Motivation and Attitudes of Al-Qur’an Readers among Malay Adult Readers

Abstract

The activity of reading the Quran among the Malay Muslim community in this country is a practice that has been happening since Islam came to Malaya. The spirit of the Muslim community today to practice reading the Quran correctly in their daily lives is something very positive. However, there are still some Muslim communities who are still unable to pronounce the letters of the Quran according to Arabic pronunciation well, which is likely influenced by various factors such as lineage, race, dialect, culture, age, educational background and so on. The letters of the Quran in particular and Arabic letters in general have their own characteristics and makhraj which are certainly different from the characteristics of letters in the Malay language. Therefore, the focus of this study is to find out the Motivations and attitudes of adult Malay Quran readers in the development of civil society. The data for this study were obtained from 40 respondents consisting of members of the Mutiara Putrajaya Welfare Agency (BKMP) using a questionnaire method. As a registered and recognized charity, BKMP strongly encourages its members to gain added value in generating religious knowledge in general and Quranic knowledge in particular. The results of the questionnaire distributed online using the Googleform application found that exposure to the makhraj and properties of Arabic and Quranic letters as well as the correct way of reading should be applied more effectively among BKMP members and at the same time can foster social well-being in line with the narrative of a progressive and active Madani society. The variety of factors that constrain readers from pronouncing Arabic letters well need to be addressed with various methods and initiatives that can help Quran readers.