Originally Posted by
Sunni_Student786
That is a good question that requires a long answer. Allow me to start.
The Shariah Program is, in my opinion, the absolute best program for anyone from an english-speaking background for learning Arabic, hands down. From the first lesson to the end of Hidaayatun Nahw, you will learn some very profound things and will have it presented to you in an incredibly comprehensive manner. There is really no equivalent or competing program out there.
Having said that, however, the Shariah Program is not necessarily the best program for everyone. Furthermore, even if the Shariah Program might be the best program for a person overall, it may not necessarily be the best to start out with IF (that is a big "if") you possess certain personality and/or learning traits and have certain constraints as far as time and schedule is concerned. Why this is so will become more clear below.
Nearly every aspect of the program, i.e. the order in which concepts are introduced, when reading begins, how many times you are asked to recite a verb table, the timing of breaks during a semester, etc. has been carefully thought out and has a specific, calculated reason behind it. The program has been designed to be the most efficient and logical possible. Each part of the system complements the others and they fit together like puzzle pieces. However, that is also a downside in some scenarios. To continue with the puzzle analogy, what that means is there is no substitute for a particular piece, no way to make another piece fit where another ought to be, no way to "complete" the puzzle if even a single piece is defective, has been destroyed, or is lost. The program must be done the way it was designed and as the instructor directs you to do it during the course of the program. This can be a hindrance for some.
In my case, I found that when I initially signed up I did not make much progress at all. This was because I have a personality where if I encounter something that inspires a question and that question is not answered and am simply told to "wait" for an answer at a later stage or that that should not concern me now, I am unable to focus on anything else until that question is answered. In the Shariah program, many times you will encounter something that you cannot understand by pulling from what you've learned so far and the Instructor will either preemptively tell you not to ask about it (in the pre-recorded recordings) or if you ask about it on the forum, he will tell you that it is not of your concern at this point. For myself, that just completely turned me off mentally and I was not able to retain information from other weeks as a result. It is almost as if not receiving an answer now causes me to doubt anything else I learn that involves the element that I had a question about but did not receive an answer to. Yes, it really did/does bug me that much (on a side note, that was also why I hate chemistry to this day because my high school chemistry teacher took a similar mentality).
In the Shariah Program, with the exception of memorizing verb tables, there is also no, what some may deem "tedious", drill work. In the Shaykh teaching philosophy, drill work is not an efficient way of spending time and is better replaced by actually reading of texts. For myself, however, drill work in everything from math to english grammar was key in helping me retain information and develop my abilities (I often had to purchase supplemental aids to get these drills since my teachers in junior high, high school and college also frowned upon drills, deeming it, along with rote memorization, a relic of a more primitive educational system). Moreover, when attempting to read books as early as the third week you are bound to come across things that you may not have, nor can, go over that early in the learning process which requires that you simply go over things without an explanation of "why" something may be a particular way, which is a problem for some (like myself).
Additionally, as I already mentioned, every part of the Shaykh's system fits together with little room for flexibility. So when the Shaykh says, for example, recite this table 50 times at home, unless you do precisely that, you'll see that, as time wears on, you are not progressing in the way that the Shaykh expects. Likewise for using pencil and what not to diagram or dissect sentences in exactly the way the Shaykh asks. If, for some reason, you're unable to do so at the moment, you can rest assured that until you do so, what you hear on subsequent recordings will make little sense or will be "foggy" at best.
Furthermore, the Shaykh is a strict instructor. He expects preparation from students and has high expectations insofar as ability is concerned. I think that this may be due to the fact that, perhaps, the Shaykh himself is brilliant and was a brilliant student with tremendous mental capacity. To take just one example, in several recordings he makes mention of the fact that he was able to memorize verb tables while hearing them for the first time from his various teachers and you will also hear him draw your attention to certain subtleties like the "rhythm" that many verb tables have which the Shaykh used, as a student, to easily memorize or recall appropriate word form. The average student, such as myself, neither has that kind of memory or mental abilities nor such an innate sense for picking up on patterns and "rhythms" and "flows" as the Shaykh does which can be frustrating when you're not progressing as other students do or as the Shaykh expects.
I have never taken well to "strict" instruction. In college, when I've had "strict" instructors with a drill sergeant sort of mentality, the first day of class I would wait until class was over, would politely bid them farewell, and would promptly go down to the registrar and drop the class. I have done this more than once and in the case of the Shariah program, I essentially did this by not asking questions on the forum anymore and stopping my participating in the live sessions (neither the first nor the second time around) because that sort of an approach does not meld well with me. This may be my own personal failing but I believe that others may feel and react similarly as well.
Lastly, in the early stages of the program, there is a lot of terminology and nomenclature that one is introduced to that I found overwhelming. I found myself trying to remember terminology so much that it detracted from my learning the concepts those terms referred to.
This all contrasts with the lqtoronto.com videos and the Madinah series. The instructor does not have the vibe of a genius, elite scholar teaching at Harvard or Oxford teaching quantum physics but of an after school tutor, who remembers when he was in your shoes and just how hard it was for him to get to where he's now teaching, who attempts to use jokes, songs, personal anecdotes and unorthodox means to not only help you understand but LOVE what you're studying.
Furthermore, the way the Madinah books are set up, you go from the simplest of concepts to progressively more difficult ones. The sentences and, later, passages that you encounter seldom INTRODUCE anything new that you haven't already covered in the preceding exercises and drills so few new questions come up that leave you thinking "that doesn't jive with what I learned before." Even in those instances where this occurs, however, the brother is willing to answer your questions on the forum and you will seldom be advised not to ask the question just yet, even if, indeed, the question will be answered in a later video.
There are also COPIOUS exercises in the series which will help to really drill in what you've learned. I found that part priceless.
Lastly, the first book of the Madinah series, supplemented with Brother Asir Mehr Ali's (he is the instructor on the lqtoronto.com videos) own personal ideas of how the series can be supplement which he introduces on the videos, will help you be familiar with most of hte basic structures of the Arabic language leaving little head scratching when you go on to the Shariah program and begin reading texts. For example, you won't be wondering what "Huwa" means or why certain pronouns have prepositions attached to them or why you pronounce certain things the way you do once you begin reading in the Shariah program (which happens very early), which can be very frustrating when the Shaykh may be guiding you through a reading but telling you not to worry about those things just yet.
I hope that this has in some way clarified my opinion. If not, I will try to clarify what I'm saying further once my semester ends insha'allah.
Wa'salaam.
shariah program negatives and cons?
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