Here is how to learn Quran online UK for all the non-Arab Muslims or even the Arabs who are living in the UK and want to learn Quran online! And if you live in the USA, don’t worry we didn’t forget you we have already written an article for you before, check it out!
Islam in The UK
“هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَىٰ وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ“
— Surah as-saff, verse 9
“It is He who sent His Messenger with the guidance and the true religion, to make it prevail over all religions, even though the idolaters dislike it”.
Islam is now the second largest religion in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with results from the United Kingdom 2011 Census giving the UK Muslim population in 2011 as 2,516,000, 4.4% of the total population, while more recent Office of National Statistics sources has it in 2018 as 3,372,966 in Great Britain alone. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom live in England: 2,660,116 (4.3% of the population). 76,737 Muslims live in Scotland (1.45%), 45,950 in Wales (1.50%).
London has the greatest population of Muslims in the country. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom adhere to Sunni Islam, while smaller numbers are associated with Shia Islam. (Wikipedia)
The History of Islam in The United Kingdom
Tamim al-Dari reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “This matter will certainly reach every place touched by the night and day. Allah will not leave a house or residence but that Allah will cause this religion to enter it, by which the honorable will be honored and the disgraceful will be disgraced. Allah will honor the honorable with Islam and he will disgrace the disgraceful with unbelief.” Musnad Aḥmad 16957
The religion of Islam reached everywhere in the world as the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) promised.
During the Middle Ages, there was some general cultural exchange between Christendom and the Islamic world, however, there were no Muslims in the British Isles (a few Crusaders did convert in the East, such as Robert of St. Albans).
During the Elizabethan age, contacts became more explicit as the Tudors made alliances against Catholic Habsburg Spain, including with Morocco and the Ottoman Empire. As the British Empire grew, particularly in India, Britain came to rule territories with many Muslim inhabitants; some of these, known as the lascars, are known to have settled in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards. In the 19th century, Victorian Orientalism spurred an interest in Islam, and some British people, including aristocrats, converted to Islam. Marmaduke Pickthall, an English writer, novelist, and convert to Islam, provided a British Muslim’s first complete English-language translation of the Qur’an in 1930.
Under the British Indian Army, a significant number of Muslims fought for the United Kingdom during the First and the Second World Wars (a number of whom were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest honor). In the decades following the latter conflict and the Partition of India in 1947, many Muslims (from what is today Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) settled in Britain itself.
To this day, British Asians constitute the majority of Muslims in Britain in terms of ethnicity, although there are significant Turkish, Arab, and Somali communities, as well as up to 100,000 British converts of multiple ethnic backgrounds. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United Kingdom and its adherents have the lowest average age out of all the major religious groups. Between 2001 and 2009, the Muslim population increased almost 10 times faster than the non-Muslim population. Although Islam is generally thought of as a recent arrival in the UK, Muslims have been trading and exchanging ideas with the British for centuries.
The earliest evidence of Islamic influence in England dates to the 8th century, when Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia, minted a coin with an Arabic inscription, largely a copy of coins issued by a contemporary Abbasid ruler, Caliph Al-Mansur. In the 16th century, Muslims from North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia were present in London, working in a range of roles, from diplomats and translators to merchants and musicians. (Wikipedia)
Arab Muslims in The United Kingdom
People of Arab origin in Britain are the descendants of Arab immigrants to Britain from a variety of Arab states, including Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine. Most British Arabs are Sunni Muslim, although some – such as those of Iraqi and Lebanese origin – are Shi’ite. A smaller number belongs to one of the Eastern Christian denominations, such as Coptic Orthodox and Maronite or Syriac Orthodox Arabs from the Levant and Egypt, and Iraq.
The main Arab Muslim communities in the UK live in the Greater London area, with smaller numbers living in Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. There are also sizable and very long-established communities of Muslim Yemenis in the United Kingdom among other places Cardiff and the South Shields area near Newcastle. Wikipedia
How to Overcome The Challenges That Face The United Kingdom’s Muslims?
Now let me share with you the challenges that face the United Kingdom’s Muslims and tell you how to overcome them.
Islamophobia And Racism
“ وَمَا نَقَمُوا مِنْهُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ
— Surah al- Buruj , verse 8.
“They begrudged them only because they believed in God the Almighty, the Praiseworthy“.
A new report has revealed that members of the religious minority are less likely to succeed in the workplace with many reporting experiences of Islamophobia, discrimination, and racism.
“The British social mobility promise is that hard work will be rewarded. Unfortunately, for many young Muslims in Britain today, this promise is being broken,” said Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility Commission, The Guardian reported research for the government’s social mobility watchdog, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found a strong work ethic and high resilience among Muslims that resulted in impressive results in education.
This dedication was not translated into the workplace, with only 6% of Muslims breaking through into professional jobs, compared with 10% of the overall population in England and Wales. Young Muslims themselves identify cultural barriers in their communities and discrimination in the education system and labor market as some of the principal obstacles that stand in their way.
Young Muslim women face a specific challenge to maintain their identity while seeking to succeed in modern Britain.
Farhana Ghaffar, a 25-year-old Muslim woman said she was “incredibly shocked” by the findings of the research, she added, “It ranged from assumptions that they were forced to wear the headscarf to jokes and casual comments in the workplace about Muslims. Or every time there was a terror attack there was a feeling of a need to apologize and explain,” she said.
Among those interviewed in the research, one woman in Liverpool said her father had suggested “changing her name to help get a job.”
Another female respondent in High Wycombe referred to hearing comments such as “he looked very Muslim” or “look at her, she’s got a scarf on.”
It is obvious how much discrimination and racism Muslims living in the UK encounter in British society. Muslims face “a lot” of discrimination than say the same about other religious groups like Jews or Christians. A similar pattern appeared in previous surveys when it was clear that there was a lot of discrimination against Muslims than to say the same about other kinds of religions.
But what is the solution to this trouble? For avoiding this difficulty, British Muslims have to establish a cultural Islamic bridge between them and the Arab world. They should learn all different kinds of Quranic studies to be able to improve the image of Islam for those who insist to be always discriminated against by Muslims. This will help to develop a good impact on Islam in British society. My last word to my dear brothers and sisters located in the UK is a reminder of what Allah said in his Surah al-furqan: “The servants of the Merciful are those who walk the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, “Peace.”
Struggle for Sense of Home
A lot of Muslims living in Britain suffer from being felt alienate. This matter is due to their minority and for living far away from their original Islamic world.
One of the Muslims living in England explained the idea of feeling out of place as more circumstantial.
“Sometimes you feel uncomfortable in certain settings like you don’t fit in, but that is a personal feeling…it can be as simple as going for Friday prayer and looking over your shoulder as you enter or leave the mosque.”
The solution to this difficulty is to form Islamic gatherings and held weekly meetings for discussing common issues and enhancing strong links between Muslim families living there. Also, they should celebrate each Islamic festival extensively.
Is It Necessary to Learn Quran online UK for Non-Native Arabic Muslims?
No doubt that learning the Holy Quran and its different sciences are very necessary and advantageous for non-native Arab Muslims located in the UK for some reasons such as:-
To Be Always Associated with One Islamic Identity And One Islamic World
“ إِنَّ هَٰذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُونِ
— Surah Al- Anbiya, verse 92.
“This community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship me“.
Every nation has its clear identity which contains its language, religious beliefs, background culture, norms, and traditions. This identity is the core of its long history. Nations struggle to preserve their cultural identity in case the identity of a nation ended up which means the nation is dead. So nations fight to make citizens belong to their bodies, not strangers from their religious and cultural beliefs or becoming far away from their indigenous identity.
They try to make them always associated with the original roots of their mother’s identity. Here comes the importance of learning the Holy Quran and the Arabic language for all Muslims in General and especially for Muslims living abroad or located in the UK. Learning Islamic studies will help them always remember who they are. It will make them always active members in the body of the Islamic nation with its glorious rich history.
Association to The Arabic Language
Allah almighty said in surah fussilat: “Had We made it a Quran in a foreign language, they would have said, “If only its verses were made clear.” Non-Arabic and an Arab? Say, “For those who believe, it is guidance and healing. But as for those who do not believe: there is heaviness in their ears, and it is blindness for them. These are being called from a distant place.”
The Arabic language is the language that the Holy Quran was revealed. It is the language in which Islamic history and Islamic sciences were written. Learning the Holy Quran and its different sciences keep Muslims’ tongues always communicating in Arabic plus it makes them always associated with the Arabic language, consequently, this makes them associated with the Arab world and the Islamic nation. It gives them the chance to read through the history of the Islamic nation and to follow its recent news. That assures them growing aware of the enemies of Islam and the variety of troubles facing it which makes them a solid strong part of the body of the Islamic nation.
Bulwark Against Westernization
Muslims living in a non-Muslim country is considered a minority, especially in Europe. The country they are living in is not a Muslim country consequently the customs, social habits, norms, and religious beliefs are not Islamic ones. So it is quite important for the Muslims living there to build a fortification against Westernization to preserve their Islamic traditions, Arabic culture, and their Islamic customs, norms, and laws.
There are some Muslims who don’t care much about their religion. In Egypt, we call them Muslims just by their ID. In fact, these kinds of people aren’t just existed in the Islam religion rather, they exist in all religions. I would like to advise them to live their life by Islamic law. It is not supposed for true Muslims who love Allah and His messenger to turn their life in a Westernized way.
For instance, they should not put on costumes that don’t go with our Islamic law. It was narrated that Ibn ‘Umar said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Whoever imitates a people is one of them.’” (Narrated by Abu Dawood, al-Libaas, 3512. Al-Albaani said in Saheeh Bai Dawood, (it is) hasan saheeh. No. 3401).
Al-Munaawi and al-‘Alqami said: i.e., dressing as they dress, following their way of life in clothes and some of the things they do.
Al-Qaari said: i.e., whoever imitates the kuffaar, such as in how one dresses, etc., or imitates the evil and immoral people, or the Sufis or the righteous, is one of the people whom he imitates, whether they are good or bad. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem: Imaam Ahmad and others quoted this hadeeth as evidence. This hadeeth at the very least implies that it is haraam to imitate them, as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “… And if any amongst you takes them [Jews and Christians] as Awliyaa’ [friends, helpers]), then surely, he is one of them…” [al-Maa’idah 5:51]
True Muslims should not also have any kinds of drinks or foods that are not allowed by our Islamic law. Also, they should not celebrate festivals that don’t belong to Islam. This is similar to the view of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Amr who said: “Whoever settles in the land of the mushrikeen and celebrates their Nawroz (new year) and Mahrajaan (festival) and imitates them until he dies will be gathered with them on the Day of Resurrection.”
This may be interpreted as referring to absolute imitation which implies kufr and as meaning that imitation in part is therefore Haram; or it may be interpreted as meaning that he is one of them to the extent that he imitates them, whether it is in ideas of kufr, sin or partaking in a ritual. Shortly, Muslims should not follow any daily routine which opposes morality in general and the Islamic religion especially. My last advice to them is never to live as other cultures live. The honest Muslim is a unique faithful human being created by Allah the highest, so their manners and ethics should be Distinguished and proverbial.
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The Editor: Raghad Qasim
FAQ
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