Why Study Arabic?

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Why Study Arabic

Arabic is spoken as a mother tongue by between 250 and 400 million people across 25 countries. Over a billion people can read the script even if they can’t understand the language. And Arabic happens to be one of the official languages of the United Nations. Therefore, many people learn the language for formal reasons.

At about 1,500 years old, Arabic also happens to be a very old language. It was the language of scholarship throughout the rule of the Islamic empires – a period of well over 1,000 years from the 7^th century right down to the 19th and even 20th. The greatest books of medicine, geology, law, philosophy, and basically any subject you can imagine were all written in the finest Arabic. Therefore, many of the most advanced people in their fields of study learn Arabic for scientific and anthropological reasons.

Arabic is also the language of the Qur’an (the Islamic holy book). It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are, the Qur’an is unequivocally, undeniably and undoubtedly the greatest form of Arabic literature, and indeed the greatest form of literature, period. The beauty of this piece of literature is, in fact, quite literally, miraculous. Therefore, tens of millions of people learn this language to witness firsthand the beauty and miracle that is The Qur’an... religious reasons.

In fact, emphasis has been placed on studying the Arabic language by the Prophet (PBUH) himself when he said to the effect: learn the Arabic language as you learn the Islamic obligations and practices. His companions, who, remember, were Arabs, used to learn Arabic despite the fact that it was their mother tongue. They used to say: teach your children Arabic. They used to correct each other’s grammar.

They would consider it unacceptable to make a grammatical mistake. And the scholars that followed them in later centuries all emphasized learning Arabic. Imam Abu Hanifa said to the effect: I would’ve made learning this language compulsory had I not deemed it difficult on the people.

That is because 1. in order to truly understand the message of God as it was revealed, one must understand it in the very language it was revealed, and 2. the Qur’an is a literary miracle – really, a full blown miracle – and in order to witness it, you need to simply learn the language and you will witness a miracle with your very own eyes When the tribe of Qureish in ancient Arabia sent their most infamous debater to the Prophet (PBUH),
the debater barked and barked and barked.

 

He was enthusiastic and completely vicious. His mission was to completely overtake the Prophet (PBUH) and he was relentless. But when he finished, the Prophet (PBUH) recited a few verses of the Qur’an, upon which tears started to flow from the debater’s eyes and he had to cover the Prophet’s (PBUH) mouth because he couldn’t take any more. Would you like to taste
the same beauty that made that debater cry?

 

You can start learning Arabic online at Firdaws Academy