Aspiring teacher aims to make his family proud

Abd Al Hazeem Abd Al Halim's mother tongue is Malay, but he speaks fluent Arabic — the first in his Muslim family to hold that honour.Appearing much younger than his 18 years, Abd Al Hazeem said he was very happy to have come from as far as Brunei to be part of an important Quran competition that is recognised world-wide.

"This competition is very prestigious, I am very proud that I was able to represent my country Brunei. I hope I make people back home even more proud when I win."

A first year college student at an Islamic college in Brunei, Abd Al Hazeem confessed that it took him five years to fully memorise the Quran.

"Malay is usually spoken in Brunei and Arabic is not my mother tongue. I had to be enrolled in a special Arabic school in order to properly learn the language. It took me 10 years to be capable of speaking and reading fluently in Arabic. I wanted to master the Arabic language before learning the Quran."

Abd Al Hazeem expressed great pride in being the only member of his immediate family that has learnt to speak Arabic fluently.

Although Brunei is a Muslim country, "and everyone is dedicated to the religion", he said, the Arabic language can be challenging. "I'm the first one in the family that can speak and write in Arabic, and I think that is important if you want to learn the Quran correctly"

Abd Al Hazeem started learning the Quran in 2005; he finished memorising all 30 chapters earlier this year, and decided to take the big challenge in competing in the Dubai International Holy Quran Award competition.

"I have competed in other international competitions in Indonesia in 2004 and Egypt in 2006, but this is the first time I'm competing after memorising the entire Quran. And this is the first time to be competing on such an international level." Abd Al Hazeem's greatest concern is the thought of forgetting some of what he memorised from the Quran, a fear that drives him more into reading at least three chapters a day.

"I'm always scared of that, of one day just forgetting some parts of what I worked hard to memorise. I want to protect what I learnt; my greatest fear is to go through something like that." He said.

Abd Al Hazeem hopes to become a Quran teacher one day and teach young Muslims in Brunei to learn the Quran.