I want to start learning the quran. in what sequence should i begin? or should a begin with surah fatiha?

Question

and continue sequentially, eg fatiha, baqarah, imran etc

Answer 1

Quran is collection of God's talking, answering a question or commenting on what people said something to Prophet in reply to his preaching. Quran does not have questions that Allah answers or the comments on which Allah replies. Because Prophet and his companion knew those questions to which Allah is answering. To understand Quran one need to know what question Allah is answering. On whose comment Allah is clearing the their misunderstanding or on which mistake of Prophet or his companions Allah is scolding them. I mean one needs to know the background why Allah said certain or lots of things in Quran. For this reason first you need to read certain introductory books on Islam.

Allah says in the beginning of Surah Baqarah that this book is from God without any doubt. Only those who are concious of God or believe that there is only one God worthy to worship, will get guidance from this book. Those who do not believe on God and are merely looking something to make negative comments on Quran or Islam like many Christians do these days, will neither understand Quran nor will get any guidance from it.

Let's us assume you believe on oneness of God and have read the introduction to Islam, then I recommend to read the smallest verses of Quran first in the last section of Quran. Nearly all short surah in the last section were revealed in the early years of Prophet's life in Mecca when aetheists of Mecca did not believe on oneness of God, and worshipped idols; didn't believe that all humans will be resurrected at the end of this world and each person will be rewarded or punished by God based on their deeds in this earthly life. These ayahs are to teach the basics of Islam. For example Surah Ikhlas says "Say, there is only one God. He is eternal (He always was and always will be ). He wasn't born to any one nor any one is born from Him. He is unique and No one is like Him.
This surah was revealed when a delegation of Christians came from Yemen and were arguing with Prophet Mohammad SAW that Jesus is God or Jesus is son of God. In this surah God said these words in reply to the arguments of Christians negating their belief.
In surahs of last section of Quran Allah tries to tell aetheists about oneness of God, hell and heaven, resurrection of all beings and warns about the punishment on the Day of
Judgment and tells them to believe and worship to Him - the One and only God, worthy to be worshipped. These surahs are to build faith of a Muslim. Read one surah with background and meanings thoroughly until you start believing on the God's words and start practicing what God instructs us to do. Then proceed to next surah and so forth.
After you are done with the last section of short surahs, then read Surah Baqarah in the beginning of Quran after completing first Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Baqarah is the summary of entire Quran. It may take you saveral months to read and understand this Surah. Then read Surah Ale-Imran about Jesus and Christians, Surah Bani-Israel about Jews, Surah Maryam (Marry mother of Jesus), and so on. Just going through entire Quran quickly without understanding doesn't do any good.

May Allah (God) guide you. Wassalam. Majeed

Answer 2

The Qur'an is arranged very formally and scientifically, with Al Fatiha as the abstract, then the other surahs following that as the body, divided on chapters of subject matters, and going to a conclusion in the end.

However, I remember from chidhood that it was more fun reading from the ends first (after Al Fatiha, just flip to the end) because these surahs are much shorter and have an easy sense of rhythm and rhyme that is easy to pickup, especially for one who's just learning to read arabic.

Cheers and best wishes in learning.

Answer 3

AL-FATIHAH
Name

This Surah is named AL-FATIHAH because of its subject-matter. Fatihah is that which opens a subject or a book or any other thing. In other words, Al-Fatihah is a sort of preface.
Period of Revelation

It is one of the very earliest Revelations to the Holy Prophet. As a matter of fact, we learn from authentic Traditions that it was the first complete Surah which was revealed to Muhammed (Allah's peace be upon him). Before this, only a few miscellaneous verses were revealed which form parts of `ALAQ, MUZ-ZAMMIL, MUD-DATH-THIR, etc.
Theme

This Surah is in fact a prayer which Allah has taught to all those who want to make a study of His book. It has been placed at the very beginning of the book to teach this lesson to the reader: if you sincerely want to benefit from the Quran, you should offer this prayer to the Lord of the Universe.

This preface is meant to create a strong desire in the heart of the reader to seek guidance from the Lord of the Universe, Who alone can grant it. Thus AL-FATIHAH indirectly teaches that the best thing for a man is to pray for guidance to the straight path, to study the Quran with the mental attitude of a seeker- after-truth and to recognize the fact that the Lord of the Universe is the source of all knowledge. He should, therefore, begin the study of the Quran with a prayer to him for guidance.

From this theme, it becomes clear that the real relation between AL-FATIHAH and the Quran is not that of an introduction to a book but that of a prayer and its answer. AL-FATIHAH is the prayer from the servant and the Quran is the answer from the Master to his prayer. The servant prays to Allah to show him guidance and the Master places the whole of the Quran before him in answer to his prayer, as if to say, "This is the Guidance you begged from Me."

Answer 4

Surah Tawba

Answer 5

By learning then that's mean taking your time when reading the Quran, start slowly, read word by word carefully, understand the deep meaning of it. because if you notice when reading the Quran, many verses have very wide meaning, it's not limited to one thing, that's why this book is good under any time, past or future. and it's truly a miracle language.