Teaching Quran: What Methods Actually Work?
Sunday School Open House: Islamic Education Methods and Manners Discussion
Summary
This is a Sunday School open house event at the Muslim Community Center of Tucson featuring discussions about Islamic education methodology and teaching approaches. Teachers and parents discuss strategies for teaching Quran and Arabic, with emphasis on understanding meaning rather than only memorization. The staff explains their curriculum approach, which incorporates comprehension and modern teaching methods suited to American-born Muslim children. The event concludes with a reminder about Islamic manners, specifically focusing on halal food consumption and proper eating etiquette according to Islamic teachings.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
I do not my person i'm not teaching quran but i may teach the younger kids quran inshallah my own idea is i don't students to read to write quran the the thing is i don't want them to be you know to miss the paper or misplace it or something this is the only concern for me if but if it helps you do it okay and inshallah if maybe if it's helped him.
[Silence]
Yes if it helps you do it and everybody has a different strategy yes i don't i don't writing it but there's okay so i thought you weren't writing okay okay okay you are giving an example then it's not for you okay there's other strategies okay i'm not teaching quran so you know like okay so what we are the way that you know i used to teach quran is they need to be able to recognize the surah they need to be able to recognize the words they need to to know exactly excellent of course this is the main idea every you know most of the people who knows me you know like i don't i i encourage memorizing the quran but what's more important for me is to understand the quran okay yes okay actually that makes me really happy you're excellent and i would just to add to what teacher as you said everyone has different strategies and different learning style right so what i encourage everyone is if at any point you feel like you need a different strategy or you don't understand or something doesn't make sense feel free and brave like what you just did and talk to the teacher any teacher okay islamic studies if you feel you can get this just go and talk to the teacher and tell him i really can get this and then he will change the style or he will discuss with you what you need to do and sorry but that was great from the parents from the ladies any questions yes at the end of the day i would to can you come here thank you this is she's you're from yemen right now foreign at the end of the day i want to present that i know a loss 99 names so can you give us five minutes and then we'll do this before we finish yeah okay that okay and you're maybe if there's others they will know it can they you know share can they come with you and do it with you okay any suggestion any ideas yes i just want to give you a chance maybe to present what items or things that you might want not necessarily us as we you know as a board you have unlimited support whatever you want but maybe if you want to to list items or things that the school needs maybe the parents can help so some resources that the school might need you want to convey to the parents so if they want to help they can help i think you know the first thing that we need is we need volunteer right we also would as i said inshallah to encourage your kids to bring their materials and belongings before they come to the sunday school remind them to bring their notebook their you know pencils every time they come you know i asked the students where's your paper oh teacher i forgot it or teacher you're i don't know maybe i take it maybe i forget it so i think this is really essential so help us in that and inshallah ta'ala some of the parents they ask you know like that they want to help insha'allah in the future if we need papers notebooks maybe even construction papers crayons anything you know for the school insha'allah i would be asking the parents let me just know that you are willing to help us and support us okay.
[Silence]
Any suggestion any ideas yes my name is mustafa yes my father's name i'm originally from bangladesh yes so i am i'm just making a general comment i'm not sure if it is a suggestion my so i have two boys.
[Silence]
Yes and generally my goal my boys is my goal about the religious and islamic education what i object throughout my life is that many times we don't understand what we read my boys try to memorize quran and surah and at some time he will forget because as sharp as they think that or you know i can memorize this of my life so i so generally strategy that if they i'd rather they learn free what what does it mean and a lot of time is is easy to say but you know interpreting arabic and islamic and history these are these are very complex stars but you know end of the year if they understand key word from quran what does it mean they might carry the rest of their life rather than memorizing 20 surah and then basically after five years if they have tried to recite they will forget and they don't know what they are doing i'm not i'm not stressing that you know memorizing anything bad this is important you know it's important they will keep memorizing but my afraid is that you know i memorized i didn't understand anything i still memorized you know i don't know anything and then a lot of time i hear people interpret and talk because they don't know the word so you know anyway or if they can write too hard in a year you know if they really know that they can write another 10. something like that that's my brother can i answer sister i'm sorry because it's my job can.
[Silence]
Okay the way i teach it is i i do it word by word and then i give word by word translation then i give the general meaning of the ayah that he recites or teaches and then if there is a reason the reason of revealing the ayah at the time.
[Silence]
Foreign so and then after i'm giving the general meaning of the verse i repeat the verse five times according to what satan.
[Silence]
And i also focus on the degree and the the techniques of reciting and then i have them decide and i correct them you know brother let me tell you from my own experience just you know what to add to what you said subhanallah when i started as a teacher this is exactly what i would use to face i used to ask the students open the quran read surah ali you know just open the quran find the surah none of the students were ap were able to open the quran and find this world for me and subhanallah you know we need to learn what's their needs because we are not living as back home if i'm teaching quran or arabic language back in my country in syria or i'm from syria let's say i'm going to teach it in a different way and a different approach and a different method we are living in america we need to look at the students needs and really i found that there's a generation they do not understand the quran because not because of them i feel sorry for the students it's because of those who taught them quran so insha'allah that's why brother i always believe that the students need to understand what they are reading and this is one of the important thing even in public school that's why what we are trying to do is learn from the system the american system and try to apply it into our school into the sunday school in a way that fits with their needs and in a way that meets their needs so this is what we are doing you know brother so and let's go back to arabic if you look at the book that's why gave me this book and that's why we chose it is that if you look at the words and vocabulary maybe 60 to 70 percent of these words mentioned in this book it's from the quran and at the beginning on the top of the page it does have the words at its meaning and i believe it's it's a it's a higher level this but inshallah ta'ala since i asked the students and they told me they really want to understand and read quran that's why i decided to do to use that so it's a different you understand your brother so inshallah ta'ala we will do our best but again we need your help and the parents help we need really to think more serious about the new generation really and we are facing lots of challenges you know at the beginning of the lessons you know some of the students they are here and they don't have the desire to and from their face from the way that they look at us they don't have the desire to learn they maybe they had a bad experience i don't know but we need insha and i told them inshallah we will try to gain back your trust and i want them really to feel the importance of what we are doing and what they are learning it's a challenge some of the students they look at us as if you know what are you doing great and ask them especially the older kids so we are trying to get there we have lots of challenges is that what we want so we need really to think seriously we don't want to lose more generation enough is enough for me this is what i feel because you know i'm a mom and i have a son so so please we are here to inshallah to educate your kids but i also want you to be there to help us with that banners in that issue insha'allah we don't want to take more time oh there's a question okay inshallah since we said that our main goal of the sunday school is to apply what we are learning the sheikh will give us inshallah we will we will share the food we have a barbecue but before that oh sorry very question.
[Silence]
You may be i understand so the time you are talking about the time i understand so you think that time is not you know it does not it's not appropriate for you it's okay from yeah from what i heard from some of the you know from talking with some parents it seems that the time is good for them just because the woman's they have a time to wake up you know like especially at sunday so they wanted enough time to wake up prepare for you know they have certain issues but inshallah in the future if we hear you know some of the parents they want any changes at that time insha'allah our goal is to implement and apply what we are learning as a community inshallah we will have lunch together we have a barbie very much i hope you will enjoy it but before we go insha'allah will give us maybe five minutes not lecture but just a reminder of i believe everyone needs to remember this stuff insha'allah we need to apply it from adults kids young women's everyone let's apply the sunnah let's go back to sunnah and when we do that insha'allah it's the time we shall talk for us to succeed other than that inshallah we want to be those people who will do what they say do you agree with me we are we are enough you know we heard a lot we want to see actions we should to do it insha'allah we can do it we shall buy allah so please.
[Silence]
And brother heider and everyone help us in the sunday school i ask allah put this put this good thank you everyone for coming to sunday to this open house for sunday school m.
[Silence]
Which means all men eat the lawful and good things out of what is in the earth and do not follow the footsteps of the shaytan surely he is your open enemy the first thing from manners or adam for eat or for food food very important eat from halal love this is very important because i see more brothers brothers and sisters and parents don't care with his children about halal food this is very important and if you eat from halal food allah will accept your dua if you not eat from halal food allah not accept your dua this is very important dear brothers and sisters someone he said we are in america yes we are in america but also we have more stores halal food has halal food this is very important here sometimes the everyone knows when she was a kid her father asked her and bring to her some food and he said eat from this food she asked she replied to her father oh father this food from halal or from haram she was five years five years and her father replied if this would not hala you don't you will not eat she said never why rabia she said because she said because i best and i best hungry i prefer to i prefer to hungary with zakumal zakum this world in arabic language is a tree in the hellfire in january you will smile this this smell from 500 years ahead another thing.
[Silence]
Oh boy when you will eat say bismillah is the first thing and eat with your right hand what will be a munich then eat with the front of you don't go to an another way with your be if anyone forget say bismillah and he remember in the middle of the night in the end he will say in the beginning and in the end and when you will finish all praise to allah because for he give me this food and also will give me this dream this is dear brothers and sisters is very important for this allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says about this ayah if you say eat with bismillah hand and with the front of you the shaytan will be not eat with you this is very important and also about the manners in the food eat together prophet muhammad the best food who eat together with more more ham and more baraka allah this is very important i see here if anyone can go to they have time very important dear sisters dear mother their mothers very important put time for your family and sit together allah will be made in your food and also you can speak with fool this is from sunny because of be different with the jews and christians because they because they do not speak with the only age this is very and also the scala they said this is good for your stomach if you speak something with food and the parents ask his son what do you do today what you take and also the model this also make mercy and love together in the in the food this i don't make more time and also follow your your kids about do this and if you you can teach your children also oh my children what do you say if you start all my children oh my baby are you finished yes what you say alhamdulillah this for allah will be oh again please dear brothers and sisters if you have any question you can follow us in the website mcc tusan.org ncc to san.org and also in the facebook muslim community center muslim community center thank you very smart.
[Silence]
Foreign.