Chapter 5: Embodiment as a Conceptual Framework for Describing the Practice of Qur’Anic Memorization

This paper explores the significance of Quranic memorization to the lives and education of children and families from several schools in a small town in Northern Morocco. Data for this research were collected during a 10 month ethnographic study of Qur’anic preschools in this town.

Because of their focus on rote memorization of the Qur’an, not to mention their use of corporal punishment, Qur’anic schools have often been described as backward, uninspiring to the student and unproductive socially (MacDonald, 1911; Zerdoumi, 1970; to name a few). Memorization of the Qur’an, the defining mission of these schools, has for the most part been looked upon as a process whose only purpose is indoctrination into the practices and beliefs of Islam, and promote sustained “discipline” over the child (Eickelman). I am suggesting, however, that Qur’anic memorization—the memorization of the penultimate and sacred text of Islam—is an educational process whereby the Qur’an becomes embodied within the person of the memorizer, usually a child. Memorization, in this case, is a process that seamlessly unites the physical and the mental in the formation and enactment of religious and cultural practice. Seen in this light, memorization is more than the following of tradition, more than sustained discipline or indoctrination and even more than the passing on of religious rituals. The embodied Qur’an serves as a source of ongoing knowledge and protection to the child as he or she journeys through life. As such, Qur’anic memorization constitutes the beginning of an Islamic education; memorization is not the end goal of Islamic education, but it is a first step. Thus, embodiment, used as a conceptual framework for Qur’anic memorization allows for a more complex and nuanced understanding of Islamic education and its use of memorization as a method of study.