The Qur’an – is the final revelation and guidance for mankind. It is for people no matter where they are in the globe and will be preserved until the Last Day. The Qur’an makes clear The Straight Path, shows the path of righteousness in contrast to the path of falsehood, teaches us the commands and attributes of Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala).
Many Muslims today recite and perhaps even memorize the entire Quran without understanding anything or very little from it. If we don’t understand it, how can we learn and live by it? The Qur’an is the most widely read and the most memorized Book in the world.. but now what if we could understand it too? Many Muslims have the zeal and enthusiasm to read and understand the meaning of what their Lord has Revealed, but end up relying on translations since they don’t know Arabic; but translations can never match the original text, and you simply cannot truly appreciate the outstanding beauty of the Quran without knowing at least some basic Arabic. Learning the Arabic language as much as one possibly can has been encouraged by our scholars of the past, so that is something we are all encouraged to seek out and commit to.
Often though, people have excuses such as: ‘I don’t have enough time’, ‘there are only ‘how to speak Arabic courses in my area, ‘courses are too costly’, or ‘I don’t have a good Arabic learning centre in my city’. What if someone told you that you could learn the basic grammar and vocabulary of the Quran for free, from your bedroom?
Well, that is exactly why I’m going to tell you about UnderstandQuran.com! Alhamdulilaah, Understand Qur’an Academy has designed some really wonderful and helpful courses that enables a person, who does not understand Arabic, to directly understand the elementary grammar and vocabulary of the Qur’an in a short span of time!
The courses are designed by Dr Abdul Azeez Abdur Raheem, the Director of the Understand Qur’an Academy which is based in Hyderabad, India. These courses really make it easy for someone who does not understand Arabic language to read and understand the Qur’an insha’Allaah. These courses are short and concise and do not take up much time. The courses are available on their website in various languages and the material, which includes texts, audios, videos and power point presentations, is all for FREE! The Understand Qur’an Academy conducts this course regularly in various cities and it is also aired on Peace TV Urdu.
The courses help you memorize oft-repeated words in the Qur’an, from basic duas and short Surahs which generally most Muslims already know. This means a good portion of memorizing is already done and you only have to remember and relate the meanings of the words. Further, this then adds to the Khushoo in your Salaah right from the first session as you would understand what you recite in your Salaah.
Along with these set of words, which make-up up to 70% of the Qur’anic text, the course explains basic essential grammar, and all this, using a very interactive learning method known as the Total Physical Interaction (TPI). TPI gets you physically involved while learning, making it quite a fun and lot easier to remember, rather than memorizing terms like ‘first person singular masculine’ and ‘third person plural feminine’. The use of hand gestures makes the whole learning and remembering process much simpler, easier and faster.
However, I believe it would be very useful to have their courses translated into more languages and conduct regular live courses. With the help of Muslims we can create more publicity and awareness about these courses and use social networks to inform more people who could benefit from their courses. Further, the site lacks a FAQ or Help section, which could be inconvenient for amateur users – but as the site is getting a face-lift, we can be hopeful of improvements insha’Allah.
All-in-all the courses are really helpful for one who does not know Arabic and for some reason cannot learn it. So if you want to understand the meaning of the Quran, and thought you do not have any way to learn the beautiful Arabic language, then this course is for you! (it could also be a supplement to someone learning the Arabic language). With less than 30 minutes per session, this course does not take much time and can be completed pretty quickly, insha’Allah.
It is free and you can access the classes from the comfort of your own home. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and insha’Allaah UnderstandQuran.com, the easy way!
About the Author:
Farhan Kazi am passionate about Islam, an active member and associate of a socio-religious organization in the city and a regular volunteer at others. I am into reading current and socio-religious issues and a rather sporadic writer. And, I am pursuing Engineering in Mechanical faculty, from Navi Mumbai city. Visit his blog here
