Citizen X
(50k+ posts) بابائے فورم
This point was brought up in a recent discussion in a thread, where the poster said you cannot "learn" the Quran by yourself and was pretty adamant on this point. Now this rubs me the absolute wrong way because it instantly conjures up images in the my head of our desi moulvis warning not to read the Quran on your own otherwise you will become misguided! Although not directly implying it but has strong connotations when its said you HAVE to learn it from someone.
Then I started to look into the matter and what brings about this mentality and thing I could pinpoint to is, that until 1790, basically the 19th century there was no Urdu ( or any of the widely spoken languages ) translation of the Quran. And only a very tiny portion of the population outside the elite, clergy and religious scholars read and understood Arabic.
So for around 1200 years majority of people of the subcontinent were deprived of what the Quran was actually saying and back in those times it made sense that you had to learn the Quran from someone, because you literally had no choice. And seems like this notion still carries on even today, but today it's mostly for nefarious reasons as the clergy mostly does it for gatekeeping and to keep their professions in need. If everyone was able to understand what it said, hence they strictly endorse not learning or trying to understand the Quran on your own. Otherwise 90% of their religious shops and businesses would close down.
So that idea still remains stuck in peoples heads even today that you can only "learn" the Quran from a teacher and in 99% of our cases that just means being able to read it. With 0% understanding.
I myself went through this process. When I was a little child I was sent off to "learn" the Quran from a teacher and I did learn, learn how to read and recite it, but absolutely no idea what I was reading and reciting. And it stayed that way well into my 20s.
In todays age of information that is not the case, with a simple tap you have access to dozens of translations of 100s of languages which is more than enough for a common man to understand the deen of Allah.
If you want to go into a deeper study of the Quran, then yes knowing even some Arabic comes in very handy and for whatever you lack you can use online tools to help you. Yes, the best case scenario is to learn classical Arabic, which today can be done without leaving your house. But this lack of Arabic does not stop one from learning the Quran and it's deeper meaning with all the online tools and resources available today.
Then I started to look into the matter and what brings about this mentality and thing I could pinpoint to is, that until 1790, basically the 19th century there was no Urdu ( or any of the widely spoken languages ) translation of the Quran. And only a very tiny portion of the population outside the elite, clergy and religious scholars read and understood Arabic.
So for around 1200 years majority of people of the subcontinent were deprived of what the Quran was actually saying and back in those times it made sense that you had to learn the Quran from someone, because you literally had no choice. And seems like this notion still carries on even today, but today it's mostly for nefarious reasons as the clergy mostly does it for gatekeeping and to keep their professions in need. If everyone was able to understand what it said, hence they strictly endorse not learning or trying to understand the Quran on your own. Otherwise 90% of their religious shops and businesses would close down.
So that idea still remains stuck in peoples heads even today that you can only "learn" the Quran from a teacher and in 99% of our cases that just means being able to read it. With 0% understanding.
I myself went through this process. When I was a little child I was sent off to "learn" the Quran from a teacher and I did learn, learn how to read and recite it, but absolutely no idea what I was reading and reciting. And it stayed that way well into my 20s.
In todays age of information that is not the case, with a simple tap you have access to dozens of translations of 100s of languages which is more than enough for a common man to understand the deen of Allah.
If you want to go into a deeper study of the Quran, then yes knowing even some Arabic comes in very handy and for whatever you lack you can use online tools to help you. Yes, the best case scenario is to learn classical Arabic, which today can be done without leaving your house. But this lack of Arabic does not stop one from learning the Quran and it's deeper meaning with all the online tools and resources available today.
