In my opinion, for literate pakistanis learning Arabic and farsi is just a piece of cake, really ! We do not realize how easy it is for us to learn these languages as compared to say German, russian french etc.
Ground work for Urdu, farsi and arabic is the same. Same alphabats almost 50% of the nouns, adjectves are same… only verb are different and some grammar.
So in effect, 60~80% work is already done, but the sad part is that we never do the remaining effort due to lack of motivation will or desire.
Now the important questions :
Learning Arabic is not a religious obligation for muslims as far as i know.
Lets say in a hypothetical arrangement, muslim scholar gather and considering the need of the hour and honestly doing a service to islam ( remember hypothetical ! ) do Ijtehad and come to conclusion that Learning Arabic is incumbent on all literate muslims.
Now if I ask you to put forward your argument in favor of this new supposed ijtehad and against it.
Remember it is a new idea, an innovation. Will it fall inside legal status ijtehad on technical grounds ?
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
soooooo true... it is so easy to learn arabic if one knows urdu... i am trying to learn arabic these days... and i get so much of it bcoz of my urdu... trouble is i cant write urdu so that hinders things...
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
Scholars throughout the ages, from the Companions to the present day, encouraged the Ummah to learn the Arabic language. **Ubay ibn Ka’b (RA) **said, “Teach Arabic like you teach the memorisation of the Qur’an!”
Abu Bakr (RA) said, “That I recite and forget (a portion of the Qur’an) is more beloved to me than to make a grammatical mistake!”
And ‘**Umar (RA) **once passed by a group of archers who missed their targets. He admonished them and they responded that they were only beginners, but in answering back they made a grammatical mistake in their wording. He told them, “Indeed, your mistakes in Arabic grammar are more difficult to bear than your mistakes in archery!”
Imam ash-Shaafi’ee said, "Therefore it is imperative that every Muslim should strive to learn Arabic as hard as he can, so that he can testify the shahada, and recite the Book of Allah and say the invocations that are mandatory upon him, such as the takbeer, tasbeeh, tashahud and other prayers. And the more he learns the language that Allah Himself chose to be the language of him who sealed the Prophets (SAW), and to be the language of His final revelation, the better it is for him!”
Imam ash-Shaafi’ee also said : “It is compulsory for every responsible Muslim to learn what they can of the Arabic language.”
The great 8th century scholar Shaykul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (rh) even went so far as to say that, “The Arabic language is part of the Religion, and knowing it is an obligation.”
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
Assalamu Alaykum,
I believe there is nothing directly in the Quran or Sunnah that requires one to learn Arabic. However, the fact that Quran is in Arabic is a strong enough reason for one to learn Arabic. Nonetheless, not everyone can, in which case studying translations is the first step. The biggest problem is that most people don’t even learn the translations, and don’t even know what Quran is saying. (About – omeriqbal.com)
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
^ v. true. But I'd like to add one thing here....
ppl can programme software, genetically modify DNA, engineer new materials, etc, etc, but they cant learn arabaic ??? i think the excuse isn't that we cant, i think its more that they won't/ cant be bothered to.
We have durs here... there r about 15 aunties, none of them work, and Alhumdulillah they started learning arabic, its gotton to the stage where why the words of Allah are read, they know whats eing said, Alhumdulillah! It was just a matter of effort, Subhanallah look how far theyv'e gotton!
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
^ very true too! :-)
But not everyone can "program software, genetically modify DNA, engineer new materials etc." - for instance, the servants who work in an average home in a country like Pakistan do not, and most probably cannot, do all of this and neither learn Arabic. These poor people usually can't even learn Urdu (i.e. how to read) - they just know how to speak (and that also sometimes only Punjabi or an endemic language of their region) because they have been speaking it since their birth.
For the educated, I definitely agree with you. One should try to learn it. My only comment was that there may be people who cannot, for one reason or another, learn it and they should at least try to focus on translation and make sure that lack of language is not a reason to stay away from Quran - I think the end goal is the same!
Another thing to note is that there are two ways of learning Arabic for Quranic understanding. The first is to learn word-by-word meanings (i.e. lafzi tarjuma) - this is the quickest, and it makes a significant difference in understanding of the Quran during prayers and recitation. The second is to actually learn grammar and vocabulary and be able to decode sentences grammatically - this is relatively harder and time consuming (although everyone can try it).
This first approach of word-by-word translation is probably something that everyone (or at least every educated person) can try and they should succeed - if God wills.
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
It is pretty obvious that learnign arabic is not compusary. That is why i am talking about ‘Ijtehaad’.
Can anything be made compulsary through ijtehaad ?? Do you know of any ancedote of simmilar nature from islamic history ?
Surely schoralar declare stuff forbidden all the time using methods of ijtehaad why it cant be used for opposite purpose ?
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
Peace Code_Red
If there is consensus in ijtehad then that becomes binding on the Ummah. The reason for most fatawa on forbidding things is because we are living with so many new things in these days.
There is enough evidence in Islam to support the mandatory teaching of Arabic in all Islamic countries. Thr rulings regarding responsibility, authority and accountability of ensuring Arabic is being learned is up for scholars to discuss about.
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
Peace Code_Red
If there is consensus in ijtehad then that becomes binding on the Ummah.
Any example ?
[quote]
The reason for most fatawa on forbidding things is because we are living with so many new things in these days.
[/quote]
but we get contradicting fatwas all the time
[quote]
There is enough evidence in Islam to support the mandatory teaching of Arabic in all Islamic countries. Thr rulings regarding responsibility, authority and accountability of ensuring Arabic is being learned is up for scholars to discuss about.
[/quote]
Yes please tell us more about evidence. It would be interesting :)
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
For example growing beard like Prophet Muhammad(SAW).
wrong example !
Better example is the ruling by Hazrat Umar (ra) after consultation with women that he set the maximum duration (4 month) for which a man can stay away from his wife for excuse like trade, war, service or business etc.
The ruling was adopted in all the school of thought as it is.
Anyway I would like to hear from psyah. He may have better explaination of his opinion.
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
Arabic is probably the most easiest language in the world to learn.
It's so structured and meaningfull.
The Koran is in Arabic, translations are fine but they are not the literal word of God, translations loose a lot of their meaning so it's better to read a few different ones and learn the original language.
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
wrong example !
Better example is the ruling by Hazrat Umar (ra) after consultation with women that he set the maximum duration (4 month) for which a man can stay away from his wife for excuse like trade, war, service or business etc.
The ruling was adopted in all the school of thought as it is.
Anyway I would like to hear from psyah. He may have better explaination of his opinion.
4 month are you sure? That gives the tablighi a positive note! :D
Re: Pakistanis are one step shy of learning Arabic
wrong example !
Better example is the ruling by Hazrat Umar (ra) after consultation with women that he set the maximum duration (4 month) for which a man can stay away from his wife for excuse like trade, war, service or business etc.
The ruling was adopted in all the school of thought as it is.
Anyway I would like to hear from psyah. He may have better explaination of his opinion.
Well it wasn't a wrong example.....per aap ke kaam ki nahi thi shayad.
) do Ijtehad and come to conclusion that Learning Arabic is incumbent on all literate muslims.