Islamic Classes in Urdu

Why the language of instruction matters

A student can be fluent in conversation and lost in a lesson. Technical study demands abstract vocabulary, precise definitions and sustained reasoning, and those sit in whichever language a person was educated in.

For the generation raised outside Urdu-speaking countries that language is almost always English. Teaching them classical sciences through Urdu asks them to learn two difficult things at once and hides the harder one.

This page covers this in more detail.

Who teaches these classes?

Shaykh Hafiz Muddassir completed the full Dars e Nizami curriculum under Tanzeem ul Madaris Ahl-e-Sunnat (Pakistan), and has taught its books for more than ten years. He also holds an MA in English, an MA in English Linguistics and an MPhil in English.

That second half is the unusual part. Classical training and a linguistics background rarely sit in the same person, and together they make it possible to teach *sarf* (Arabic morphology) or *mantiq* (classical logic) in English, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic, choosing whichever the student actually thinks in.

Classes run one-to-one or in small groups, whichever suits the student.

One-to-one or group classes?

Both are taught. A one-to-one class belongs entirely to one student, so the pace follows them and every error is corrected at the moment it happens. A small group class puts a few students at a matched level together, which costs less per student and suits siblings or friends studying alongside each other.

The honest trade is attention against company. One-to-one surfaces a weakness within minutes; in a group it can take a few sessions. Some students, particularly younger ones, work harder with peers in the room and would drift in a solo class.

Which suits a given student is decided in the first conversation rather than assumed, and it can change later. Sessions run on whatever video platform the family already uses.

Timezones

The practical question for every family abroad is whether a workable slot exists at all. It generally does, because teaching hours are deliberately spread rather than confined to Pakistani office hours.

Australian students have it easiest, since their evenings are the teacher’s afternoon. UK and European evenings overlap comfortably. North American evenings map to early morning in Pakistan, a window kept open for exactly that reason.

Daylight saving shifts are handled by adjusting the slot rather than leaving families to work it out.

Teaching children

Children are taught in shorter sessions, with more repetition and a slower introduction of new material than adults need. For a child raised outside a Muslim-majority country, English-medium teaching also removes the quiet embarrassment of not following a class in a language the rest of the family speaks.

Parents are told honestly how the child is progressing, including when the answer is that progress has stalled and why.

This page covers the practical side for parents.

What do classes cost?

Fees are quoted for each student rather than published as a price list, because the honest figure depends on the course, how many classes a week and the level involved. A child taking two Qaida sessions weekly and an adult reading advanced Arabic texts are not the same commitment.

For general context rather than as a quotation: Across online Islamic academies generally, tuition is priced either per class hour or as a monthly block of two to five classes a week, and one-to-one teaching costs more than group classes because the hour belongs to one student. Local currency, timezone and class length all shift the picture, which is why a real number needs the real details.

Message the student’s age, level and how often you would like to study, and you will get a straight answer for that situation. This page covers the question in more detail.

Getting started

Begin with a message rather than a booking form. Age, current level, preferred language of instruction and rough availability are enough for a useful reply.

Level assessment matters more than most families expect. Students frequently arrive believing they are ready for a text they cannot yet parse, and starting them there wastes months. An honest starting point is worth more than a flattering one.

A trial class confirms the assessment in practice before anything is agreed.

Related pages

• Islamic Studies in English
• Online Quran Classes
• 6 Year Online Dars e Nizami Course
• Sarf-o-Nahv Course
• Online Islamic Courses

Is online teaching as good as in person?

For one-to-one instruction, the honest answer is that the difference is small and sometimes runs the other way. What matters pedagogically is a teacher hearing the student and correcting them immediately, and a video call carries that intact.

What online cannot replace is the atmosphere of a full-time institution: the company of other students, the discipline of a daily schedule, and the incidental learning that happens outside class. For a student who can attend one properly, that is a genuine advantage.

Most families reading this cannot. The realistic comparison is not online against a darul uloom, it is online against a weekly local class taught in a language the child does not follow.

How do you know it is working?

Progress is judged by what the student can do unaided, not by attendance or pages covered. For memorisation that means retention under revision; for grammar, parsing an unseen passage; for Tafseer, explaining a verse’s meaning with its reasoning.

Parents get honest reporting, including the uncomfortable version. A teacher who only ever reports good news is not assessing anything, and the family finds out eventually at a worse moment.

Where progress has stalled, the useful response is diagnostic: wrong level, wrong frequency, or practice not happening between classes. All three are fixable once named.

Practical requirements

Nothing unusual. A laptop, tablet or phone with a working microphone, and a corner of the house without a television in it.

For younger children a parent nearby for the first few sessions helps, mostly to settle the routine rather than to supervise the content.

Where connections are unreliable, classes can run audio-only without much loss for recitation work, though text reading benefits from a shared screen.

What happens during Ramadan?

Ramadan reshapes the schedule rather than pausing it. Many students increase Quran classes during the month and reduce other subjects, which is a sensible reallocation rather than a disruption.

Class times shift around suhoor, iftar and taraweeh, and those windows differ by country, so schedules are rebuilt for the month and restored afterwards.

Some families pause entirely and resume after Eid. That is arranged by message, with no penalty attached to stopping for a few weeks.

The sequence

Each stage assumes the previous one is solid, which is why placement matters more in this curriculum than in most subjects. A gap three years back surfaces as confusion three years later.

The order is not arbitrary or traditional for its own sake: it follows what each text actually requires its reader to already know.

This page explains the syllabus this site follows.

Growing up Muslim outside a Muslim country

Second-generation students occupy an awkward position: fluent in the language of their country, partly fluent in their parents’ language, and rarely literate in either at the level classical study demands.

That is not a deficiency in the student. It is a mismatch between how the tradition is transmitted and where these families now live, and it is solvable by changing the medium rather than the content.

This page addresses this directly.

Straight answers

Fees are quoted rather than published because the honest number depends on details this page does not know. Any site showing one figure for every student is averaging rather than answering.

Timelines are estimated after meeting the student, not before. A teacher promising a fixed number of months to a stranger is guessing.

Where a different teacher, a different course or a local option would serve a student better, saying so costs one enquiry and keeps the advice worth having.

The teaching method

Three things happen in every class: revision of the last lesson, new material, and the student explaining the new material in their own words. The third is where understanding is tested rather than assumed.

Classical teaching is oral for a reason. Parsing errors and misplaced emphasis are audible, and a teacher hears them in the moment rather than discovering them in an exam months later.

Practice between classes matters more than class length. Fifteen focused minutes daily beats an hour of cramming the night before, for grammar and memorisation alike.

Frequently asked questions

Can the same course be taught in a different language?

Yes. English, Urdu, Hindi or Arabic, and the choice can change if the student finds another clearer.

Is English-medium teaching simplified?

No. The same books and the same depth, delivered in English rather than Urdu.

What if the student is more comfortable mixing languages?

That is common and entirely workable in one-to-one teaching.

Do you teach Arabic through Arabic?

For students ready for it, yes. Most begin with explanation in English or Urdu and move across.

How do we decide which language suits?

The trial class settles it quickly. Comprehension under questioning shows which language the student actually reasons in.

Last reviewed 29 July 2026 by Shaykh Hafiz Muddassir.