HD 19: Powerful Memories of the Shanāqitah tribe of Mauritania

My nonMuslim classmates are impressed with my memory. (All praise is due to Allah swt for what I have, but I have to be honest and mention that they have low standards for what is impressive). Some of them might even think something is wrong with the way that I remember details about events or things that they said – details they don’t even remember. But really, Allah swt blessed each of us with a powerful mind with great potential for reasoning and understanding and even memorizing. And while some people are given a greater gift than others, anyone can develop these gifts. Some of my classmates waste this potential by exposing their mind to toxic substances like drugs and alcohol. But toxic substances also exist in the form of time-wasting activities (social media, anyone?), temptations, unrestrained anger, and more, which many of us are not free from. May Allah swt protect us. When we come across stories like the ones below, we shouldn’t think, “This is nice… but impossible for me.” These stories are meant to show you possibilities for you.

Sh. Muhammad Hassan ad-Dido ash-Shinqeeti on Powerful Memories of the Shanāqitah tribe of Mauritania [Mashaa’Allah].

A discussion regarding the powerful ability to memorise of the Shanāqitah tribe of Mauritania, with Sh. Muhammad Hassan ad-Dido ash-Shinqeeti.

The presenter mentions that Sh. Hasan ad-Dido memorised the entire Qur’ān in two years, between the age of 5-7. The Shaykh replied that in reality this isn’t such a short period of time and then mentions some mind blowing examples:

• One of his great grandfathers memorised the entire Qur’ān, along with its Tafsīr by al-Jalālayn by simply LISTENING to it once.
• His mothers uncle memorised 3 (out of the 4) volumes of al-Qāmūs (an Arabic dictionary) by al-Fayrūz Abādi in  less than 1 month!
• One judge who the Shaykh knew memorised the Muwattā of Imām Mālik, whilst he was very senior in age (passed 80 years). The manner in which he’d memorise was that he’d ask one of his students to dictate to him ahādīth before he slept. The next night, he would essentially repeat what he heard the night before!
• The Shaykh mentioned that there is a 17 year old boy currently studying at his institute who has memorised 28000 lines of poetry, whilst another Moroccan boy memorised the Qur’ān, and various other texts including Bulūgh al-Marām, `Umdat ‘l-Ahkām etc despite being blind.

When the host asked him, who actually takes care and pays attention to children memorising like this, he replied: the mothers! (he himself memorised under the tutelage of his mothers aunt, his aunt and of course his own mother).

MashāAllāh.