Sunday, July 05, 2009

Defensive

I met a local lady the other day. She told me that she has visited Msia (along with the mass exodus or arabs who come and visit Msia). And then she told me that she is sad with the Msians.

Err I asked why. Because, she said the msians can really read the Quran very well but they do not understand a thing they read.

Hmmm. OK I know this fact already because I am one of the statistics.

Well first of all it is the different culture. We just are not born speaking in arabic. It requires one to actually learn it. And really there are quite a large number of us who can not only recite but also understand the language and on top of that write and speak it too. Too bad you didn't meet these people in the mall or in genting or langkawi.

Also most of us use the translation and read the tafsir book to understand the quran. We may not be able to speak the language, but it does not mean we do not understand anything from the quran. And many people attend tafsir class for deeper understanding.

But i didn't say this to her lah.

I did tell her what I have written in this blog though. I told her first of all praises to Allah that my husband come here to work so I have the opportunity to learn the language. Then she said, perhaps mixing with the society helps you.

Heh heh I said. Actually not so much. It helps that my teacher is an arab so she can point out the way I pronounce a letter. But the society is not of much help.

First of all, the local ladies don't really speak to the foreigners. Perhaps there are a lucky few. But otherwise they just don't speak to us. Nor even smile at us. Especially if you are an asian whose facial feature is very similar to her helper.

And if we do meet some arab, most of them want to practise their English anyway. But mostly are men.

Or if we try to shuay shuay speak arabic, they think our arabic is funny because we sound ancient or we sound like a newscaster. No one speaks the Fus-ha yaani the quranic arabic.

Of course we can try to speak arab to the guy in the souq when we shop. But they actually speak the worse arabic. Sometimes mixing arabic with their own language. No arab work in the souq nowadays. Mostly are the indians or the bangladeshis or pinoys.

None of this helps you with the understanding of the quran.

So i was just a bit defensive. Even though, sadly i know she is right. But making a general remark about us I feel is unfair.

Ya ka unfair? Hmm..

Anyway, days later while I was chatting with my friend, I was suddenly reminded of this verse in Al baqarah 2:78


وَمِنۡہُمۡ أُمِّيُّونَ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ إِلَّآ أَمَانِىَّ وَإِنۡ هُمۡ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ (٧٨)

Among them (the Jews) are unlettered folk who know not the Scripture except trusting from desires. They but guess.


ummiyeen - unlettered folk (buta huruf).

Not just unlettered but also common people and those not from people of knowledge.

This verse is actually describing about some of the Children of Israel who can only read the tawrah but do not know what it means. They are only following presumptions and blind following the scholars.

Let us not be one of them.




Just some suggestions.

I found this link that Insya Allah may help us understand the translation of the quranic words. As Quran are highly repetitive, if we are disciplined enough, Insya Allah we can learn more Quranic words.

Go to this link. UNDERSTAND QURAN. Check out the courses they offer. Can start with the kids one if you wish. They are free by the way. Barakallahufikum to them.

Of course just knowing the meaning of the words are not enough. Accompany ourselves with good tafsir books. I am using Ibn Kathir. It can also be accessed HERE.

May Allah make it easy for us.

22 comments:

Mrs.A said...

Thanks Lollies

Zaitul said...

Thanks for sharing Lollies ;)

mosh said...

Bookmarked already.

Anonymous said...

wah good site! Thanks for the links.

Anyway, I noticed in KAFA, not only the children are required to memorise the surah but also the terjemahan. Dalam soalan periksa pun ada.

So hopefully, there'll be changes as generations improved. Thanks again, Lolls!

Anonymous said...

wah good site! Thanks for the links.

Anyway, I noticed in KAFA, not only the children are required to memorise the surah but also the terjemahan. Dalam soalan periksa pun ada.

So hopefully, there'll be changes as generations improved. Thanks again, Lolls!

Anonymous said...

wah good site! Thanks for the links.

Anyway, I noticed in KAFA, not only the children are required to memorise the surah but also the terjemahan. Dalam soalan periksa pun ada.

So hopefully, there'll be changes as generations improved. Thanks again, Lolls!

Anonymous said...

apakah?

butterflutter said...

At first mmg lah rasa unfairkan. Mana boleh nak compare. At the same time betullah we can read but we don't understand. Need to improve.

Thinking about my children too nih. Lagi awal mula lagi mudah for them erm...erm...

Shuay...shuay...kan. Thanks for the link lolls :-)

roti: I dulu pun kena hafal masa sek agama tapi now dah lupa *sigh

Lollies said...

mrs A and Ibu Haziq - Hope it will benefit all of us. :)

mosh - righto. you should promote the harfiyah class you are going. mana tau ada yg berminat. :)

rotidua - waahh sungguh repetitive. waahh mesti best the terjemahan. i hope they make it interesting for the children to remember it,

bf - you from johor ke? anyway sek agama kat johor ada sabjek khas on tafsir. somehow i tak ingat apa-appa pun.

but i remembered some hadiths. actually two hadiths

bunial islam ala khamsin..

and theh hadith that goes " tidak ada penyakit yang berjangkit dan tidak ada burung yang membawa sial and err larilah kamu dari penyakit kusta(?) seperti lari dari singa(?). ok yg last tu tak ingat.

Mrs.A said...

Tampung lalu ye Lollies.

Is it anywhere where we live Mosh? I ni angan2 banyak, tapi belum kesampaian lagi.. tahun depan kot. Or maybe hantar anak bujang saya dahulu.

Nazrah Leopolis said...

abang kita and kita pun dah kena leter dgn cikgu arabic aishah. sbb kita Muslim, baca Quran tapi tak reti cakap arab. reti cakap arab dengan faham al quran kan lain? ke tak? i am better off speaking tagalog and urdu around here hehe.

salamat po!

Mommy Ummar said...

a good post.
i think i pun maybe terasa jgk kot. susah la nk compare, arabic is just not our mother tongue.
i teringat dulu a colleague kat opis lama, an iraqi. dia suka (voluntarily) terjemahkan ayat2 quran kat i. masa tu i plak lbh kurang dlm "zaman jahiliyah" so tak berapa kesah dia nak ajar.
*malu*

i just remember tht verse above. betul3. setuju3

zan said...

tak salah i, 1 yr back when i visited this tafsir.com it was fully in arabic..so saya pun surrender (got the url from tafsir book yg i pinjam from my boss)...boss saya adalah salah satu contoh org melayu belajar arab from scratch ..now he n his daughter can speak arab. saya..errr..tak yah lah cakap :P

Lollies said...

mrs a - mana si mosh ni? anyway the class that mosh attends is actually in his office. But the ustadz if i remember correctly conduct classes everywhere. what one can do is to call him and arrange in the neighbourhood. i donno. perhaps something to think about. or better still if can go to any tafsir class is the very very best.

nazrah - mana ada sama. kalau kita belajar cakap sahaja, tak sama langsung dgn arab fus-ha yaani the quraanic arabic. my teacher said if the tv interview someone and org tu cakap fus-ha, it is very likely that they are actually jews. bcos the arabs dont speak fus-ha. sure they understand quraan bcos it is like prosa klasik to us. but for us as if kena belajar 2 things. that is hard.

ery - saya pun banyak buang masa waktu zaman jahiliyah.

zan - tafsir dot com now is in english.it is ibn kathir's translation. dapat beli buku mestilah lagi best.

wow! bestnya boss u bercakap arab dengan anak dia.

KakNi said...

Udah berjaman aku tak komen di sini... hmmm...

Ada yg x reti ngaji pun.
Ada yg reti tp x de tajwid, serupa x reti.
Hari2 baca tafsir je, boleh ke camtu?

Nina @ BabyBoon said...

i pun nak tumpang lalu lollies...

mrs.A, kat darul-taalim in taman tun dr. ismail ada some good halfiyah classes and learn-arab-through-the-easy-method (ini nama saya yg bagi sendiri..hehee) punya class where they learn arabic with aims to understand the quran. it's on twice a week, wednesday night and saturday morning. the class is currently full but i am hoping they'd open another class. i'm making enquiries but no word yet. wallahualam bila lah dapat chance nak attend... i sempat lari on monday nights and thursday nights for arabic classes at the arabic academy in kota damansara, tapi so far memang merangkak for now.

ok dah cukup panjang bebel-an ni.

thanks so much lollies for sharing. truly appreciate all u do!

Mulan said...

yeah sis, thanx for sharing..

pesal la main2 masa kelas arab kat sekolah dulu..?? jahil sungguh diriku..

megigoreng said...

ntah apa2 la mak Tam ni sabo je aku dgn local people nih...sabaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!! mcm la depa ni bagus sangat and ikut semua ajaran Islam...suh depa cermin2 kan diri depa dulu

Lollies said...

akuni - well pertamanya it is obligatory yaani fardhu ain yaani wajib to all muslims to be able to read the quraan properly. Therefore if in the case tak boleh baca it is best that the person learns it. Allah rewards one double for the difficulty one faces in terms of pronouncing or difficulty to read.

I would suggest one to read a bool by prof hj kamil travelog haji and also travelog iman. It tells us how a normal person's yg educated and professional journey of iman. like many people he also tak boleh ngaji. at 40 he realises the need to address this problem. very motivational.

Lollies said...

baby boon - subhanallah. tell me again why i love blogging. thank you for sharing where you went for your classes. maybe boleh menumpang satu hari nanti. may it benefit many who are reading here

mulan - we all are like that. :(

megigoreng - mak tam? hahhaha. apa tu?

megigoreng said...

Mak Tam = makcik pakai abaya hitam
Pak Teh = pakcik yg pakai thoub putih tu ler

hehehheehe >:p

lazydaisy said...

thank you for sharing