When Quran was banned in Russia.
In 1973 communism was at its peak in Russia, whole world was saying that sooner whole Asia will turn red. At that time a Pakistani Muslim went to Russia for training. This is his story
He said that on Friday he asked his friends to get ready for Jumma prayer. They said Mosques are turned into storage in this country, few mosques are turned into motels for tourists, only one or two mosques in this city are kept as they were. Even they are close most of the times. I asked them to just guide me toward a mosque. When I reached there the mosque was closed. A person in neighborhood had its keys, I requested him to open its gate so that i can say my prayer.
He : Okay i will open the gate for you but I’m not responsible if you will face any harm.
Me : Brother! I was a Muslim in Pakistan and shell remain a Muslim in Moscow too. I prayed in karachi, Pakistan and I shell pray in Moscow Russia too no matter what.
He opened the door and i saw Mosque was in bad shape. I cleaned it in a hurry and tried to make it as good as i could in limited time. After that i said call for prayer (Azaan) in loud voice. Many old people, women and children gathered on the door of the mosque when they heard the call for prayer but no one came inside. I wasn’t able to say juma prayer cause i was alone but i did said my Zuhar prayer. When I came out people were looking at me as I’ve done some thing new.
A kid came to me and invited me to his home for tea. His voice had such sincerity that i wasn’t able to refuse so i went to his home. People there cooked different dishes for me and were extremely happy. I had my lunch and after tea i asked a little kid who was sitting there that if he can recite Quran?
Kid : Yes sir! we all know how to recite Quran.
I opened my pocket Quran, placed my finger on a verse and asked him to recite it to me.
That kid looked at me, then looked at Quran and then look toward his parents. I thought “he don’t know how to read but then why he said that he can?”
I recited that verse
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا قُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ
and that kid started recited ahead without even looking at the Quran. I was shocked, looked toward his parents and asked what is this?
They smiled and told me that “Quran is banned here. If a person is caught having even a single verse of Quran his whole family is killed. Thats why we cant keep Quran in our homes.
Me : If no one here have even a single copy of Quran then how come this kid memorized it?
They : We have many Hafiz e Quran here doing different jobs. Some of them are tailors, some are shop keeper, some are farmers and some sells vegetables. So we send our kids to them pretending that they are there for work but in reality they are memorizing Quran there. Thats why even though we don’t have even a single copy of Quran but all the kids you see here and in all the Muslim families are hafiz. So when you put your finger on a verse, the kid was not able to read it but when you recited it then he recited whole chapter. And you stopped him otherwise he was going to recite whole Quran.
That day i saw not one but many miracles of Quran. A society where Quran was banned, whole generation became hafiz. I tested this thing on many kids. All were hafiz.
That day i truly understood the meaning of the verse
إِنَّا نَحنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ
(15:9) Assuredly, We alone have revealed this Glorious Admonition (the Qur’an), and surely We alone will guard it.
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