After my reflection at the start of
the year on what is important and what I want to priorities or focus on, I have
been looking for ways to connect better with the Quran. My focus has been on learning
Quranic Arabic and trying to understand Allah’s (SWT) message to us better insh’Allah.
A few weeks ago, my dad gave me a leaflet
for tajweed classes starting at his masjid – for women! On the weekend! I might be overreacting, but I struggle to
find something locally for women on weekends, whether classes, fitness activities
or faith related activities, so I was very happy. I last studied tajweed whilst on maternity
leave with Little Man and he has turned 14 today, so I felt this was a welcome
time to check the accuracy of my tajweed, or pronunciation of the Quran.
I turned up last weekend on time at
the beautiful masjid Dad attends and in true South Asian (or is it Muslim?)
fashion women kept arriving for the next twenty minutes. We eventually started half an hour late, but
I was heartened to see the sheer number of women who came along, all ages,
abilities and not even all South Asian (there are a lot of us in this
neighbourhood 😊 ).
The class started with the basics
of why it is a sinful to mispronounce the words in the Quran and why. We then moved to familiarizing ourselves with
some of the Arabic terminology: makharij (where the sound originates from), haroof
(letter) and more.
The ustadhah (teacher) was young,
but very knowledgeable and had a warm but firm style of teaching. She taught us
the five places where makharij originate (throat, lips, nose, tongue, air of
the mouth) and got us to practice the letters of the alphabet and get the sound
right.
I am looking forward to getting to
know some of the sisters and I am really grateful to get the opportunity to review
and improve my reading of the Quran insh’Allah. I pray that I am someone who is
a student of deen until the day I die insh’Allah.
image courtesy of Shutterbug Sister at https://everyphototunity.com/
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