There was a time, when students in sub-continent had to select from ‘Arabic’ or "Persian’ in school as a secondary language.
Some people preferred Persian to read literature like Bostan , Gulistan, etc
Those who didn’t select Arabic had to listen sentences like ’ Musalmanon ki aulad Kalamullah ki waris hone ke ba-wajood Arabi seekhne se ji churati hai’.
So if you are given option to learn any one language from Arabic or Persian, which language you will select and why?
Re: Arabic or Persian
Most people learn languages for economic reasons. There hardly have been many Arabic speakers in the subcontinent. Most people have have chosen Persian. It is because Persian was the language of the courts.
Muslim culture of subcontinent is a Persian-inspired culture due to heavy influence from Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia. Local languages also incorporated a lot of words from Persians. Even Arabic words found in our languages came through Persian.
But today the economic reason to learn either Arabic or Persian has disappeared. Now people just want to learn English because this is the international language which opens up doors for economic success.
Re: Arabic or Persian
Agree with economic point of view, but again people also learn languages for other purposes like to read literature and even if someone want to pursue diplomacy as a profession, etc.
Arabic as a language seems to have been ignored in sub-continent among masses. It remained restricted to deeni madaris.
Re: Arabic or Persian
i would have definitely picked Arabic.
Re: Arabic or Persian
i would have definitely picked Arabic.
Because you already learnt Persian?
Re: Arabic or Persian
Persian and Arabci… Both are classical languages… If one is language of Quran, than second is the language which produced as many as good books of Islam… which explain religion… Many famous Ulema and Hadith collector were born in central Asian countries(Imam Bukhari RA)… They wrote books in Persian… 
Re: Arabic or Persian
Because you already learnt Persian?
no, learning Arabic would have helped me in understanding the Qur'aan which i think is incumbent on all Muslims to learn Arabic to understand the word of God. most of us take a short cut and just read the translations by different nufassireen.
i learned Farsi because it helps me understand Urdu poetry. i agree my priorities were all screwed up. i should have learned Arabic instead.
well, it's NOT too late and there is no excuse. i intend to learn Arabic this year, iA. :)
Re: Arabic or Persian
I would choose to learn Arabic (but that's because I already speak Persian :p). Aside from that though, I would pick Arabic because it would not only be helpful in reading (and more importantly understanding) the Qur'aan, but also be useful economically in the case of moving to an Arabic-speaking country, which there are many of.
Re: Arabic or Persian
I would choose to learn Arabic (but that's because I already speak Persian :p). Aside from that though, I would pick Arabic because it would not only be helpful in reading (and most importantly UNDERSTANDING) the Qur'aan, but also be useful economically in the case of moving to an Arabic-speaking country, which there are many of.
^ You speak Urdu, Pashto, Persian, English... and ?
Re: Arabic or Persian
The only reason i studied farsi is because the arabic class was full hahaha
I think Arabic has a larger appeal though in terms of speakers and majority of Islamic material in the islamic world (and fars) was written until it finally began to be written in Persian and then later urdu for subcontinental people at least.
Both are imp but it goes 1. Arabic 2. Persian
Persian is probably far easier to learn than Arabic though.
Re: Arabic or Persian
The only reason i studied farsi is because the arabic class was full hahaha
I think Arabic has a larger appeal though in terms of speakers and majority of Islamic material in the islamic world (and fars) was written until it finally began to be written in Persian and then later urdu for subcontinental people at least.
Both are imp but it goes 1. Arabic 2. Persian
Persian is probably far easier to learn than Arabic though.
can you understand Iqbal's Persian poetry?
Re: Arabic or Persian
At some stage, maybe I might try to learn Arabic but for the time being not interested in any of them.
Re: Arabic or Persian
In our school system, one could chose between Hindi and Sanskrit then, I chose Sanksrit because one can score above 95 in that. It was strategic decision :D
Re: Arabic or Persian
can you understand Iqbal's Persian poetry?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. My vocabi is so-so now tbh.
Re: Arabic or Persian
In our school system, one could chose between Hindi and Sanskrit then, I chose Sanksrit because one can score above 95 in that. It was strategic decision :D
same with Faarsii...candidates appearing in IAS and IPS competitions often take those subjects in order to score high marks for less effort. i think the examiners are quite lenient in order to promote the language and hence keep their jobs. :)
Re: Arabic or Persian
^ You speak Urdu, Pashto, Persian, English... and ?
MizgaaN [eyelashes] is a multi-lingual Guppan in true sense. she may know one or two of the European languages as well...it's just my guess. :)
Re: Arabic or Persian
I don't see any need to learn either Persian or Arabic for myself. So no, I don't understand Iqbal's Persian poetry. However, using online dictionaries it is much easier to understand Persian than Arabic.
I think Pakistanis need to learn Chinese because the future is China.
Re: Arabic or Persian
In our school system, one could chose between Hindi and Sanskrit then, I chose Sanksrit because one can score above 95 in that. It was strategic decision :D
was Sanskrit easier than Hindi?
Re: Arabic or Persian
At some stage, maybe I might try to learn Arabic but for the time being not interested in any of them.
I don't see any need to learn either Persian or Arabic for myself. So no, I don't understand Iqbal's Persian poetry. However, using online dictionaries it is much easier to understand Persian than Arabic.
I think Pakistanis need to learn Chinese because the future is China.
May be Nishat e Sania (revival of Khilafat) may make Arabic necessary :D
Re: Arabic or Persian
Arabic as a language seems to have been ignored in sub-continent among masses. It remained restricted to deeni madaris.
Arabic has not been ignored. Rather people have tried their best to adopt it. Just looking at this thread we can see that there are more people wishing to learn Arabic than Persian.
Obviously it is for religious reasons. But lack of adoption of Arabic by masses shows that there are forces more important which force people to learn a language. In my view, economy and then culture. People had to learn Persian because it was the language of the Mughal darbar. It later had so much impact on the local language that fusion of local and Persian language gave rise to the 'language of Muslims', Urdu.
So Persian and Urdu are now mixed together. Like I said, even the Arabic words which were introduced in Urdu came through Persian. They did not come Arabic directly.
While our religion is Arab-based, but our culture and history is aligned with Central Asia and Afghanistan. So anyone interested in culture or language will always prefer Persian. He will also find Persian to be much easier to learn because Urdu is based on Persian language and literature.
He won't find Arabic as easy because we have no history with Arabs, nor are our culture or language influenced by Arabic.