By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
A Year-long Series on Education, Sponsored by The Aligarh Forum : – A Mirror on our Efforts, our Successes & our Shortcomings ; Stories of triumphs, tribulations and struggles of the Indian Muslims in improving their educational status, in illiteracy alleviation, and in their professional and social uplift.
Kolkata: Manirul Islam is blind but he can read Arabic and Quran.He can even write. He has completed reading and writing 30th Para (chapter) of Holy Quran. A madrasa has brought light into the life of this boy from Rampurhat village of Birbhum district of West Bengal. Set up in 2009, the blind school of Jamia Islamia Madinatul Uloom in Burdwan district has now 11 blind students who are being taught reading and writing Arabic and Quran besides Urdu through the Braille system.
Blind School for Arabic and Quran
This is the first madrasa in West Bengal which is using Braille to teach Arabic, Quran and Urdu and thus bringing light in the life of blind Muslim boys who are eager to learn Quran and Arabic. The blind school is located inside the premises of Jamia Islamia Madinatul Uloom in Memari area of Burdwan. The school is run by Al-Madina Market Education & Welfare Society, which also runs the Jamia. TwoCircles.net visited the school to see how people without eye-sight are learning Arabic, Quran and Urdu through the Braille system.
Blind School inside the Jamia Islamia Madinatul Uloom, Memari, Burdwan, West Bengal
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by people who are visually impaired to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing. Braille system was invented by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman in 1825. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of three dots each. A dot may be raised at any of the six positions to form sixty-four (64) possible subsets, including the arrangement in which no dots are raised. The lines of horizontal Braille text are separated by a space, much like visible printed text, so that the dots of one line can be differentiated from the Braille text above and below. Punctuation is represented by its own unique set of characters. Each dot is created from the back of the page, writing in mirror image.
Blind students at the school
It is interesting to observe here that Braille can be viewed as a script for writing & reading Arabic language. In 2009 this blind school was started in a small way. For last three years now there are 11 students in the school. They can read Ayaat (verses) of Quran. One of the students has completed ‘Amma Para’ of Quran and he is Hafiz of six chapters of the holy book as well. Students are from within West Bengal and other states as well.
Shoaib Malik, a blind student reading Arabic in Braille System at Jamia Blind School, Memari, Burdwan, West Bengal
The 11 students of the blind school include: Manirul Islam,(Rampurhat, Birbhum district), Fariduddin(English bazar, Maldah district), Zafrul Islam and Abdul Wahid (Kushmandi, South Dinajpur district), Abdu Motakabber and Badshah Shoayeb(Farakka, Maldah district) from West Bengal and Rajibul Islam and Rejauddin(Pakur, Jharkhand).
Manirul Islam was admitted here in 2009. Now he is able to read Arabic with Braille system and write also. He completed reading and writing 30th Para of Holy Quran in Braille System. Besides this, he has also memorized 6 Paras of Holy Quran. To complete the Holy Quran may take two more years, he thinks. But his teacher Maulana Shahadat Hossain said, it will take three years. “Because not only text, we are also teaching Arabic grammar to achieve the best performance,” he says.
How they teach Arabic through Braille system
Two teachers, Maulana Shahadat Hossain and Shamsuddin Qasmiare teaching Arabic to the blind students here through the Braille system since 2009.
Maulana Hossain told TCN he got training at a blind institute in Mumbai. Then he tried to use the system to teach Arabic.
Students of Jamia blind School with the teacher & founder of the madrasa
Maulana Hossain, who is also in-charge of Jamia Blind School,explained the problems in learning Arabic through the Braille System. He said, Braille system is based on 26 characters of English language, but there are 29 characters in Arabic. Besides this, there are `Zer’, `Zabar’, `Pesh’, `Sakin’, `Tashdid’ as vowels in Arabic. So, students have to remember more characters and utilize dots in Braille systems. In this regards, to observe the Braille code or dots takes more time to learn Arabic in Braille system.
Founder of the Jamia Isamia Madinatul Uloom and Chairman of the Society Gulam Ahmed Mortaja said, “We have made a plan for bind persons to learn through scientific system. He says Jamia Islamia Madinatul Uloom is one of the best Islamic Madrasas in West Bengal. Besides the Blind School,Jamia has different departments like Al-Quran, Islamic Studies, Islamic Theology, vocational training etc. The Madrasa is following the combined syllabus of Darul Uloom Deoband and Jamia Akkalkuwa. If visually challenged persons become able to read and write Arabic, then they will be asset of our society. So, Jamia has a plan to teach, besides Arabic, Bengali, English, Urdu and especially Science subjects and Mathematics. Now Jamia has talked to Ramkrishna Mission Blind School for their help for the program.”
He hopes that in future this blind school will introduce degree courses also. So, he is trying to recruit highly educated & Braille experts.
The man behind the Blind School
The Blind School of Jamia is now in the map of West Bengal as an exceptional institute for blind Muslims to learn Arabic. The man behind the idea is Secretary of Al-Madina Market Welfare Society and educationist Kazi Md Yasin. Talking to TCN he said there is no such blind school run by Muslim organization in entire West Bengal. We have established first blind school to teach Arabic to the Muslims. I got the idea from Mumbai and other places in India. Last month I visited Ahmadi Blind School in Aligarh and gathered information. I also visited Blind School of Ramakrishna Mission at Narendrapur, West Bengal.
He said most of blind Muslims are begging. This is a painful scenario, which should be removed.
Students of Jamia blind School writing Arabic in Braille System
About the syllabus he said, we start form `Nurani Qaida’. “They are learning Arabic and now they are capable to read & recite the Holy Quran. Besides this we are trying to introduce three subjects, Mathematics, mother language Bengali and English. I think, If we followed the syllabus of Government of West Bengal we can take part in Exams from any open school or recognized High school, specially from High Madrasa. Then West Bengal Madrsah Board of Government of West Bengal might introduce course for Blinds and they will get Muslim Blind students. That could be done by our society to send the Muslim blind students.”
Regarding financial assistance he said, “We have applied for financial assistance from Minority Affairs department of Government of West Bengal. We are running Secondary & Higher secondary School also. So, if we get sufficient funds from Government it will benefit the Muslim society.
Future Plan
It is fact that, there are some blind schools in West Bengal which are recognized by West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. But there is no such Government High Madrasa for visually handicapped students. If government of West Bengal introduced Blind Madrasa then lots of blind Muslims could learn & read Arabic and other subjects.Then Blind school of Jamia Islamia Madinatul Uloom can play the role of a feeder school which can send the Muslim Blind students for High madrasas.
The authorities of the Blind School told TCN that they are planning to introduce courses of Secondary, Higher Secondary and Undergraduate besides the teaching of Arabic. Then Muslim Blind students will be able to get jobs. To keep blind Muslims away from begging, this initiative may play a key role in West Bengal, said Kazi Md Yasin, Secretary of Al-Madina Market Education & Welfare Society.