My speech: The Steps in Learning Quran is Easy

This was my motivational speech during the Al Jauhar Youth Camp 2005. I was given 30 minutes for the talk after maghrib prayer and stopped before ishak. My speech was prepared in point forms so I am not reading my speech but expressing my feelings to the participants. Please mind my gramma on present & past tense. I was glad when the 2 youngest paricipants came to me saying they enjoyed my recitation and talk, alhamdulillah. I felt like kissing them.

Recitation of the Quran, Surah Yasin (chapter 36: v1 - v24) (10 mins, include translation in English)

1) Self-introduction
• Name – Aisya Chen Lee Choo
• Marital Status – Married to Bro Rosman in year 2001
• Highest Educational Level – Diploma in Graphic Design
• Occupation – Freelance Graphic Designer with Advertising Agencies.
• Manage to recite the Quran within 2 to 3 years.

2) Started learning Islam in:
• When? Oct 1998,
• Where? 1–day Orientation & 12–week BCI (Beginners Course in Islam) at Darul Aqam

3) Things I believed in before learning about Islam.
• Open minded to various religions as long as it teaches good.
• No idea if there is God... and definitely God is not from a human being
• Love the wonders of what “Mother Nature” can do. Nature is so beautiful. You feel peaceful when you are in nature with the birds singing and insects humming from a distant... creatures like squirrels, dogs... and insects playing around you. You just feel wonderful and happy.
• Miracles do happen when your will–power is strong.
• Science explorations and developments are what would help mankind to advance.
• Universe, we are not alone, if we exist, there might be other beings.
• Knowledge is what helps you to advance and out of poverty.

4) How I was convinced? Thru learning the
• 6 Articles of Faith – Belief in Allah as the Absolute & Creator of all things, Belief in His angels, His Books, His Prophets, Day of Judgement and lastly Qada’ & Qadar (the power of doing actions good and bad comes from Allah)

– The message about creations and Allah is in controls of the whole univers, the stars, moon, sun, galaxies, things that are out of this world, this earth! Or not so far, here in our body, what is inside us, we cannot control, you can’t ask your body when to fall sick and when to get well.

– Remember the few things I said earlier about what I believed before learning Islam, it fits well with the message of what Islam brings – Allah is the One and Only, no son, no father, no mother, no brother, no wife, no sister, no daughter, and so, definitely not a human being. The "Mother Nature" is Allah, better then an Artist who paint on surface, copying the nature onto paper; everything exist are put into balance.

Miracles happen only by the will of Allah, so Muslim would say "Inshaallah" and when somthing good happens to us we say "Alhamdulillaah", and this falls into the catergory of Qada and Qadar. Not to say SCIENCE, the UNIVERSE, and KNOWLEDGE all comes from Allah, who is the Most Great, the Most Merciful and the Most Gracious. All the messages are in the Quran plus... the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad.

• By accepting that Allah is the Greatest,
Following the 5 Principals of Islam needs to be observed –
Declaration of Faith (Shahadah) – Say LaailaaHaillallah wa anna Muhammadur rasullullah... Say I witness Allah is the One and Only and Muhammad is His messenger.
A Muslim must believe in the above faith completely meaning “Your heart believes, your lips confess and your entire body acts towards obedience to Allah.” So you perform 5 daily Prayers, Fasting, Zakat & lastly Hajj if you are able to afford the journey.

5) Now the Qustion is : What to study after BCI (Beginners Class of Islam)?
• After checking with Ustaz Ahmad Jelani, I joined Taisir in its 2nd week.

• Taisir:
28 letters in Arabic. Learn 7 letters in a week, by mastering 1 letter per day. I joined the class in its 2nd week, still alright to learn 14 letters + writings. I wrote out the 1st 14 letters and pasted on the wall.
– Every week after learning from the class, to make learning interesting, I started to write the letters in joined form and pronounce them, from joining 2 letters, increase to 3 then 4. So in a short time, I am able to write fluently. Later to make it more challenging, I began writing the chapters from the Quran on recycled paper so you don’t need to have wudu to carry it around... And even writing the chapters using inked brush, which is very difficult and ugly... show sample.
– Choose a Quran that the writings you are comfortable with and stick to that.
Ok back to the learning part...

• Tajweed:
Learning the rules on recitations. Master the rules bit by bit, and to
sit in any new tajweed classes to recap the rules and application.

• Talaqqi
– Reciting the Quran after the ustaz, sentence by sentence.
– Or recite together with the ustaz.
– Keep repeating the same chapter. The first surah of Talaqqi was Yasin verse 1 to 12. I was crawling way behind then. People reading at page 2, I am still at page 1. My girlfriend would always point at my Quran the verse that they are reciting.

• Arabic Language
– After I am able to write and recognise the Arabic writings, learning the language will be the next stage.

6) Why do I want to learn about the Quran & Sunnah?
• Besides the hadith said by the Prophet, “I left behind 2 things, follow it closely and you’ll never go astray,”
• If you like to read the Encycopedia, which I did... You will find that the Quran has MORE. There are the Scientific facts which only recently being discovered by scientists, Astronomy on Creation of the Universe, and talks about the 7 heavens... The Healing doas to recite when or before you get sick. eg Al-Fatihah, Yasin, Al–Hashr.
• A lot stories that happen in the past and stories of the prophet.
• And also there is a tree in heaven (Jannah) so huge that if you were to travel under its shadow, it’ll take years.
• The Quran also talks about a river in Jannah (Al-Kauthar), and all these are real, and you can’t find them in the Encycopedia.

• The revelation of the Quran to our beloved prophet Muhammad takes 23 yrs... so I give myself a time frame say: 23 yrs, if I can live longer, that's my bonus to learn about Islam, and to understand what the Quran says... To understand the words of Allah (Quran) you need to know the language.

• I take it slow, I believe that if you keep repeating a certain skill over & over again, you are sure be able to master it, eg, a computer game or a sport, so is learning the Quran... and I am able to read in less than 2 yrs... so it’s not difficult to learn to read and eventually understand the Quran.

Thank you.

Any Question?

Wassalam.