Morocco’s Traditional Quran Schools Maintain Important Role in Teaching Quran, Religious Sciences

IQNA – Traditional Quran schools in Morocco that date back to hundreds of years ago have maintained their significant role as centers of religious education.

The Quran schools, known as Maktabs, also play a role in teaching modern sciences and schools in the current era, according to a report by Al Jazeera. 

The report refers to the graduation ceremony held recently for female Quran memorizers studying in one of these schools, the Faqihiya School in Taroudant, Sous Province, in southwestern Morocco.

Holding their tablets on which verses from the Quran had been written, the girls were very happy to have learned the Holy Book.

Salwa Ayat Huda, one of the 30 girls who has memorized the Quran said she has made the great achievement thanks to the efforts of the school’s teachers and her parents’ encouragement and support.

The Faqihiya School is one of the hundreds of traditional Quran centers that give a new life to girls who have been unable to study at government-run schools.

Nasser Ayat Bunasr, the principal of the school says the girls not only learn the Quran and religious teachings, but are also given lessons on foreign languages, cooking, dressmaking and sports.

He said many of the girls hope to continue their studies, enter university and get higher education degrees.

The school has a special method in teaching the memorization of the Quran and it has been a successful one given the good performance of its students in national and international Quran competitions.

Ibrahim al-Fatemi, a teacher at the school, says the method attracts the students from the beginning, encouraging them to practice and learn verses of the Quran by heart.  

According to Mahdi bin Muhammad al-Saeedi, a university scholar, traditional Quran schools began to be established in Morocco with the arrival of Islam in the country.

The first ones were founded in the city of Fes by the Almoravids or al-Murabitun dynasty and then more Quran schools appeared in other parts of the country, Munir Aqsabi, an Islamic researcher says.

He says the schools were founded to revive the Maliki school of thought and offer Islamic teachings, train preachers, judges and scholars.

According to Aqsabi, teaching Quranic sciences, recitation, Hadith, Fiqh and Islamic Sharia had a major position in these schools.

Morocco is a North African Arab country bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Islam is the predominant religion in Morocco, with some 99 percent of the population adhering to it.

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