How I Study a Surah (Step by Step) Q&A

What I do when I study a surah

is I recite that surah

over and over again for at least a

few days.

Just recite that Surah. So if he if

he talks about something, I want her to

worry about it. I wanna go inside that

world and then take a deep look at

what is it that Allah referred to.

I have a quick question.

Thank you first.

And,

I wonder how you study the Suras. Do

you have tips for us? Like, when we

want to study a Sura Cool. Do you

have a fixed plan

which you use for every Sura or yeah.

That's it. Uh-huh. It's complicated. You I don't

think you guys can follow my plan yet,

but I want to be able to get

you to the point where you can follow

my plan. I'll tell you briefly my plan,

and then I'll tell you what I want

to be your plan. My my plan was

to tell you your plan on day 7.

Okay? So I'll tell you my plan today,

I'll tell you your plan on day 7.

Okay, Cammal.

What I do when I study a Surah

is I recite that Surah

over and over again for at least a

few days.

Just recite that surah. And that's my first

step. And I write down what I think

are some observations or questions about that surah,

I make a note of them, either I

make a mental note of them or I

keep taking notes on my phone on what

I think is going on in the ayat.

I then try to understand the second step

is I try to understand

the organization of the Surah, the organization of

its ideas. You saw some of that when

I

showed you the the last slides.

Right? But that that kind of organization is

called

like a structural coherence, meaning you're kind of

noticing a pattern in the text.

But there are other kinds of organizational matters,

meaning what are some keywords that are repeating

themselves in the Surah? What are some themes

that are connected to each other? For example,

purity keeps coming up directly and indirectly,

right, in the surah. So

had to do with purity,

then

had to do with purity, had to do

with purity,

from the Jewish perspective had to do with

purity,

right? So there's lots of

what are some themes that keep recurring

or showing up in different ways inside a

surah that bind the ideas of the surah

together. That's the second thing I look at.

So this is kind of a literary

type of study.

The 3rd

layer of my study is to investigate the

meanings of the words in the surah.

So

what you know

you've seen me show you some slides

behind sabbaha

or some slides behind Qudus or some slides

behind

you know any keyword in the ayatamani.

Right? So I wanna have a deeper understanding

of the vocabulary of the surah and what

I might learn from that in the context

of this surah. So that would be my

3rd layer

of study of that surah.

Then I,

my next and I I still by this

time I have not opened any tafsir like

I've not

listened to any scholar or any this is

just my process.

Then my my next step in the surah

is to actually ask myself

what questions come in my mind

when I read the surah. For example, a

question that came in my mind is that

I discussed with you today,

well, should I be wishing for death if

I am

from the Awdiya of Allah? That's not a

question I read in tafsir, that was my

own question.

What's the difference between

is my own question.

Why is the analogy of the mule or

the donkey being used? That's my own question.

So I have my own list of questions

about the Surah,

and then I try to find

the answers to those questions across the Quran,

and then the other the the the next

another wave, these are multiple waves I know,

but another wave of of study of the

Surah is if the Quran is talking about

something,

I wanna know more about it from outside

the Quran. Like for example,

I actually

must have read.

I must've watched 2 different

long videos documentaries on donkeys,

and I read

several articles on donkeys,

because Allah talked about donkeys.

So if he if he talks about something,

I want her to worry about it.

That's just my

the way my brain works towards Surahs. When

we were studying

with the winds that blow and carry,

we I studied the winds.

I studied the National Geographic articles on the

winds, and how winds move and the winds

in the over the North Atlantic versus the

Pacific and, you know, different how what what

what do winds carry? How do the winds

carry, you know, air not just temperature and

moisture but also,

you know, pollen and sand and

like I just wanna know. And if, you

know, another Surah comes up, like last surah

came up and Allah mentioned monasteries

and I have to study

and look at the history of the Catholic

church and where the monk life began and

like because Allah mentioned they lived the monk

life, so I wanna know more about the

monk life and where it came from and

what happened, right?

Doctor Saeb and I call this the worlds

of the Quran. The the Allah refers to

something and I wanna enter that world. I

wanna go inside that world and take a

deep look at what is it that Allah

referred to. Right?

And then that that opens up different insights,

like the insights and, you know, the the

biblical analogies that Doctor. Suheb or Doctor. Saker

actually pointed out for me that I shared

with you guys about the donkey and the

mule and carrying and all of that stuff.

So that's another process.

Then now towards the end, then I

listened to,

I read Batawali Sharabi second, actually I read,

I listened to Doctor. Asar Ahmad, his mufasal

dasa alaikru'an it was called an Urdu.

First, it was a it's a detailed lecture

series on the Quran.

Doctor Saab is my first inspiration in the

Quran, I've heard him 100 of times before

but I listen to him again anyway.

And I listen to him to see how

I think differently from he does.

And,

you know, his lectures on this Surah

are 4 hours long.

So he he covered the entire Surah in

4 hours.

Ordu.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not in English. And then

I'll I'll read,

Watawadhi Shahrabi because he has nice insights sometimes,

oremallallah,

If there's something available from him or some

video I can find of his,

then I then I'll start building my way

up to go towards the Tafasir but not

go there yet. Then I One of the

people I will read up on is doctor

Fadus Salih Hassan El Ra'id,

and his I'm very grateful for the sister

Arnut.

I believe she's in

Sarudia. She transcribed his lectures and organized them

by Surah. So she'll send me a word

document for each Surah so I can go

through his work on the Surah.

That's in Arabic,

and I go through that. He he offers

some really interesting comparative analysis. Why did Allah

use this word at this Ayah? Why did

he use that word at that Ayah? And

he has some really cool comparative

textual analysis on the ayah.

And then

I discuss

every ayah

with my team.

There's 2 teams. 1 I get on a

call with, and 1 I am on a

WhatsApp group with just text we text each

other what voice note each other. My my

my my

call team is in Islamabad in Pakistan.

They're it's made up of 8 women and

2 men.

They're both they're all of them are graduates

from the International Islamic University of Islamabad or

they're still continuing their education there. And they're

all have specialization in Quran or tafsir study.

They're absolutely brilliant,

means they're, they rage in age. Some of

them are bachelor's, some of them are master's

students, some of them are PhD students,

and we'll just say okay, I'll give them

a call and say hey, today we're gonna

discuss IIA number 1.

You guys read whatever the series you're gonna

read, but I want your thoughts on ayah

number 1. We'll just we'll just do on

the ayah together for 2 hours,

on just ayah number 1, and the next

day on ayah number 2, and next day

on ayah number 3, like that. Right? So

that's part of my process. I I,

whatever questions I have, discussions I wanna have,

I call doctor Saheb Saeed, who's head of

research at Bayena right now. He I I

talk to him, get his insights and thoughts

on the ayah, then I read the tafasir.

And then so so because the tafasir is

somebody else's work,

but I wanna do my homework before I

read them.

So it's a process.

It takes time.

Takes a little bit of time, but your

process is not gonna be like that. Your

process is super easy.

It's gonna be like ordering pizza,

hopefully not German pizza.

I hope you guys enjoyed that video clip.

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