For the first time in my blogging career, let me greet you the way it is done throughout the Muslim world - Assalamu Alaikum! Today there will be a very unusual article about how I learned to read the Koran at the age of 9, but then I successfully forgot everything. A few years later, he made another attempt to learn how to read the Holy Scriptures, and later he taught people himself.

For those who have long wanted to learn how to read in Arabic, I have prepared a nice present at the end of the article. In addition, only for the readers of my blog - a special and very profitable offer! But, see all this below, and now, with your consent, I will begin my story ...

Not to say that since childhood I had a dream - quran read. It all started very funny, back in 1994, my grandmother sent me, a seven-year-old boy, for bread to a nearby stall. According to the law of meanness, the bread was only sold out, and I had to go to the market. At the entrance, I drew attention to the old aksakal, who laid out some books on the table and twisted them in his hands.

The old man turned out to be a comedian and decided to play a trick on a little boy (that is, me), called him over and asked: “Baby, I don’t know what you are looking for, but it’s not so important. Better buy the Koran from me - it will feed you all your life. I confess that before that I knew exactly as much about the Holy Book of Muslims as the leader of the Ubra-Kuku tribe from Rwanda knows about us.

Despite his venerable age, this old man could give odds to many modern marketers. Imagine, from a huge crowd, to accurately determine the one who may be interested in the Koran, call him to you and correctly click on the “sick” so that the desire to buy here and now will prevail over all objections. Nevertheless, he could not sell me anything, since I only had enough money in my pocket for bread. But, he aroused a strong desire to convince my granny of the need for a much-needed purchase.

It didn't take long for me to persuade my grandmother to buy the Holy Scriptures. It turned out that she herself had been thinking for a long time about how to give me to the mullah “on bail”. So, with the light hand of that aksakal, on one of the most beautiful days, I went with a confident gait to an old woman who taught children to read the Koran. At first everything went smoothly and sedately, I was known as a successful student, but then it turned out that either I was not quite smart, or the woman methodically illiterately approached teaching children. In a word, my interest in learning soon disappeared.

As they say, he called himself a load - climb into the basket, I had to bite the bullet and learn. By the way, there is such a tradition: after a person finishes studying the Koran, they conduct a “guran-chikhan”. Like graduation in a modern way, relatives bring all sorts of "sweets", gifts and money, but the mullah gets it all. I didn’t quite like this alignment, I strained and studied (it doesn’t matter how) - but in chocolate a mullah.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but one thing made me happy - now everything was behind me. Everyone won - the mullah with gifts and money, my grandmother fulfilled her dream, and I thought I could quran read. Although, I really could read, only mother laziness eventually took up. The fact is that it was necessary to constantly read, so as not to forget the language. But, make the little tomboy sit and read for two hours every day when your friends are playing football outside the window. But, as it turned out later, it was not about me, but about teaching. The teaching methodology was fundamentally wrong. But, this understanding came later. After two or three years, I "safely" forgot everything.

How to learn to read the Quran correctly?

At about the age of 14, the muse visited me again, and I wanted to master the language of my forefathers. Oh yes, let me clarify - I am a Persian by origin and my ancestors spoke Farsi. Probably, it was genetics that contributed to my good undertakings. So I ended up with a very respected teacher who taught the reading of the Koran - Hajj Vagif. I recently found out that he is gone...

A few words about my teacher - I have met few such sympathetic and kind people in my life. It felt like he put his all into our training. A man of respectable age went to the mountains every day, worked in the garden for 10-12 hours, and in the evening he came home and took up training. He was the most worthy person!

I still remember the words of my mentor, which he said on the first day of my training: “I will teach you to read the Koran so that you will never forget the rules of reading. Even if 20 years pass, and during this time you never look at the Arabic script, you will still be able to freely read the Holy Scriptures. Given my sad experience, his words were taken with irony. Later it turned out that he was right!

So, learning to read the Qur'an consists of four main components:

• Learning the alphabet (in Arabic, the alphabet is called “Alif wa ba”);
• Learning to write (unlike the Russian language, everything is much more complicated here);
• Grammar (tajwid);
• Direct reading.

At first glance, everything may seem as simple as one, two, three. In fact, each of these stages is divided into several sub-stages. main meaning here lies in the fact that it is necessary to learn CORRECTLY to write in Arabic. Notice, not correctly, namely correctly. Until you learn to write, you can not move on to grammar and reading. It was this aspect that was omitted from the methodology of my first mentor. What this omission led to - you already know.

Two more important points: first, using this method, you will only learn how to write and read in Arabic, but not translate. For in-depth training, people travel to Arab countries, where they gnaw at the granite of science for 5 years. The second is to immediately decide on which Quran you will study. Yes, yes, there is a difference in this. Many old mentors teach on the Qur'an, which is popularly called "Ghazan".

I do not advise you to do this, because then it will be difficult to “transition” to the modern Koran. The meaning of the text is the same everywhere, only the font is very different. Of course, "Gazan" is easier, but it's better to immediately start learning with a new font. I know that now many do not quite understand the difference. To make it clearer, the font in the Quran should be as shown in the picture below:

Profitable proposition!!!

By the way, there you can pick up your favorite case and stand. Yes, the number of Qurans is limited, as more are simply not allowed to be carried across the border.

We will assume that you have the Koran (or you), it's time to move on to the alphabet. Here I recommend to immediately start a notebook and remember your 1st grade. Each letter 100 times will need to be printed in a notebook. The Arabic alphabet is not as complex as the Russian one. Firstly, there are only 28 letters in it, and secondly, there are only two vowels: “alif” and “ey”.

On the other hand, it can complicate the understanding of the language. Indeed, in addition to letters, there are also sounds: “a”, “i”, “u”, “un”. Moreover, almost all letters (except "alif", "dal", "zal", "rei", "zey", "wow") are written differently at the beginning of a word, in the middle and at the end. For many, it is also very difficult that you need to read from right to left. Everyone is used to reading "normally" - from left to right. And here it's the other way around.

Personally, this gave me inconvenience when learning to write. It is important here that the bias in the handwriting is from right to left, and not vice versa. I got used to it for a long time, but in the end I brought everything to automatism. Although, sometimes it also happens that I forget about the bias. By the way, here is the Arabic alphabet (yellow frames highlight the spelling of letters depending on their location in the word):

At first, it is very important that you write as much as possible. You need to "get your hand" on this, since during this period the foundation of your training is being built. In 30 days, it is quite possible to memorize the alphabet, know the spelling of letters and learn how to write. For example, your obedient servant kept within 18 days. Although, then the mentor noted that this is a record! All this was painfully interesting to me, and learning was easy.

After the alphabet is learned, you can already write, you can move on to grammar. In Arabic, it is called "tajwid" - the rules of reading. Grammar can be comprehended already directly while reading. Only one nuance - in the Koran the beginning is not where we are used to. The first mentor began training “from the end” of the Qur'an (in ordinary books, this is the beginning), and the second did the right thing - the training began from 1 surah of the Qur'an “Al-Fatiha”.

Further, you will need to read 1-2 pages daily, 10 times each. It takes about an hour or two at first. Then the number of pages can be increased. The maximum I read was 15 pages. We came to class, read a passage from the Koran - homework, received feedback from the mentor, he pointed out the mistakes and gave a new d / z. And so almost 3 months! After you are already perfect quran read, you can try to learn "avazu" - reading by singing. I didn't make it to the end, but still...

Friends, of course, it is impossible to convey everything that can be told through an article. Therefore, if you have a desire to learn how to read Arabic, look for madrasas or mentors in your city. Today this is no longer a problem. I am sure that live training will be 100 times more effective. If you do not have such an opportunity, then here is the promised present at the beginning of the article - download and install the Zekr program on your computer. It will help you learn to read and listen to the Scriptures. The program is absolutely free. Wikipedia article about the program, there is also a download link.

Let me finish my thoughts on this. I really hope that the article was useful to you. I will be glad to read your thoughts in the comments, write everything you think (within reason), I am ready to discuss everyone's opinion. In conclusion, I want to show you a very interesting documentary"Quran" from National Geographic:

P.S. I remind you once again about the 15% discount in our online store.

In this article, you will learn the fastest and most effective ways to improve your Arabic Quran reading technique. Following our advice, over time, you will forget that you stuttered and stuttered at simple words, and you can read any page of the Qur'an as easily as you read the surah al-Fatiha.

But first, let me tell you how I realized that I needed to seriously work on my reading technique. This happened at an event in which one fairly well-known scientist participated ...

When I realized my technique was weak

When I was a student, I often participated in the preparation of various activities and classes for Muslim students. I have always been considered an activist because I did a lot for the Islamic societies of our university.

So, I was busy organizing a meeting with a famous scholar, ran among everyone with an important air, until I noticed that the hafiz, whom we invited to read the Koran at the beginning of the evening, did not appear.

Immediately, I began to mentally sort out everyone who could replace him. But, looking around, I realized that none of these people were there. I began to frantically search for at least someone, even if not from our society. I even stopped people at random, but everyone refused: “No, my reading is lame - why can’t you yourself?”

They asked why I couldn't read myself! I completely lost my feet and realized that I had no way out. At first I decided to read what I know by heart, but it turned out that I only remember a few short surahs at the end of the Qur'an, and it was somehow “dishonest” to read them.

Fortunately, I practiced Surah Yasin and recently listened to it several times, so I decided to stop at it ...

Believe me, never in my life have I experienced such relief after reading the Qur'an as I did that time. Usually on stage I feel calm, but then I just sweated from excitement. I stuttered and stuttered almost every word. Imagine, I almost stumbled on the words “ya sin”.

When it was over, the scholar nodded to me and said, "You know, you should read more of the Quran." Imagine how embarrassing!

I myself understood everything: I had to properly take up the recitation. It was long haul trial and error, but I got through it, and here's how:

5 Ways to Improve Your Quran Reading Technique

1. Old Thai proverb

The Thais, known to us for inventing the muay thai style of kickboxing, used to say, "If you want to be a good fighter... fight!" This is true even if your goal is to learn how to recite the Qur'an competently and fluently.

Do what the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was first commanded to do: read. Read as much as you can, as often as you can. This moment cannot be replaced. The more you read, the better you get at it. Before you know it, you will already be reading an unfamiliar page as quickly as you used to read a few lines.

2. Link old and new habit

Without a doubt, this is the only truly effective way to create a new habit. You must associate the habit of reading the Qur'an in Arabic with what you do daily and never miss. For example, brush your teeth or get dressed in the morning.

A great way is to time the reading to one (or several) prayers that you perform every day. So you will be in a state of voodoo, and one of the main psychological barriers will be overcome.

And when you decide which prayer to choose, promise yourself to read after it a small passage from the Koran every day, and so for thirty days.

3. Repetition is the mother of learning

And now I will teach you a technique that will allow you to double or triple the quality and speed of reading. Let's say you decide to read two pages of the Qur'an after Isha prayer and 2 pages in the morning before leaving for work.

“But will that mean I only read one page?” you say. Yes, but you did it four times, and more importantly, the fourth time you read three to four times faster than the first. What if you read one page five times a day?

The next day, move on to the next page, and so on. At the end of the week, you may want to “go over” all seven pages that you completed during the week again.

You may even want to do this with a tajweed teacher who will correct your mistakes. You will find that you are still reading the very first page 2-3 times faster and more confidently than on the first try.

And in 600 days you will read the Quran 6 times! And let them envy you!

If you decide to read one page five times a day and once at the end of the week, then it turns out that by the number of pages in a hundred days, that is, in three months, you will read the whole Quran! This means that in a year you will do it four times.

4. Remember keywords

The key to understanding the Qur'an is to know by heart the basic words of the Qur'an. If you learn 300 of these words, it will be about 70% of all the words of the Qur'an. But you need to memorize the “correct” words.

They will help you when reading, linking the text together, therefore, having learned these common words by heart, you will recognize them when you meet, and then something amazing will happen ...

Just like in your native language, you will unconsciously mark the first and last letters of a familiar word, and immediately recognize the whole word, that is, you will not have to read it letter by letter. I want to say that when you start to recognize the most common words right away, your reading technique will improve many, many times over.

However, this tip does not replace the previous three. Don't wait to learn everything the right words to start reading. This is a common mistake and a waste of time. You may know all three hundred words, but if you have never read the Quran aloud, you will still come out very slowly.

If within a month you can memorize 5-10 words every day and still read, in a month or two you will know 70% of all the words of the Quran. You will see for yourself that this will make you want to learn and read again and again, will give you confidence in your abilities.

5. Use digital devices

Digital technology will also help you move forward quickly. Record a recitation of a famous hafiz whose voice you like. Listen to him read one page at a time and read along with him, running your finger along the lines. If you are too behind, then just follow the text. Then return to the top of the page and start all over again, and so on several times. Since the hafiz reads much faster than you, you will go through one page several times in one go. First, you will learn to follow the text with your eyes, and then say it out loud.

So, in short, here are five rules for improving the technique of reciting the Quran:

1. Constantly practice reading like a boxer practicing punches over and over again.
2. Read one page of the Qur'an immediately after prayer.
3. Before going any further, read it several times.
5. Learn five words from the Koran a day, and so for two months.
6. Read under the recording of the reading of the hafiz.