Dars-E-Qur’an In Circles (& Circles & Circles)

Have noticed the practice of Dars-e-Qur’an in a big number of places and for a long period of time. What could be a practice better than studying Qur’an? That, too, collectively! Have, however, always wondered that something is seriously missing somewhere in this otherwise very useful exercise. These circles have become lifeless, I am afraid. There is a lot of hair-splitting – farther from relating and applying – ignoring the crux of it. We are not sure about what to do next. Where to move from after the Circle is over. We are not used to asking these questions. But the Circle is never ever over. So we remain in those Circles – the entire life.

Despite numberless duroos in countless Circles we haven’t stopped quoting from Qur’an selectively. The Dars-e-Qur’an circles do not, in fact, serve any worthwhile civilizational purpose. We forget the entire Qur’an and the Circles when it comes to the core ideology of that particular group which we (happen to) belong to. We say that we belong to the entire Ummah and the whole humanity. But actually we don’t. We belong to our respective small groups and schools of thought – with an inflationary idea about both. We only belong to our self-contradictions and partial outlooks.

To make it worse, there is a false impression of “I know it all” in these circles as I have noticed. For that half an hour everyone in the Circle is almost an authority on Qur’an. And then it is over and then the business as usual. Phir wahi frusat ke raaaaat din. The impression at the conclusion of a Circle is: “Now we will address some other verses in the next Circle the next week, in sha Allah. We accomplished the task today, ma sha Allah.” How much we keep track of the previously studied verses is not of much concern and relevance. Thanks to the atomistic thinking and our habit of not relating one thing with the other.

Years of Circles haven’t broadened the horizons. They haven’t taught the importance of unlearning. They have only reinforced the conditioning effects. They haven’t taught the lesson of addressing the real issues. They haven’t taught to think beyond one’s (limited) mental and psychological boundaries. But the Circles we must have because form is more important than the content and speed is more important than direction. Care should be taken to prepare periodic reports. The ‘officials’ will also inquire about it. If we continue at this pace and in this manner I am not sure what do we expect and when?

All these Circles have to seriously reconsider their methodology and the future plans. They have to critically assess what they have achieved from these Circles and what they had intended to achieve. They have to articulate their specific goals. They have to remember that only by studying a very small part of the Book the lives of many were changed for better – previously. Inspired by merely a part of Qur’an they transformed themselves and the entire environment. Let us not forget that in Makkah they didn’t have all the thirty ajzaa’. 

Sûrah al-‘Asr can illustrate the current situation. The number of times its dars has been given and it has been collectively studied in Circles must be uncountable. After this much spending of time we should have set out in the search for TRUTH (haqq) taking the provision of PATIENCE (sabr) in this long and arduous journey. How much we have truly imbibed the spirit of this Sûrah is evident from the amount of truth that we have(n’t) discovered so far. We haven’t even completely grasped the fact that truth is the criterion and not the personalities. That’s why we are more after personalities than after truth. With this mind-set it is difficult to move to the second stage (promotion of critical and scientific thinking).

What to do next? Let us look for the juice. Let us yearn for the essence. Let us not settle down for anything less than the kernel. Let us always ask “What next?” and “What do we conclude?” Let us follow up on the conclusions of a previous Dars-e-Qur’an and Mutaala‘-e-Qur’an before we move to the next one. Let the Circles conclude only after finalizing a course of action. Let us not move from one thing to the other without accomplishing anything. Let us always relate the past Circles with the present one. Let us always ask ourselves why a part of the Book was able to change the whole situation while the whole is not able to change even a part. Let us see whether the Circles are making us leaders or followers. Let our movement be linear and not cyclic. Let us pray for the Straight Path so that we do not go round and round in Circles.