In the last few months, I have run several beta sessions of classes for The Muslim Educator Academy. In the very first class of the Ramadan Qur’an Club, I asked the students to complete this sentence:
My Qur’an Is…
One 9-year-old student’s response completely floored me. She said, “My Qur’an is everything to me: my house, my base. It’s the center of me. It’s my heart.”
This is the miracle of young hearts. They are so pure, so full of longing for their Lord and Messenger.
Other students gave similarly heartfelt answers:
- My Qur’an is there for me. It makes me feel better and comforts me.
- It’s my GPS to jannah!
- My Qur’an is always right.
- My Qur’an is noble.
- It is beautiful, full of guidance and advice.
A student said, “My Qur’an is efficient,” and I was puzzled.
“Could you explain that further?” I asked.
The student replied: “In such few words you can get so much out of it–its words are full of blessings.”
When a child is able to feel this way about the Book of Allah, it is an incredible thing. It is a thing to nurture and cherish. And if we are not careful, our approach can crush this enthusiasm and even turn them away from the Qur’an itself.
I have seen in many a Sunday school graduation ceremony students stand up to take the stage and repeat ayat or ahadeeth in a daze. You can see in their eyes that they have no idea what they are saying and frankly, could not care what they are saying. It’s not their fault. We haven’t allowed them to associate the Qur’an with a sense of joy and wonder. We’ve only succeeded in associating it with drudgery.
If the Qur’an starts to be viewed as a burden or chore, or something that leads to anger and resentment, that is a sign that something needs to change in our pedagogy. Once these negative associations of frustration, anger, apathy become associated with Qur’an, it becomes harder to create positive associations.
I struggle mightily with this when it comes to my own children. I want them to memorize some Qur’an, even if it is only a little bit at a time, and yet still keep alive that awe in the face of its greatness, and that wonder and joy for its message.
With my Qur’an club students, we worked to stoke the embers of the fire of passion they already had for the Qur’an. We learned to marvel at the Qur’an together, untangling its meaning and connections with daily life. We engaged with it using art and calligraphy. My goal was to create positive, joyful, thought-provoking memories that would inextricably be tied up with the Qur’an for the rest of their lives.
My goal is for meaning-centered and joy-centered Qur’an education to become commonplace, as common as classes for memorization and reading. I want students of all ages to be filled with passion and love when asked the question: “What does the Qur’an mean to you?”
