is valuable because it is a process whereby children come to embody the Qur'an (or parts thereof)....Qur'anic memorization has been portrayed as a process of mindless rote learning and indoctrination into Islam. My research suggests that viewing it in this way reduces it significance in the lives of Muslims by implying that the process of learning ends with the process of memorization. Embodiment theory facilitates a description of the ongoing learning process that begins with Qur'anic memorization. Memorization, then, is an investment in a lifetime of potential learning, one that will provide guidance and direction to the student beyond the school years. The Qur'an is living as an oral text through the mental and physiological capabilities of the students' bodies, to translate what has been engraved in their minds to their lips, where it comes forth living, to be shared as recitation or in prayer and to be reflected upon over a lifetime, as a source of understanding, inspiration, and learning.
fn. 57: Helen N. Boyle, Quranic Schools: Agents of Preservation and Change (New York and London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004), 97-98-from The Story of the Qur'an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life
by Dr. Ingrid Mattson, pg. 123-124
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