BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Friday, August 6, 2010
The bar has been raised further for national qariah (female Quran reader) champion Nurfaezah Hj Emran in securing second place for the 52nd International Tilawah Al-Quran competition held in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia recently.
Since 2007, Nurfaezah scored fifth place until up to 2008 when she won third during the prestigious international competition.
Life couldn’t get any better for Nurfaezah as the qariah spoke to The Brunei Times about her challenges, her final thoughts on the journey so far, her relationship with her contender and what she dubbed as “very surprising results”.
“In all honesty, I really did not expect to win. If you look at the competition, you see a lot of professionals from Thailand, Malaysia and so forth, women, who have been doing this for a very long time,” she said.
She added: “To aim for the highest position was the furthest thing from my mind. When I went up to there to recite, all I could think about was doing my best and being at par with all the women that night”.
When she won second place, she was so appreciative and grateful.
“Alhamdulillah, when I won the results, I was so glad that I was able to put our country, Brunei, on the same level as the rest of them,” she said.
She also praised the efforts of male qari Ak Mohd Adibul Amin on landing fifth place at the international competition.
“I really feel that Brunei performed well this year because top five amongst other muslim countries all over the world is, honestly, a really big achievement,” she said.
She was the last to recite her ayat on the second night of the competition.
“At that moment I was thinking that I hope I get blessing from Allah SWT during the competition. I told myself if I won, I would know it was Allah SWT’s rezeki to me,” she said.
She added: “I know that if I thought about the competition itself, it would have made me more nervous, so what I did was tell myself I was going to do my very best and the pressure was gone”.
Being the final reader also gave her time to listen to her competitors.
Was she intimidated by Pakistan’s Samia Khanan, the champion of the competition?
“I was happy that she won actually. Me and Samia go back as far as the first competition in 2007 and she has been one of my closest friends during the competition ever since,” she said.
She said that Samia’s recitation style has really improved and commented how her reading was more melodious and pronounced more than ever before.
“Honestly, I was so impressed with her improvements. Her recitation was perfect and I know she deserved to win,” she said.
When the results came out, she said that Samia came to her and told her that she expected her to win.
“Like me, she really thought the results were unexpected. But Alhamdulillah, I am so happy and I feel it is her rezeki this year,” she said.
She also said that she does not question the judges’ decision and added that they were quite fair.
“Each judge was very professional. It was a good call on their part because they have been doing this for a very long time,” she said.
She also said that in future, she would like to improve more on tajwid (pronunciation), as she feels that it was one of her weaknesses.
“Improving tajwid is the most challenging for me because Arabic is not my mother tongue, so it’s quite difficult to be accurate with the pronunciation sometimes. However, I would like to improve on this more in the future,” she said.
Nurfaezah also shared pearls of wisdom for aspiring youth qariahs in the future.
“For those who want to be qariahs, never give up in trying to improve yourself especially when it comes to reading the Quran,” she said.
Having been to countless competitions, she said that it should not always be about winning.
“The important factor is having the right niat (intention), get Allah SWT’s blessings and don’t ever stop improving yourself,” she said.
Whether teaching young girls how to become professional qariahs was one dream she would like to pursue one day, she replied “Insyallah, one day I would like to teach them”.
Having recently given birth to a baby girl, Nurfaezah also brought her daughter and husband along for the trip.
“This year has been a challenging one in a sense that I have had to tackle my job, participating in the competition and being a mother,” she said.
But she said that she was grateful to do it all through the support of her family members and her teachers or ustaz whom she intensively trained with prior to the competition.
“I am grateful to my parents who have been there and encouraged from the very beginning and to my husband, newborn daughter and the rest of my family,” she said.
She added: “I am also grateful to my ustaz(teachers) for their guidance because without them, I wouldn’t be in the level I am today”.
Inquired about joining the competition next year, she said that she will carry on.
“Insyallah, while I’m still alive and breathing, I will continue to participate,” she said.
Her husband Pg NorHazman Pg Abdul Hamid spoke of how he would always continue supporting his wife’s love of reading the Quran.
He said that it wasn’t just about supporting her recitation in Quran competition but also outside of it, that would garner his endless support.
“I feel really grateful and really had no expectation of the outcome of the results. I just wanted her to do her very best,” he said.
“Whatever the outcome, I leave it at the hands of Allah SWT.”
With a new baby girl in tow, Pg Norhazman also said that he doesn’t expect her to be exactly like her mother.
“Although that would be a bonus, but I’d rather she takes a lesson from this experience and that I want her to know whatever she wants in life, I want her to go for it. Just like her mother,” he said.
The Brunei Times
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