Class Recordings & Notes

Thematic Study of the Qurʾān Class
Recordings and Notes

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Introduction • Themes •  Resources • Registration

TSQ-1: Introduction (video) (November 6, 2022; first 2 minutes were missed in recording)

  • What is meant by Thematic Study of the Qur’an?

  • What are the benefits of such a study?

  • Why is it necessary?

  • How would it be done?

  • Has it been done before?

  • What are the resources for such a study?

TSQ-2 Primary Theme: Allah Most High (video) (November 13, 2022; first 90 seconds were messed in recording)

TSQ-2: Subtopics:

  • What has Allah Most High told us about Himself?

  • The Name and the Named

  • Etymology. Can we translate the name “Allah”?

  • How do we know Allah Most High exists?

  • The Most Beautiful Names of Allah

TSQ-3 Primary Theme: Allah Most High (video) (November 20, 2022)

Resuming the discussion on the Name of Majesty, Allah Most High.

  • Is it derived? If yes, from what?

  • Developments in early conceptions

  • Mihna

  • Various Formulations

TSQ-4 Primary Theme: Allah Most High (video)

  1. Concluding remarks about the Name (ism)

  2. Creedal statement about Allah Most High (5 pages of al-ʿaqīda al-Ṭaḥāwiyya)

  3. Belief in Allah Most High is Obligatory (wājib): Hadith Jibraʾīl

  4. Difference between ʿilm (“Knowledge”) and maʿrifa (“Gnosis”)

  5. Gnosis of Allah Most High (maʿrifa Allāh taʿāla)

Hadith: “Indeed, the truest saying of any poet is the saying of Labīd, when he said: ‘Everything other than Allah is bāṭil.’”

TSQ-5 Primary Theme: Allah Most High: The Qur’an and “Does God Exist?” Question (video)

TSQ-5: Subtopics:

  • The Qur’an and “Does God Exist?” Question

  • In the Contemporary world
    The Question in our own lives: “Mom: I do not believe in God anymore”

TSQ-6 Primary Theme: Allah Most High: His Beautiful Names (video)

TSQ-6 Subtopics:

  • Definitions, Usage, Etymology, Hadith of 99 Names

TSQ-7 Primary Theme: Allah Most High: His Beautiful Names–II (video) (December 18, 2022)

TSQ-7 Subtopics:

  • Are there only 99?: Proofs for and against

  • Are Names Ordained (tawqīfiyya) or Deducible/Conventional (qiyāsiyya/iṣṭilāḥiyya)

  • Relationship between Names and Attributes

TSQ-8 Primary Theme: Allah Most High: His Attributes (video) (December 25, 2022)

TSQ-9 Primary Theme: Allah Most High; sub-theme: Creation (video) (January 01, 2023)

TSQ-10 Primary Theme: Allah Most High; sub-theme: Creation (video) (January 08, 2023)

TSQ-10 Subtopics:

  • What is meant by “Creation”? Eleven words in the Qurʾān for creation; five meanings of ʿālamīn

  • Reflections on Creation

  • Ghazali: al-hikma fi Makhluqat Allah

  • How to reflect? On what? For what purpose?

TSQ-11 Primary Theme: Allah Most High; sub-theme: Creation (video) (January 15, 2023)

TSQ-12 Primary Theme: Allah Most High; sub-theme: Creation (video) (January 22, 2023)

TSQ-13 Primary Theme: Allah Most High; sub-theme: Creation (January 29, 2023)

  • fā ṭā rā (ف ط ر): { إِنِّي وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّذِي فَطَرَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ (79)} [الأنعام: 79]

  • Is Big Bang in the Qur’an?

  • Hierarchies of Creation

TSQ-14: Big Bang in the Qur’an (video: first 5 minutes of the class) (Feb 05, 2023)

TSQ-14: Big Bang in the Qur’an and other Marginalia (main video for the class) (February 05, 2023)

TSQ-15: Creation of the samawāt and the earth in Six Days (video) (February 12, 2023)

TSQ-16 Creation Theme: The use of afa-la plus invitation to reflect, using 13 verbs plus The First Principles (video) (February 19, 2023)

TSQ-17 (video) (March 5, 2023)

TSQ-18 (March 12, 2023)

TSQ-19 (March 19, 2023)

TSQ-20 (video) (April 2, 2023)

TSQ-21: Finding the best translation of the Qur’an (video) (April 16, 2023)

TSQ-22: Finding the Best Qur’an Translation–Part II (video) (April 23, 2023)

TSQ-23: Companions-1 (video) (April 30, 2023)

  • TSQ-23 Class Notes

TSQ-24: Companions 2 (video)  (May 7, 2023)

TSQ-25: Companions 3 (video) (May 14, 2023)

  • TSQ-25 Class Notes

After 25 classes, the Qur’an class resumed the study of the Qur’an and the class title changed to Studying the Qur’an (STQ). On May 21, 2023, we started the Qur’an from the beginning with Basmala. A new page was made for STQ.

Studying the Qur’an STQ-1-basmala-May 21, 2023 (class recording)

Studying the Qur’an-STQ-2-basmala-2-May 28, 2023 (class recording)

STQ-3-June 4-2023-Fatiha-1-class recording

STQ-4-June 18, 2023 on Surah Fatiha-class recording

STQ-5-June 25-2023 Surah Fatiha-class recording

STQ-6-July 2-2023-Surah Fatiha-class-recording