what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

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Most of us actually dont understand what we recite during namaz, or even when we read quran. Look at the madrassas (even the ones in UK) so much emphasis is being put on reading chapters and chapters of what?? people do huthums and recite surahs and surahs, organising milads and what not. My daughter is doing hifz blah blah You know for a long time when i was a kid, i really didnt like it when i had to read quran, beatings if i get words (which not even the teacher understands) wrong, criticized for reading it too slowly (its not even my language), how can we feel good from reading it if we are not getting anything from it. I used to skip pages when the ustaad wasn’t looking.

I doubt allah is rewarding us for reading it without understanding and reflecting, maybe he’s even punishing us for being ignorant and not taking it to heart. Alot of desis cant even pronounce the words right.

Ok we can read the translation, but its nothing like the original is it? And not only this namaaz too, it’s reduced to a ritual if you dont understand what you are reading, namaz is meant to be your communication with allah, your time with him, so sure you have to know what you are reading.

take this free course http://www.understandquran.com/home.html

really dont live in ignorance anymore

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RngM02PvbKg&feature=related

video course of learning to understand the quran

understand quran/namaz for kids - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD-2-PR9OFw

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

jazakallah

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

JazakAllah Sajania.

When I was in college, I took a year of Arabic and I was able to pick up general ideas and themes from the Qur'an. I am planning on taking a summer course in Arabic (Summer '11) inshallah. So your links are very helpful.

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

inshallah I will start them tomorrow, I already checked some of the videos from the link, I think it will help.

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

Peace Sajania786

Your general thought for studying Arabic is well taken however there is so much about this post that is offensive and incorrect and here are the reasons why:

  1. We are supposed to be able to pray by the age of 7 and be full time by the age of 10, before this we should be learning the Qur’an in order to be able to recite the verses. For children whose first language is not Arabic this would be very difficult and by suggesting memorising verses is blah blah is wrong. Children even if Arabic was the first language would not be able to “understand the Qur’an” to any depth anyway. We pray to be kept on the Straight Path in Surah Fatihah, what would that mean to any child?

As in every language first we learn to repeat the sounds of the language just as babies do with their parents tongue they listen to the sounds and repeat without any recourse to understand the words. This is the same approach that is supposed to be used for Arabic in Islamic matters.

  1. There are plenty of hadith that clearly state the reward and blessings of recitation without any specific pointer to understanding the verses. This shows the fairness in the overall system of Islam that people who have less understanding can earn the benefits of those who have more. Rather those people who have greater understanding should learn the classical Arabic language to a greater degree in order to be comparable to those simple minded people who have learnt volumes of the holy scripture.

  2. You seem very much to be promoting something good by saying the opposite of doing the course would result in “not taking it to heart” that by not reflecting or attempting to understand could be a thing “punishable” - here you have made a mistake. Furthermore, one would question that since you are the one promoting this course - (I have been studying this one and the more advanced Madinah course) that you would have taken it to heart, yet you see the words “hifz blah blah” as a sign of clear disrespect of the Sunnah of Muhammad (SAW) and many Sahabis. One wonders that even after you have been studying this course why is it that you can still talk like this?

  3. Next you say that learning the Arabic is better than reading the translation. I totally agree, but for sure this is for people who have the ability, means and time for it. Ulema are the ones who really need to know inside out to guide the rest of us lay folk by using language to our understanding. It is not less for a Muslim to recite the Qur’an in prayer, praying consistently with khushu’ knowing the meaning than a person who understands the verses directly. HOWEVER, this is the last course I would choose to understand the Qur’an directly. Rather this course more often than not resorts to established translations and even states that in the course itself. The problem of “samai” (as heard) terms, phrases, idioms, parables, Arabic cultural norms, history behind morphology and etimology cannot be learnt from the course you have listed. The course is a stepping stone in the right direction and this is how it should be pitched - nothing more than that. But please when doing so do not ridicule the established traditions of memorisation and learning Arabic without understanding … it is possible and it is being done all of the time. Rather we should encourage those who have learnt to learn Arabic as a language as well.

For information most current madrasas will teach the students the Arabic by heart plus translation in their mother tongue.

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

Sajania even if read you without knowing the meaning you still get the sawab butt yes to understand it teachings and to follow each of its teaching which is farz (compulsory) on us we have to read with translation as many times as we could also along with it Hadees

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

dudes, my father knew arabic, every time I faced a question in life I asked him, he will answer me from quran, and see how fine I turned out :snooty:

Swab is one thing, but the ppl who crave understanding should learn arabic

1-for better understanding.
2-save time, now you don’t have to read in arabic and urdu.

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

psyah makes valid and important points. I agree.

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

I tend to agree with Psyah on this issue …

on the contrary I would like add that there was a time in our Muslim history where people who know more Quran then others were given more responsibilities and prestige but thesedays

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

^LOL ... O my Lord ... He must have got a real phantee from Molvi saab

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

Another careful point to consider is this:

The Arabic translation this course uses suggests that Arabic of the Qur'an is easy to understand citing an alleged meaning or translation of the word "dzikr" to mean "learn, recite, understand, etc"

I strongly hold that the Qur'an is not easy to understand without proper teachers. The Qur'an says about itself that it can lead people astray or guide them so something that is easy to understand will not do this. Rather we only need to look to the world today and see how many people actually do misinterpret the Qur'an. Rather Arabic of Al-Qur'an is easy to "remember" - i.e. that it is easily memorised and recited. The name Al-Qur'an means The Oft-Recited. To make people feel like scholars after they have touched the surface of Arabic from this course is dangerous and is a cause for probably even more argumentation about interpretation and meaning.

My point being that even the Qur'an favours and supports the idea of the verses being "recited" without clear pointers to the need of understanding it. Understanding comes from Allah (SWT).

Next there is a hadith that states the world will not end until the last man saying Allah Allah remain alive in this world. So much ignorance will be around that he will be asked what it is that he is reciting and he will say that he does not know what it means but his father used to recite it so does he. This is clear that there is barakah in the Name of Allah recited, whether we know the meaning of it or not. The person saying this Name of Allah will prevent the coming of The Day of Destruction. SubhanAllah.

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I want to echo everything Psyah has said. Brilliant!

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

Thank Goodness we HAVE a Man of understanding amongst us ..Our saviour on this Forum Psyah. Thank you psyah I was about to make the same points especially in your first point.

since psyah has said em no need to repeat :)

Just one thing i ll add..It is the saying of Hazrat Imam Hajar al Asqalani RA - author of so many classical books in which one of them is nukhba tul fikr which is still taught today even centuries later .. in one of his books that the best way of learning is a teacher and not self study... Nowa days we have the concept that oh we have books, we have other sources and especially rely on the internet. but this is not the way to learn .. Our basic foundation should be set by a ''qualified' teacher in which ever the subject .. be it arabic, fiqh, japanese or science & technology...

That is why the introduction of Madrassahs occured that the basic knowledge of Islam was taught in madrassah - and it does not mean that once a man left madrassah he was a full on Aalim now- but that was just the beginning of the lesson .. that was the beginning of his actual studies .. which we call it 'mutaa'liah' Its the mutaaliah which made you a scholar not the studying in madrassah.. the madrassahs were there to push you in the right direction and set within you the ground rules of what you were about to make a career out of.

My point is that Madrassahs are not to blame, its the upbringing and understanding of Every muslim is what makes them who they are .. If a parent taught his child basic studies and ''Focused'' on ISLAM for once rather than remembering that you were a muslim at the age of 65 once you retire from your life .. bit like .. the non muslim .. when they retire they take up golf ..and when muslims retire they take up Islam lol .. This shouldnt be the case .. The Prophet SAW Said ...seek knowledge from the ''Cradle (not from 65 on wards) to the grave''.. If we muslims just focus on this Hadith .. we wudnt have much of a problem..

now about arabic .. as psyah mentioned above the references .. just to clarify ..I am myself Alhamdolillah a student of Islam all my life .. I ve studied in Pakistan .. Did my full Hifz of Quraan, Then studied in UK for 3 years Islamic Studies . learnt from basic sarf n nahv .. then went on to Al Azhar Uni .. I learnt arabic and studied the meanings of Quran .. I even specialized in Tafseer of Quraan .. and I am now a teacher at my own madrassah which i run .. With ALL this .. I still dont call my self a scholar whyyy .. because I am still a student ...and i still dont know the complete meanings of the quraan .. why . because ITS NOT .i repeat NOT easy ..because thats just the beauty of the Quraan.. its a sea full of wisdom and understanding which if the whole of humanity swan from the creation of Aadm AS till the dawn of Judgement day .. It still woulnt be possible to reach the shores of knowledge that is in the Quraan. Thats why .. even reciting it is so virtuous that we are guranteed 10 units of reward for just one letter.

Anyways, please do consider the above posts esp Brother psyah. and if one wants to learn ..Please I beg you .. learn from a teacher ..and also do your research as to is he qualified to teach and most importantly ... what he / she is teaching you .. is it in anyway .. against my beliefs. :)

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

I will add something. I have noticed that many people want to be thakedar of understanding and teaching the teachings of Quran and they propagate the notion that it is very difficult to understand Quran therefore you need a teacher to teach the real meanings and message of Quran.
This drives many folks away they think what is the point of trying if it is so difficult to understand Quran. They also say that Ulema spent their lives to understand and study Quran therefore they are the only ones who understand it , some even go to the lengths of saying that even after spending lives it is difficult to understand Quran.
This notion makes it very difficult to encourage people to put some time to even try to understand Quran.
I agree that there are some passages in Quran for which you need to put some time and effort to understand and grasp the real message. But most of the Quran is very easy to understand and grasp. If all of Quran would have been difficult to understand and beyond comprehension then Islam would have been as limited a religion as Judaism .
Their scholars are the ones who used to hide the books and masses were forbidden even to see the scriptures , let alone read them. Their scholars used to charge money to guide people about the teaching of their scriptures. This fact is even mentioned in Quran.
As for reading without understanding , that is the beginning of your journey to the right path , once you learn to read and recite then you will start to crave to understand it. It is a built in feature of Quran. If you are sincere in your quest to learn your religion Allah will guide you to the right people and resources , Inshallah.

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Peace Sidi Fbi786

First of all I don't deserve the comments, for sure you are the most qualified and are taught from the connected establishments for a long time, I have only really started my journey in comparison.

Peace bro Mirch

You are indeed right, there is much of Al-Qur'an that is easy to understand if we knew the Arabic. The problem that has occurred in the Muslims is that today English is considered the second language of choice for all Muslims around the whole world. It was historically Arabic and many places had it as a first language outside ancient Arabia. Another problem is that Islam is not necessarily the social framework in places where Muslims live, Pakistan is not really Islamic in its framework for example.

These two reasons have caused understanding of the Qur'an to be distanced. Today there are attempts to reignite some sort of understanding through passified courses such as "understandquran.com" - but really these are ways to teach given translations without providing the language wholesale. Learning a language involves learning the culture and society of the place it originates. This is true in any language.

We want to go to the best establishments to learn Maths, Physics, Engineering, Medicine for what? It is because we believe the level and quality of accurate knowledge will be attained from those places, there may be other reasons for the more shallow folk that they want prestige, etc. However in general we want authentic learning and we are prepared to spend a lot of time, money and sweat on getting the best. Then why do we not try to do the same with Al-Qur'an? The Word of Allah (SWT), Our Codec for Life!

It shows more about our priority regarding Arabic in our lives that we find it hard to go the full slog rather we choose to take the easy options. I have also seen many people who attend the courses thinking that Arabic is easy, but then leave when it gets tough. And it does get tough! Just like learning any subject to any level of depth. And if we don't want depth then reading translation is good enough any way.

But all this said I get your point - Al-Qur'an is clear and many parts of it easy to understand, but we should also be learning Arabic by meaning from childhood as well.

The whole thing reminds me of the textbooks "C++ made easy" or "Visual Basic Demystified" and so on. There are people selling "easy" versions of everything in order to capture some of the corner cutters in society. Is this what we should be doing with Al-Qur'an.

I would have been happier had the course title been "Understand Arabic" rather than "Understand Qur'an" - (by the way technically it should not be Qur'an - it should be Al-Qur'an - which denotes the name of the holy scripture).

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

Salaam all,
just wanted to share another website, if you really want to learn arabic check out this website it has nearly every Arabic learning material ever published available to download for free. Lots of audios to help with pronounciation aswell.

http://www.al3arabiya.info/

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

I wasn't mocking the act of hifz, i respect people who do it and preserve the words of the quran. But I am mocking the parents who push their kids into doing this type of thing and use it as a form of pride.

Sure laymen cant interpret the quran like scholars do and derive ruling from it and i doubt this course is aiming to do that. But what it is encouraging is to at least have a jist of what you are reading than not knowing any at all, it's a lot more beneficial to have a bit of understanding than none at all. And if you've watched the youtube videos, the course makes it clear that we are not learning how to speak arabic, rather it's a case of building a vocabulary of classical arabic words that are featured in the quran in surahs. So next time you open the quran alot of words are familiar.

Not everyone can afford to get taught by a teacher so this is best they have. And as with little kids, my oldest daughter is 8 and she knows how to read namaz and the surahs but at the same time i made sure she knew what she was reading, or a brief explanation of it. So at least she can enjoy it and not feel its just a ritual she must do or she will go to hell.

Maybe you can accuse me of blasphemy now lol, but really I get a bad headache and my mouth get awfully dry when I merely read 2 hours worth of quran. I dont think allah will be rewarding me with that attitute I have. But since I;ve been taking this course I've had a better attitude and shaytan has been far from me, maybe in the future when i can afford i'll be able to take it up to the next level and get taught by a "real" teacher.

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

^^I don't read the Quran as much as one should but I try to finish it during Ramadan. I don't understand the classical Arabic but despite that there is a certain joy in reciting the words, I don't find it boring or bland at all, rather I enjoy doing the qirat.

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Re: what is the joy of reading quran if we cant understand it.

Mirch even in times of Shabas not every Sahabi was allowed to interpret Quran and teach every where his interpretation thats why some are shabas are famous for Tafsser lik ABDULLAH IBN ABBAS RA