Listen to the audio first (it’s in Urdu):

I recorded this while in a car – gotta love the SoundCloud app! 🙂

Some observations and perspectives:

• Quran is pure guidance.
• It’s primary guidance comes in matters of “deen” (“deen” is inadequately translated as religion… it is not even a “way of life”… it is, to the best of my limited understanding, a guideline for interaction with God and Humanity. It is a way of life but only in the abstract sense.)
• Sources of Islam are only and only two: the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Mohammad peace be upon him.
• Like everything else, Quran needs to be studied, not just read. You need repetition, you need questions that come directly from your reading of the Quran. And you need teachers who can guide – not dictate – you towards the right answer.
• Learning the Quran is essential. The best way to learn anything is to learn it as if you were to teach it. It throws a completely new light on the hadeeth of the Prophet Mohammad PBUH that, “the best amongst you is the one who learns and teaches the Quran”.
• Why are we biased when it comes to teaching Quran? Are we under-confident? Too scared of making a mistake? Do we even know that we can learn it and teach it?
• What kind of learning will “qualify” you to teach what you’ve learnt? If you understand the meaning of a certain set of verses, can’t you spread the knowledge informally (many of us do that) and even formally (in the form of a class, or online video, a blog post etc?)

Thoughts?