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Your journey through the Qur'an requires that you seek and join a
community of quest and study. No doubt you will read the Qur'an individually, but your
benefits will multiply if you also join in fellowship with other believers and seekers
after the Qur'an. In companionship, the states of the heart may be intensified, and many
minds joined together may understand meanings better and more correctly. And, only by
joining with others can you live fully the lives inspired by the Qur'an and discharge the
mission that reading it enjoins upon you. By acting and fulfilling that mission you will
deserve to be admitted to the fullest possible blessings of the Qur'an.
Significantly, the Quranic address is almost always collective. And the
Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, from the moment he received the revelation of the
Qur'an, set out to create a community with the Qur'an at the centre of its life, and spent
every moment of his life in this effort. The instruction to 'read' was followed, in time,
by the command to 'arise and warn'. The instruction to continue to 'read what has been
revealed to you in the Book of your Lord' is immediately followed, contextually, with the
instruction to 'bind yourself with those who call upon their Lord at morning and evening,
desiring His countenance, and let not your eyes turn away from them' (al-Kahf 18: 27-8).
These Quranic teachings clearly and forcefully establish the link between its reading and
the need for a strong, closely-knit community rooted in that reading.
Again, no Prayer can be complete without reading the Qur'an, nor, if it
is obligatory and there is no genuine excuse, without fellowship with others (Jama'ah).
What is the purpose of reading the Qur'an in Prayer if not to hear it, understand it and
ponder over it? Thus five times a day this purpose should be accomplished in collective
endeavour.
The duty to communicate the message of the Qur'an to the whole of
mankind also entails that the Qur'an should be read and explained corporately. The word
tilawah, when used with the Arabic preposition 'ala, means to communicate, to propagate,
to spread, to teach. To do the tilawah in this way is one of the basic functions of
the Prophethood, and, therefore, of his Ummah (al-Baqarah 2: 129, 151). In Surah
al-Jumu'ah (62), failing to understand and live by Divine guidance is emphasized in the
context of failing to stay with the Friday Prayer for which every worldly activity must be
given up.
The Qur'an also hints at the reading of the Qur'an in families and
homes in the following verse: 'And remember that which is recited in your houses of the
revelations of God and the Wisdom' (al-Ahzab 33: 34).
Those who gather together to read and study the Qur'an are blessed
because upon them descend the angels with God's abundant mercy, as the Prophet, blessings
and peace be on him, said:
Whenever people gather in one of the houses of Allah for reading the
Qur'an and teaching it to one another, peace descends upon them, mercy covers them, angels
spread their wings over them, and Allah mentions them to those around Him (Muslim).
So you should not be content with reading and studying the Qur'an
alone, but should set out to find other seekers and invite them that you may do so
together.
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Collective study may take two forms.
One: Where a small group gathers to study and deliberate upon the
Qur'an so that each participant takes an active part in the process, though some among
them may be more knowledgeable than others and one will lead the study. This we shall call
Halaqah, (after the above Hadith), or Study Circle.
Two: Where a group, small or large, gathers to study the Qur'an by
actively listening to the exposition given by a knowledgeable person. The participants
only raise questions. This we shall call 'Dars', lesson or lecture.
You should know how a Study Circle should be conducted and how to
prepare and deliver a Dars. Here we can discuss only very broad guidelines. Again,
it is important to remember that there can be no standard, fixed procedures. Each person
or group will have to develop his or their own method, and each situation will have to be
treated on its own. The guidelines given below are only suggestions which you should adapt
to your requirements and capabilities.
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Four rules are basic to the success of any collective study.
One: You must always make all the preparations necessary to fulfil
your responsibility. Do not take your task lightly, do not postpone your preparation till
the eleventh hour, do not consider a quick glance enough, never say anything about the
Qur'an without having given it full consideration. It is always better to make note of
what you have studied and what you want to say.
Two: Whether you are a novice or you already possess some
knowledge, whether you have to give Dars or participate in discussion in a circle,
undertake a study on your own of the selected part, broadly in line with the procedure
described earlier.
Three: Always keep your niyyah right, that is, understand and live
the Qur'an in order to seek Allah's pleasure.
Four: Do not study together merely for pleasure, intellectual
curiosity, or argument and discussion. Your studying the Qur'an together must result in
your obeying the Qur'an together and fulfilling the mission it entrusts to you.
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The following guidelines should help in making the group study
effective.
One: The number of participants should be 3-10; with no great
divergence in the levels of their knowledge and intelligence. Anything less will make it a
dialogue, anything more may hinder the active participation of everyone.
Two: The stress should always remain on the message, context and
what guidance and lessons are to be drawn. Never get entangled in fine points which have
no relevance to real life.
Three: All members should be fully aware of their aims, limitations
and procedures.
Four: All members should have the necessary commitment to their
task and realize that time, attention and hard work will be required. It is especially
important that regular preparation and attendance are observed.
Five: All members should know how to find their way through the
Qur'an. A study of this book may be of some use.
Six: The group members should not sit as strangers, but as brothers
in faith in the Qur'an, committed to understanding and obeying it.
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One: One member
should, first, make a presentation of the results of his study.
Two: The rest
should then join in, further elaborating, correcting, modifying, raising
questions, or providing answers.
Three: If all the
members are required to study, then you may either designate beforehand who will
do the presentation; this will result in better standards of presentation. Or,
call upon anyone present to do the presentation; this will keep everyone alert
and working hard.
Four: It will
always be useful if at least one member of the circle is more knowledgeable and
has access to sources. He would, then, during the discussion, overcome any
deficiencies and shortcomings in the original presentation. He may also set and
steer the tone and direction of discussion.
Five: If one member
who is learned in the Qur'an participates, he should not intervene from the
beginning. Rather he should let the participants say what they want to say, and
only then, gently correct them if they are wrong, or add to their knowledge. His
method should be suggestive and interrogative rather than discursive.
Six: Towards the
end, one member, preferably the leader or teacher, should always sum up the
broad message of the passage, its main themes, and its call to action.
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The following guidelines may help to make a Dars effective.
One: Have a fair idea about the audience: such as, their level of
knowledge and intelligence, their state of Iman, their concerns and worries, and their
needs and requirements.
Two: Select the passage in keeping with the state of your audience,
rather than what you find yourself eager to expound.
Three: The nature and level of your style, language, exposition
should correspond to the nature of your audience.
Four: Pray to Allah to help you in bringing the true message of the
Qur'an to your listeners.
Five: Study the passage and write down your notes: what do you want
to say? In what order? How? How do you begin? How do you end?
Six: Give due regard to the time at your disposal. Never exceed
your time. You may have a lot of good points and be very eager to pour them all out. But,
remember, your listeners have a very limited capacity to retain. They may admire your
learning and erudition, but may not learn very much from it.
Long passages can always be dealt with in a short duration and short
passages can be dwelt upon for a long duration. It all depends on what you think you have
to communicate from the passage under study.
Seven: Give full attention as to what clear message or messages, out of
all that you may say, you would like to leave with the listeners for them to retain,
reflect and act upon.
This must conform with the central idea of the passage, not with your
own desires.
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One: You must have only two aims:
Firstly, to seek Allah's pleasure by doing your duty in making
others hear His words.
Secondly, to communicate the message of the Qur'an clearly and
effectively.
Two: Remember that it lies in the hands of Allah to make your
communication effective in reaching your listeners' hearts and minds.
But this does not absolve you from your responsibility for doing your
best to prepare as best you can, to deliver as effectively as you can, to bring the
message of the Qur'an in a manner as makes it living and dynamic for them, to make it
relevant to their concerns, to make it bear upon their situation.
Your delivery may not be of high oratorial or rhetorical standards, it
may be very ordinary but it is your niyyah and effort that count.
Three: You may first read the whole text and give its translation, and
then take up the exposition, with or without reading each verse and its translation again.
Or, you may give a brief introduction and start by taking up one verse after another, or a
group of verses. What procedure you adopt will depend on the time at your disposal and the
situation.
Remember that it is not essential to read the whole passage and its
translation in the beginning, especially if time is short. You may spend the time better
in preparing the listeners for what they are going to hear.
Four: As far as the individual verses or groups of verses are
concerned, you may use a mixture of various approaches. If the verse is clear and short,
you may first read it and then elaborate. You may turn tO the theme before and after your
exposition.
What you must ensure is that your listeners get a sense of cohesive
unity each statement should be seen to flow from the preceding one and lead to the next.
Five: At the end, you must sum up the contents, and emphasize the
message. You may also, if you have time, even read the whole text again, or only the
translation. Reading the text or translation towards the end serves to bring your
listeners in direct contact with the Qur'an after they have understood what it means in
light of your exposition.
Six: Always be on guard that it is the Qur'an which must speak, and
not you. The Qur'an has been effective, without any exposition, for those who knew the
language and the Messenger. It still is. You may hinder the Qur'an from speaking not only
by inserting your own views too much, but also by your very lengthy and elaborate
explanations. By the time you finish your long discourse, your listeners may very well
forget what the Quranic text said.
So, firstly, keep your explanations as short as possible; and,
secondly, if they have to be long as may be necessary in some instances, you should refer
back to the text as often as possible. You should create no distance between the listeners
and the text of the Qur'an, not only in meaning, but also in hearing.
Seven: Model your own exposition on the pattern and style of the
Qur'an. This may be the most effective means of ensuring the success of the occasion.
Initially you may find it difficult, but gradually as you move nearer
to the Qur'an, read it often, memorize it it will become part of your own style.
You must remember certain characteristics of the Quranic style.
Firstly, that it appeals to both reason and feeling, intellect and soul as one whole.
Secondly, that it is short, precise, direct, personal, and evocative. Thirdly, that it
confronts its listeners with choices and decisions and inspires them to heed and act.
Fourthly, that its language is a s powerful as the message, which penetrates deep inside
you. Fifthly, that its argument is always what its listeners are able to understand, that
it is always drawn from their everyday experience, that it always finds an echo inside
them. Above all, that it is not abstract, logical, speculative.
Eight: Do not make overly abstract statements, nor conceptualize
and systematize at the cost of the Qur'an's dynamic impact. Concepts and systematic
presentation are vital to the presentation of the Qur'an's message, but so long they are
made in simple and ordinary language and within the grasp of the audience. Calls to
action; summons to commit, must be essential ingredients of your Dars. Whether it
is nature or history, injunction or statement, dialogue or address each should result in
some call to respond, to come forward, to decide and to act.
Nine: Do not use the Qur'an as a pretext to propound your views,
instead make yourself an exponent of the word of God.
Ten: Let the Qur'an make its way to your listeners' hearts, let it
reside there, let it stir impulses of recognition, love, gratitude and awe: this should be
the thrust of your Dars.
Eleven: Always remain attentive to the response of your audience.
You can always cut an argument short or give up what you may consider valuable to impart,
if you feel that it does not interest them or arouse them. You can always introduce new
points, styles, and emphasis, depending on what you feel are the demands of the situation.
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