Ayah Of The Week – Volume 03 Issue 38
From Deep Understanding of the Faith to Positive Action: A Qur’anic Path for Today
Occasion of reflecting on this ayah: The 4th of Rabi‘ al-Thani: The birth anniversary of Hazrat ‘Abd al-‘Azim al-Hasani (may Allah be pleased with him)
Introduction
Hazrat ‘Abd al-‘Azim al-Hasani (may Allah be pleased with him) was a trustworthy narrator, distinguished scholar and jurist of his time. He transmitted many traditions and teachings from Imam al-Rida, Imam al-Jawad and Imam al-Hadi (peace be upon them), either directly or through intermediaries. His life offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on the Qur’anic call to gain a deep understanding of religion and to share that understanding with others:
… فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِن كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِّنْهُمْ طَآئِفَةٌ لِّيَتَفَقَّهُواْ فِى الدِّينِ وَلِيُنذِرُواْ قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُواْ إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ
“… So why should not a group from every community set out to gain a deeper understanding of the religion, and then warn their people when they return to them, so that they may be mindful?” (Surah al-Tawbah, 9:122)
Educational messages of this verse for teenagers and youth
- Learn Your Faith Well
Study your religion carefully and learn it from trustworthy and knowledgeable people.
Practical Challenge: Ask a reliable scholar or teacher one important question about your faith this week.
- Live What You Believe
Put Islamic values into your words and actions, and become a living example of your faith.
Practical Challenge: Choose one Islamic value, such as honesty or kindness, and practise it consciously for a week.
- Give Wise Advice
When friends ask for your advice, think about Islamic principles before giving your opinion.
Practical Challenge: The next time a friend asks for advice, pause and ask yourself, “What would Islam teach me to do?”
- Do Not Stay Silent About Wrongdoing
Encourage what is good and, with wisdom and kindness, do not support or remain silent about harmful behaviour.
Practical Challenge: This week, gently encourage a friend to do one good thing instead of joining in something harmful.
- Go Where You Can Learn
If necessary, travel or change your surroundings to learn your faith from good and knowledgeable people.
Practical Challenge: Find one trustworthy teacher, class or Islamic learning programme that can deepen your knowledge.
- Don’t Believe Everything You See Online
The internet gives you thousands of religious messages every day, but being viral does not make something true; learn to check before you believe or share.
Practical Challenge: This week, choose one Islamic post or video that you see online and check its source before sharing it.
- Ask the Questions You Really Have
Having questions about faith does not make you a bad Muslim; asking, learning and seeking reliable answers can make your faith stronger and deeper.
Practical Challenge: Write down one question about Islam that you have been afraid or embarrassed to ask, and discuss it with a trustworthy and knowledgeable person.
- Be Brave Enough to Be Different
You may sometimes feel pressure to follow the crowd, but understanding your faith can give you the confidence to make good choices even when they are unpopular.
Practical Challenge: Identify one situation where you usually follow the crowd and make one independent, values-based decision this week.
- Use What You Learn to Help Someone
The verse connects learning with returning to the community and helping others; your knowledge becomes more valuable when it makes someone else’s life better.
Practical Challenge: Learn one useful Islamic teaching this week and share it with a friend in a friendly, practical way—not as a lecture.
- Be a Positive Voice Online
You can represent Islamic values through the way you speak online, disagree with others and respond to people who think differently.
Practical Challenge: For one week, avoid insulting, mocking or arguing aggressively online and make at least one positive contribution each day.
Educational messages of this verse for parents
- Invest in Your Children’s Faith
Make religious learning a clear priority and plan for your children to learn their faith from trustworthy sources.
Practical Challenge: Set aside a regular time each week for your family to learn something about Islam together.
- Learn Your Faith Too
Parents should continue learning about Islam themselves and make religious knowledge part of their own priorities.
Practical Challenge: Choose one reliable Islamic book, course or teacher and spend a little time learning from it each week.
- Teach Deep Understanding
Help your children understand the meaning, wisdom and reasons behind Islamic beliefs and teachings, not just their outward practices. Do not completely outsource your children’s Islamic education, you’re also responsible for this.
Practical Challenge: This week, discuss the meaning and purpose of one Islamic practice with your child.
- Build Inner Self-Control
The goal of religious education is not forced obedience, but helping children develop faith, self-control and the ability to recognise right from wrong.
Practical Challenge: When your child faces a difficult choice, ask, “What do you think is the right thing to do, and why?”
- Make Home a Safe Place for Questions
Children and teenagers should feel able to ask difficult questions about religion, identity and modern life without immediately being criticised.
Practical Challenge: Have a family conversation this week where every question about faith is welcomed and nobody is mocked for asking it.
- Teach Your Children How to Check Information
In an age of short videos, influencers and AI-generated content, young people need to know how to distinguish authentic knowledge from misinformation.
Practical Challenge: Take one religious claim from social media and investigate its source together with your child.
- Let Your Behaviour Teach Before Your Words
Children learn religious values from everyday family life, especially from how parents deal with anger, disagreement, money, neighbours and other people.
Practical Challenge: Choose one value you want your child to learn and consciously model it in your own behaviour for seven days.
- Connect Religion with Their Real World
Young people need to understand how Islamic teachings relate to friendship, education, technology, mental pressure, discrimination, relationships and their future.
Practical Challenge: Ask your child to choose one real-life problem they face and spend fifteen minutes discussing how Islamic values might guide them.
- Teach Them How to Learn, Not Just What to Learn
In today’s world of social media and conflicting information, children need the ability to distinguish reliable religious knowledge from misinformation.
Practical Challenge: Sit with your child and examine one religious message from social media together, discussing its source and reliability.
Educational messages of this verse for imams and teachers
- Keep Learning and Growing
A scholar should be ready to leave his comfort zone and seek knowledge wherever it can be found.
Practical Challenge: Learn something new from a qualified scholar, book or course outside your usual routine this month.
- Make Religious Learning a Shared Responsibility
Deep understanding of religion and teaching it to others is a collective responsibility of the Muslim community.
Practical Challenge: Help one person this week take a small step towards learning their faith.
- Teach the Depth, Not Just the Surface
Help people understand the deeper meaning, wisdom and purpose behind Islamic teachings.
Practical Challenge: In your next lesson or sermon, explain the wisdom behind one ruling rather than simply stating it.
- Start with Your Own Community
Those who teach Islam should give special attention to the people and communities closest to them.
Practical Challenge: Identify one real need in your local community and prepare a short lesson or activity to address it.
- Go to the People
Teachers and religious leaders should actively reach out to people instead of waiting for them to come and ask for help.
Practical Challenge: This week, personally contact one young person or family who may benefit from your support.
- Do Your Best, Without Expecting Everyone to Change
Our responsibility is to teach and advise wisely; we cannot force everyone to accept or follow the message.
Practical Challenge: Give sincere advice to someone with patience, then respect their choice and continue treating them with kindness.
- Teach for Understanding, Not Just Memorisation
The Qur’anic concept of tafaqquh calls for deep understanding, so religious education should help students understand the meaning, wisdom and application of Islamic teachings.
Practical Challenge: In your next lesson, replace one memorisation exercise with a discussion about how the teaching applies to everyday life.
- Answer Today’s Questions
Muslim communities today face questions about identity, technology, artificial intelligence, relationships, discrimination, war, migration and living in diverse societies; religious education should engage with these realities.
Practical Challenge: Dedicate one lesson or sermon each month to a contemporary issue chosen by the young people themselves.
- Teach Islam in a Language People Understand
Present Islamic teachings in simple, clear and relevant language that connects with people’s real-life questions and challenges.
Practical Challenge: In your next lesson or sermon, explain one Islamic teaching using a simple example from everyday life.
- Encourage Group Learning
This verse emphasizes the importance of learning in groups. Several centuries after the revelation of this noble verse, human science has also come to recognize that people often learn more effectively in groups than individually.
Practical Challenge: This week, assign a learning task and have your audience work on it in groups of three to five people.
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