This article examines the challenges faced in teaching and learning the Qur’an in the post-AI era. These challenges involve various methodological, technical, and cognitive issues. While these obstacles impact both online and in-person learning, we are more concerned with the difficulties related to the online model.

The Role of the Quran Teacher:

Discussing the challenges, it is inevitable to start with the main pillar of the teaching process, the Qur’an teacher. It is the teacher who is mainly responsible for the quality of the class and its learning outcomes. In this sense, the role of the Qur’an teacher who can recite well and correct mistakes won’t be able to survive in the post-AI era. A simple AI-assisted application will be able to replace this kind of mechanical and classical teachers very soon. It is the human connection, creativity, and mentorship that would keep teachers alive and capable of achieving their goals with their students.

Unfortunately, most teachers nowadays are taking teaching the Qur’an for non-Arabic speakers as a job for making a living without having the right training, qualification, or even being specialized in teaching the Qur’an. During our interviews to hire teachers for Tanzeel, we have been amazed by the number of teachers who work in big institutes (in terms of number of students) who can speak proper English but who have major issues in teaching and even reciting the Qur’an properly!

Unfortunately, conceptualizing Qur’an teaching as a product, not as a sublime mission or service, has been the main trend nowadays. This entails hiring teachers who have wonderful soft, selling skills to please the customer without the slightest care for them having the proper knowledge, training, and teaching methodology.

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At Tanzeel, we have a different perspective, though. We believe that teaching the Qur’an is not a business; it is one of the greatest honorable missions ever, which we have been blessed with. It is our responsibility to connect the two parts of the Muslim world by drawing them closer to the book of Allah. This can never be achieved if we do not have the right teachers. This means that we have a different vision regarding the role of the Qur’an teachers and their qualifications to achieve our main goal to connect people with the Qur’an .

This age is not the age of average teachers who can be simply replaced by technology. Only real teachers and mentors will be able to rise above this challenge. Therefore, the role of Qur’an teachers has to be revisited in light of the technological boom, and teachers have to be well-prepared by extensive knowledge and intensive training to keep up with the fast-paced world we are witnessing.

The Age of Distractions:

Technology has certainly made life much easier; however, it has created significant challenges for the learning process, the most notable being the daily distraction caused by screens, which makes it hard for us to maintain a reliable concentration span. Today, children spend most of their time in front of various screens; they are often glued to their devices, watching reels or playing video games. Today’s students can barely concentrate in classes for longer than before; they get bored and lose interest easily. We can't expect our children, who impatiently ask Siri, Alexa, or any other AI assistant to handle simple tasks, to be easily engaged in regular classes or even listen comfortably to their teachers for ten minutes! They have grown accustomed to quick, simple, ready-to-use information without delving into details or putting in much mental effort. This distraction becomes an even bigger issue in the online model, where there is no face-to-face connection between the teacher and the student. Overcoming distractions in the online learning environment is a crucial task for teachers.

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Contemplating the challenges can be quite frustrating for teachers, parents, and students, but it is halfway to the solution. There are still more and more challenges that impede the learning process, which need to be examined carefully and which will be discussed in the next article in sha Allah.

By/ Dr. Ahmed Aly Zahran

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