President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş gave diplomas to 29 students who completed their memorization of Qur'an in Kocaeli.
Participating in the hafiz certification ceremony held at the Hacı Fatma Kahraman Mosque in Gölcük, Erbaş said that approximately 12 thousand hafizes were successful in 2022 and received their certificates.
Erbaş stated that the number of hafizes with ratifications is approximately 200 thousand as of now, and said, "There are also some 400,000 hafizes who have completed their memorization but have not received a license. Maybe there is more. Is it enough? Not. When we look at our population, we need to have more memories. Hopefully, our hafiz will complete their education and become imams for our mihrabs. I hope they will be orators on our pulpits and lecterns. As the Presidency of Religious Affairs, we want our imams, muazzins, preachers, muftis, and all our teachers working in our organization to be hafiz first. Hafiz is very suitable for mihrab, pulpit and lectern. Hopefully, our hafizes will complete their imam hatip education and receive their education at the faculty of theology. We wish that our teachers working in all branches of theology faculty should be our memory. Let our teachers and teachers who work in imam hatip high schools be hafiz. We wish that our hafiz teachers should teach their lessons while they are teaching in the lectures and on the podiums."
"WE NEED TO GUIDE OUR STUDENTS"
Reminding that the elective Qur'an and Siyar al-Nabi classes in schools started 10-12 years ago, "Do we evaluate this enough?" Erbaş asked and continued his speech as follows:
"Elective courses will begin in the coming weeks. We need to use our rights, which have been obtained with such great efforts, sufficiently. We need to guide our children, our students. We need to guide them to choose the Quran lessons. As the Presidency of Religious Affairs, we express it in sermons, but it is not enough. Mothers, fathers, our teachers; this is an opportunity. In our country, the rate of those who receive religious education through formal education is always below 15 percent. So where will the other 85% learn about their religion? Where will he learn his book? They will either come to the mosques in the summer Quran courses or come to the mosques on the weekends to learn, or here is the opportunity. All students in a school can choose the Qur'an lesson if they wish. There is this opportunity."
“ENCOVER YOUR STUDENTS TO LEARN GOD'S BOOK”
Erbaş also called out to the school principals.
"Encourage and guide your students to learn the book of Allah. You will also gain from this. You will also benefit from it. In some schools, 10% and 20% choose students. This is an event that will be really upsetting for that school principal. Would 10 percent choose the Quran? Why don't the other 90 percent students choose? Here, I would like to address our religious culture and moral knowledge teachers in our schools. With the help of our state, a student can take a religious culture and moral knowledge course for 9 years. Starting from the 4th grade, up to the 12th grade; 9 years. It is possible for a young person who will become an imam in 9 years to receive information," Erbaş added.
Emphasizing that these opportunities should be used well, Erbaş added that summer Quran courses continue in mosques.
After the prayers read, Erbaş handed over the certificates of ratification to the hafizes.