, such as Pharoun, whom she quoted as saying he was Allah, according the Surat al Naziat, “Faqala ana rabbukum al-a’la (Then he proclaimed, ‘I am your Lord, the highest.).”

I mention this anecdote not to praise my daughter’s intelligence, though it’s a fact I can’t hide, but to demonstrate the miracle of the Quran. The fact that a four-year-old who can’t remember to blow her nose on her own can commit an entire juza’a of the Quran to memory is a miracle. An even greater miracle is the fact that not only has she memorized the last juza’a, but she understands the ayaat in context, and can recall them when relevant to a discussion. 

Thanks to the blessings of Allah, there are many other young children in our community like her. We are privileged to live in one of the few areas in America where children have multiple venues present for them to develop their skills in reading, memorizing, and understanding the Quran. From the Islamic schools, to our masjid’s programs, to institutions like MAS Quran Blossoms, there are abundant opportunities available. However, it is not only the availability of programs that is significant, but the presence of teachers who not only impart their invaluable knowledge, but their genuine love for the Quran to their students. And often their work is underappreciated.

As parents, it is our duty to take advantage of our children’s ripe young minds, which are ready to absorb whatever information we choose to fill them with. They learn and memorize at speeds adults can only dream of, and do so without the complaining characteristic of older children. As the summer slowly ebbs away, we should all endeavor to help our children grow, and at least retain whatever information they have already learned. Take advantage of your time for further progression, rather than regression.