How Pakistan’s most powerful man provoked India’s missile attack

From a western perspective, memorising all 114 chapters of the Quran might seem an unusual qualification for a national leader. Yet this is a defining feature of the résumé of General Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan’s chief of army staff since November 2022.

To become a Hafiz – one who knows by heart the entire Quran – requires committing 77,430 words to memory, each recited with precise pronunciation in classical (not modern) Arabic.