Teaching Qur’an

For School Students

A lecture Given at Hajj House, Bombay

All India Muslim Teacher’s Meet.
www.understandQuran.com
Outline
 Introduction & Background
 My focus
 Why teach Al-Qur’an
 Language learning vs. Understanding Qur’an
 Brain / Memory / Language learning
 Unique features
 Sample Demo (Book & CD)
My Introduction /
Background

Scholars

My position

Masses
My Introduction /
Background
Past several years of teaching as well as doing
basic research on teaching/learning Al-Qur’an:

Involved in teaching as well as studying different

approaches

Got input from several scholars &

individuals; not completely my own
method
Vision
Al-Qur’an should be easy as well as the
most interesting book! Is it not
authored by Allah!

If Qur’an is for the whole world, it should be

easy to learn (including its language)

If Qur’an is written by Allah for humans, it

should be most interesting book – that is, a
book that will appeal strongly to our intellect
as well as our heart.
 Style of Delivery
I have tried to use modern concepts in teaching.
They include:
 Brain (Tony Buzan etc.)

 Lateral thinking (De Bono)

 Positive thinking

 Effective living (Stephen Covey)

 NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming)

 Time and Resource Management

 + Second Language learning (Latest style of

teaching English to foreigners at American
Universities)
Challenges to a Teacher
For teaching any subject, the main challenge is:
 Motivation (How to motivate the students)

 Methodology (the way to present the material)

And we really want to improve the above 2 when it

comes to teaching the Qur’an. Let us not use that
old method of just asking the students to recite for
‘Barkat’ (in the limited sense).
Elements of Success-
for students !!!
According to modern research, these elements
are:
 Attitude
 Confidence
 Optimism
 Positive thinking
 Good relationship with others
 A Pondering mind
 High values
Qur’an can give all these values in a way no one
on earth can give!!! This is the real and
comprehensive Barkat which will lead to
success in this world and the hereafter.
Our Approach to
Teaching Qur’an
For a quick approach to Understanding
the Qur’an
 No. 1: Smooth Start

 Start from Salah (Why use any other text,

when you want to understand Qur’an)…
 If I want to teach you french and if I know
that you speak something in french for 1
hour, I will say: Let us learn that first!
 A common sense approach
 Valid for every Muslim man, woman, old, and
young, and even for a child because he is…

www.understandquran.com
 No. 2: Focus on Listening and
Reading

Language Understanding
Learning Qur’an
Reception Listening  
Reading  
Production Speaking  -X-

Writing  -X-

This will decrease the initial burden on students

and make it simpler to learn.
www.understandquran.com
 No. 3: More Focus on Vocabulary
 More focus on Vocabulary (just the way a child
learns…)
 Less focus on grammar; otherwise if we teach the
way shown below, people will run away!

،‫ مهموز‬،‫ مذكر‬،‫ جمع‬،‫غائب‬

‫باب إفعال‬
‫ؤمنُون‬
ِ ُ‫ي‬

‫فعل مضارع مرفوع بثبوت النون ألنه‬

‫ والواؤ ضمير‬،‫من األفعال الخمسة‬
‫متصل في محل رفع فاعل‬
www.understandquran.com
 No. 4: More Focus on Sarf

In Grammar, we give
 More emphasis on Sarf (word construction)
 Less emphasis on Nahw (sentence construction)

Because:
• We are familiar with the topics of Qur’an;
• We are learning from existing English translations;
• We are learning to repeat the translation, rather
than ‘translation’ itself.

www.understandquran.com
The Challenges
A typical Muslim
Youngster
MEDIA
TV,
Newspapers,
Magazines

Political
PEER
Atmosphere
PRESSURE
(India & world)
Our
Student

Lack of
Lack of
parental
guidance Masjid’s Role
 We are missing
the youth… The right
course

Bid’ahs,
meaningless
rituals Modernism
We are missing the
youth both ways
because we are
not teaching them Qur’a
the Qur’an Illiterate /
n

semi-literate Educated
masses Youth
When they grow up,
they!!!
 DON’T KNOW THE QURÁN (PERHAPS NOT
EVEN 2% OF IT).
 Have almost no exposure to Hadith
 Consequently, have no self-esteem as a
Muslim.
Qurán
 A book of Guidance – And that is the status
we have not given to it
 Human Being – surrounded by enemies and
self-weaknesses
 Daily Exposure to Qu’ran – thru Recitation in
Salahs / in homes – is not utilized at all!!!
 How does Qur’an guides us? It always
reminds him as to who he is, where he is,
what is his role, his destination – Thru
Promises, Threats, Examples, Stories, …
By understanding Qurán
 We will open up this gate of daily tarbiyah

 We will establish connection between us and

Allah directly and for the rest of his life.

This Book will not change. A Permanent

Solution.
Qurán
 Solutions to all problems are in the Qurán
and Sunnah
 Just establish direct connection between
them and Allah thru Allah’s book and they
can walk with dignity
 Give them the master key and they will
open all the doors
Why don't the Students
understand the Qur'an
 Most importantly: Nobody told them that
understanding Quran could be so simple.
 AND FURTHER TO IT: Qur’an should have
been the most interesting subject!!! Is it so?
How will teaching Qur’an
help?
 Attitude (You will put the student in contact
with Allah directly)
 Confidence in himself and his Deen as well
as his people
 Sense of responsibility
 Seriousness
How will teaching Qur’an
help?
 Muslims directly aware of the divine guidance
 Pleasure/Good will of Allah
 Future assets of Ummah
 Balanced Personality
How will teaching Qur’an
help?
 Excelling in their roles with a purpose
 Will set a role model for future Muslim
institutions
 Decrease evils like ragging, crimes,
indecency
 Produce ideal youths and ideal campus
atmosphere
 Produce mature, responsible, and stable
citizens
For Qur’an…
 In approximately 200 hours of learning, you
can inshaAllah understand the Qur’an
completely.
 30 hours of Starter course
 (After this, in 170 hours, you can easily
learn the complete Qur’an inshaAllah)
Learning to UNDERSTAND
Al-Qur’an
 A course of 200 hours
 Not for interpreting but for understanding it
 Objective: Tadabbur & TaZakkur (will not be
covered in this lecture)
 Challenge: A smooth start which gives them
confidence
An Easy Starter Course
 60 lessons (each of 25 minutes approx)
 Less than 30 hours
 Designed for schools as well as general public
 Simplified grammar
 Using Daily and Frequent Recitations
 Will cover 350 words that occur 55,000 times in
Qur'an (70% of the vocabulary)!!!
Al-Qur’an – the Most
Interesting book to learn
If there are drop-outs, if it is boring, then the
problem is in the way we present it/ we
teach it

To show the benefits by linking the message

of Al-Qur’an, rather, the guidance of Al-
Qur’an, with the day-to-day life of a
teenager
My Focus
Primarily – the Masses!
Priority wise:
 Secular Institutions:

– School Students: Before they graduate

10th class, they should complete the
Qur’an with understanding
– The college students who missed the
above opportunity
 General public
Brain
 Brain works with associations
 1,000,000,000 Cells
 We use rarely 5% of our brain
 Easier to learn another language!!!
 Much easier to learn Al-Qur’an because it
has special blessings
Brain – Associations
Movement / action /
film / movie
Picture (worth
1000 words)
Mother tongue
Sound
Meanings link (incl ‘false’)

Emotions
Shape

Spelling
Smell

Story
Language Learning

Famous Techniques/software
- Pimsleur approach
- Rosetta Stone Approach
- ESL Party
- Dave’s Café
- Corporate/Univ. level software

-
Language Learning
Language Learning - Use the tips for teaching
Al-Qur’an
- Breaking the ‘barrier’ (through our daily
Salah and Supplications) – My case of
TELUGU
- Use index cards (now booklet); grammar
posters stickers; (board; Diary)
- Motivate (through the promise of
‘thawab’)
- Analyze teaching models (adopted
interactive and variety-based model)
- TPI
Teaching Arabic thru Qur’an–
the unique opportunities
A typical Muslim
- memorized almost 50 to 100 sentences in Arabic!
And he uses them too!!! A practicing Muslim spends
almost an hour daily in Arabic environment
- 5 daily prayers
- Supplications

Everyday, he uses about 200 Arabic words and almost

50 sentences. And he REPEATS most of them!!!

Everyday, he is made to listen (in 6 lectures) different

parts of the best of literature!!!
Teaching Arabic thru Qur’an–
the unique opportunities
The ideal situation would be:
to jump on this opportunity and teach him
right from there

For a Non-Muslim student: It gives an

excellent opportunity to not only learn
Arabic but also understand the
neighborhood culture
The CHALLENGE
 Let them understand what they already
recite
 Teach them grammar in a simplified style
 Get the max from frequently occurring
words
Introduction to our
course
Understand Qur’an – the Easy Way
(Basic Course)
UNIQUE FEATURES OF
THIS COURSE!!!
1. A course of approximately 25 hours – to
help you learn almost 70% of the
vocabulary of the Qur’an (55000 words of
the total 78000, approximately).
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
2. Spare just 25 minutes everyday, and
inshaAllah you are on your way to realizing
the dream.

3. Start the understanding of Qur’an using

what you recite everyday!!! No need to
look for any other text.
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
– The contents
 Daily Recitations

 Frequent Recitations

 Some extra verses + 2 ahadeeth

 One spoken Arabic sentence in each

class
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
4. Immediately start realizing the benefits in
your prayers and supplications,

and thereby improve the relationship with Allah.

Practice what you learnt right form day one by

talking to Allah in Arabic with understanding!
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
5. Each session has 3 different activities, which
keeps the participants alive throughout the
lesson.

6. Learn at least one spoken Arabic sentence in

each lesson.
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
7. More than that, each session is interactive,
if conducted in a group!!!

Every participant has full and continuous

chance to be involved in all the activities
(Spoken Arabic, Grammar, and Word-for-
word translation)
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
8. Learn basic Arabic Grammar as well as
almost all important verb patterns by
devoting just 8 to 10 minutes in each session.
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
9. Learning Arabic Grammar perhaps has never
been so easy and simple.

With TPI (like ABAQUS, photographic memory),

it becomes an exciting and interesting part.
TPI
Brain works with associations
 Mg/ Fg Sign covention

 Past tense (plane / road)

 Imperfect tense

 Imperative

 Negative

 Ism Faa’il / Ism Maf’ool / Fe’l

 Active voice / passive voice

TPI
 Increase associations – the more you have the
easier it is to learn/remember/retain/recall
 Several dimensions of a word
– Sound
– Spelling
– Shape
– Meanings
– Picture
– Movement
– Smell!
– Emotions
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
10. Every time you practice a grammar session
(5 to 7 minutes), you are shown as to how
closer you are to the understanding of
Qur’an.

Therefore, it becomes a session of love and

excitement rather than that of boring drills.
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
11. Learn interesting examples/false links to
remember some of the ‘odd’ rules of
grammar.
Simplified
 Deletion of dual / fg in the beginning
– Reduced to 12 instead of 28 (past/imprf)
– Reduced to 4 instead of 6 (imp/neg)
– 3 added to it (fa’el, maf’ool, fe’l)

 Master “Periodic Table” (Traffic light)

 The two “Master Tables”
Interesting Links
 Anta / hia (HANDS)
 Broken plural
– meri aulaad padhti hai
– Urdu / English Mazeed feeh
– Preposition of the verb
 Selection of Verses (1 verse each)
– Plural / mg/fg - Ahzaab
– Fg - Yousuf
– Br. Pl. - Hajj
Interesting Links
 Weak letters
– Team supporting each other

 Directions
– Fouqi/ tahti/ yameeni/…
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
12. Revise the whole learning in SPECIAL 10
sessions (at the end) where all frequently
occurring words in the Qur’an are listed
separately.
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
13. To remember important words, each
word/verb that you have learnt is listed with an
example for you to practice, remember, and
retain.

Every time you forget an important new word,

you are given a context for it to recall.

THIS IS JUST LIKE THE WAY YOU REMEMBER

PEOPLE.
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
14. Learn all important verb patterns
thoroughly along with examples from the
material covered in the first 50 sessions.

15. 16 quizzes and 2 exams to help you

evaluate your progress and encourage you
to revise and continue.
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
16. With the CD (produced by the Academy),
participate along with the audience
throughout these sessions.

You don’t have to wait for another sitting for

practice. Practice right there!
UNIQUE FEATURES
(Cont’d)
17. Actually this is a basic training course for
every Muslim. It contains those parts which
are practiced everyday by a Muslim.
Therefore this course is will have direct
impact on his life. It will make his regular
worship more efficient and effective.
Simultaneously he will get the confidence
that he can learn the Qur’an very easily.
Some Interesting Findings
 All ‘Abwaab’ and special cases are important

 At least around 4 “Fe’l thulaathi Mazeed

feehi” abwaab are also important
 ‫ص َدر‬
ْ ‫( َم‬Verbal noun) ‫بسم هللا‬

‫( فَ َع َل‬108)
To do,
act (of
‫ِفعل‬ ‫فع ل‬ He did.
doing)
Attached
Pronouns
Imperfect Tense ‫ِف ْعل ُمض َِارع‬ Past Tense ‫اضي‬
ِ ‫ِف ْعل َم‬
Detached
Pronouns

‫َفعَ َل‬
Starting verb Starting verb
‫َي ْف َع ُل‬
،
in a verbal
‫ا‬
‫ه‬- He does.
He will do.
He did. ‫ه َُو‬ in a verbal
sentence. sentence.
 
when the ‫ ِهُُا َم‬- They two do/ will
do.
‫عالَ ِن‬
َ‫ف‬ْ ‫َي‬ They two did. ‫َفعَ َال‬ ‫ُه َما‬ when the
subject is subject is
SING. or
PLU. ‫ ُه ُِ ْم‬-
They do.
They will do. َ ُ‫َي ْف َعل‬
‫ون‬ They all did. ‫َفعَ ُلوا‬ ‫ُه ْم‬
SING. or
PLU.
near future:

َ‫َفعَ ْل ت‬
near past:
‫تَ ْف َع ُل‬
‫ضارع‬
َ ‫ ُم‬+ ‫س‬
َ You do.
َ‫ ك‬- You will do.
You did.
َ‫أَ ْن ت‬ ِ ‫ َما‬+ ‫قَ ْد‬
‫ضي‬

‫ ُك َم ا‬- You two do / will

do.
‫تَ ْف َعالَ ِن‬ You two did. ‫َفعَ ْلتُ َما‬ ‫أَ ْنت ُ َما‬
Past

َ ُ‫تَ ْف َعل‬ ‫َفعَ ْلتُ ْم‬

distant continuous:
future:
َ ‫ ُم‬+‫ف‬
‫ضارع‬ َ ‫َس ْو‬
ْ‫ ُك م‬-
You all do.
You all will do. ‫ون‬ You all did.
‫أَ ْنت ُ ْم‬ ‫ ُمضارع‬+‫كان‬

(with noun)‫ُي‬-
ِ
(with verb) ‫ُي‬
ِ -ُِ ‫ِن‬
I do.
I will do. ‫أَ ْف َع ُل‬ I did. ُ‫َفعَ ْل ت‬ ‫أَنَا‬

‫نَا‬-
We do.
We will do. ‫نَ ْف َع ُل‬ We did. ‫َفعَ ْل َنا‬ ُ‫نَحْن‬
_‫جَر‬ _َ‫فَ َعل‬
_‫اسم‬ َ‫ي تَ أَ ن‬
َ . ‫ ْوا تَ ت ُ ْم تُ نَا‬-
Negative ‫نهي‬ Imperative ‫أمر‬

Don’t do! ‫الَ تَ ْف َع ْل‬ Do! ‫ا ِْف َع ْل‬ Singular

Don’t (you two) do! َ‫الَ تَ ْف َعال‬ Do (you two)! َ‫ا ِْف َعال‬ Dual

Don’t (you all) do! ‫الَ تَ ْف َعلُوا‬ Do (you all)! ‫ا ِْف َعلُوا‬ Plural

Passive participle ‫اسم مفعول‬ Active participle ‫فاعل‬ ‫اسم‬

The one who is affected. ‫َم ْفعُول‬ Doer. ‫فَا ِعل‬ Singular

The two who are affected. ‫ َم ْفعُولَيْن‬،‫َم ْفعُوالَن‬ Doers (two). ‫فَا ِعلَ ْين‬،‫فَا ِعالَن‬ Dual

All those who are affected. ‫ َم ْفعُو ِلين‬،‫َم ْفعُو ُلون‬ Doers. ‫ فَا ِع ِلين‬،‫فَا ِعلُون‬ Plural

passive 
‫مجهول‬
It is being done. ‫يُ ْف َع ُل‬ (It) is done. ‫ُف ِع َل‬ ‫ه َُو‬
 passive
‫مجهول‬
7 HOMEWORKS
– Extremely easy and practical home works.
– To develop an attitude of learning - most
important factor in any learning process.
– To be always aware that they are learning
Qur'an.
– Like those cricket fans following the
match.
7 HOMEWORKS
– We want our students to develop the
attitude that they should always be aware
and feel blessed by Allah that they are
learning His Book.

– This attitude should help them to do

these home works whenever they have
some spare time.
7 HOMEWORKS
– 1. At least FIVE minutes study of the
Word-for-Word translation.
– 2. At least FIVE minutes recitation (for
the beginner) of the Qur'an from the
Mushaf that has no translation.
– 3. At least FIVE minutes recitation of the
Qur'an from memory during activities
such as walking.
7 HOMEWORKS
– 4. 30 seconds (not minutes!) study of the
vocabulary sheet, preferably before or
after every Salah or any other suitable
intervals.
– 5. Recitation of the last 14 Surahs in
rotation in the Sunan and Nawafil of daily
Salah.
7 HOMEWORKS
– 6. Talking to your colleague for 1 minute
every day regarding the lesson (if you are
studying this course in a class).
– 7. Listening to a tape which contains
these recitations with word-by-word
meanings (in your car while driving and
at your home while doing household
chores). You can record the contents of
this course yourselves into a tape, in case
a recorded tape is not available.