Muhammad Shamsuddeen Aliyu was enrolled into the Professor Ango Abdullahi International School, Zaria, when he was one-and-a-half. Before he was three, he memorised the entire Holy Qur’an. He achieved that feat through a school programme that allows children to register into a boarding programme from the age of one. It is this programme that made parents from different parts of Nigeria to enrol their children into the Professor Ango Abdullahi School immediately after breastfeeding.
The father of the boy, Dr. Aliyu Shamsuddeen, who doubles as the head of the school, said the wisdom behind admitting children from a tender age is the fact that at that stage, the brain easily assimilates education. “We have the belief that from the time a child stops sucking the breast of his mother up to adolescence, the brain is wide open and this allows a child to easily assimilate what he or she is taught. This is why we are admitting children from this age, specifically for Qur’anic memorisation.”

“Muhammad is not the only boy that can memorise the Holy Qur’an here, but his difference with others is the fact that he was able to win competitions at various stages up to the international level. We have children from different parts of the country who are here with us studying the Holy Qur’an and Western education,” Dr. Shamsuddeen said.
He said when he enrolled Aliyu into the school, the tot’s mother was not comfortable on the grounds that he was too young to be taken to boarding school. “But when his talent began to manifest, she became relaxed.
Aliyu started attending Qur’anic recitation competition from Zaria local government. After winning the local competition, he went to represent the school at the state level and represented the state at national level. This gave him the opportunity to represent Nigeria at the international level in Saudi Arabia where he became overall second in his age category,” Dr. Shamsuddeen explained.
Part of the prizes won by Aliyu at national competition include that of Emir Muhammad Sanusi II, while in Saudi Arabia, he was given the privilege to select the country of his choice where he would be sponsored for a picnic.
Apart from Qur’anic memorisation, Aliyu can speak Arabic and English languages. He can also do all other activities of a Nursery II pupil.
When our correspondent visited Aliyu’s school, it was observed that when a chapter of the Holy Qur’an is quoted, the boy completes it without effort. Apart from his pronunciation of some Qur’anic verses that are sometimes not very clear largely because of his age, a listener can mistake Aliyu as a renowned Sheikh.
When contacted, the deputy Chief Imam of Tudun Jukun, Zaria Juma’at mosque, Ustaz Bashir Lawal, said it is possible for Allah to bless a 3-year-old with the memorisation of the Holy Qur’an. Ustaz Lawal however said that in the history of the previous generations of Islam, there was no time when a 3-year-old was reported to have memorised the complete holy book. “Allah can do anything as part of justifying the sacredness of the Holy Qur’an, but in the history of Islam, that is the generations that the prophet (SAW) stamped as the best, there was no reported case of anyone who memorised the Holy the Qur’an at that age. There were instances where children of nine and above were reported to have memorised the Holy Qur’an, but not three,” Ustaz Lawal said.