During the blessed month of Ramadan after breaking their fast Muslims rush to mosques for Isha and Taraweeh prayers. They seek to perform the Salah in congregation led by an imam who knows the Holy Qur’an by heart and who masters the right tones of reciting the Qur’an.

Gulf Times spoke to imam Abdulrahman al-Akbari who is leading Isha and Taraweeh prayers at Hussein bin Ali Kamal Mosque in Doha’s Al-Hilal area. He spoke about his journey with the Qur’an.

Al-Akbari, who hails from Chahmuslim in Bastak, Sunni southern Fars Province, Iran, was invited by friends to lead the Isha and Taraweeh prayers. He went to Qur’anic school at the age of six and finished learning the Qur’an by heart at eight. Then in the preparatory, and secondary education he went on to reinforce his learning of the Qur’an.

He said: "After I got my high school certificate, I was admitted to the Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Tehran University. I specialised in Tajweed (to perfect the reciting of the Qur’an) i.e. Hafs, al-Soussi, al-Duri recitations, as well as in Maqamat (tones), and scientific miracles in the Qur’an. Currently I run a Qur’anic school in Chahmuslim for boys and girls."

He added: "The teaching of the Qur'an is based on its scientific miracles i.e. the use of numbers as well as the meanings of its words. For instance, children are taught to remember the number of Ayahs (verses) by mnemonics or prompts which are easy to remember. As the Holy Qur’an is divided into 30 parts, they are given this rule: To find in which page part 7 is, deduct one from seven, multiply 6X2= 12 add another 2 to the right of 12= 122. So part seven will begin on page 122. This helps them remember how to get quickly to the pages of the chapters or the parts they have learnt when revising or asked to revise or during tests or exams.

"Concerning the prompts about the meanings of the Holy Qur’an, for example, when we teach the chapter Surah Ya-Sin, we take its number in the order of chapters of the Qur’an i.e. 36, then the number of its Ayahs (verses) i.e. 83; multiply 36x83= 2,988 which is the exact number of Surat Ya-Sin’s letters in the Arabic version of the Qur’an. These prompts are also part of the miracles of numbers in the Qur’an. I love the Qur’an and teaching it, I get invited by many people in the region. I have been teaching for 27 years and I hope to keep at it until death,” concluded al-Akbari.