The Importance of Arabic
It is imperative that the muslims in particular are familiar with the Arabic language to a degree that they can understand the Qur'aan. Arabic is the language of Islaam - it has been and always will be. The Muslims who do not understand Arabic must realise the great loss that they are in by not being able to understand and read the words of the Creator. When they read 'translations' they should recognise that these are the words of a human interpreter, and not the words of the Creator. The beauty, the eloquence, the rhythm, the
i'jaaz - all is lost in translation. Instead of being able to read the words that Allaah Himself Spoke and revealed to Muhammed (SAW), a person must rely on the words and speech of a mortal. Can there be a greater loss than this?
The scholars of this
ummah, from the Companions to this generation, all realised the importance of the Arabic language. Ubay ibn Ka'ab said, "Teach Arabic (i.e., Arabic Grammar) like you teach the memorisation of the Qur'aan!" Aboo Bakr said,"That I recite and forget (a portion) is more beloved to me than to make a grammatical mistake!" And 'Umar once passed by a group of archers who missed their targets. He reprimanded them, and they responded that they were only beginners, but they made a grammatical mistake in phrasing their response. He told them,"Verily your mistakes in (Arabic) Grammar are more difficult for me to bear than your mistakes in archery"
Imaam ash-Shaafi'ee (d. 204 A.H.) 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 Allaah, and say the invocations that are mandatory upon him, such as the
takbeer, tasbeeh, tashahud and other prayers. And the more he learns that language that Allaah Himself chose to be the language of him who sealed the prophets (PBUT), and to be the language of His final revelation, the better it is for him!"
And Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 A.H.) even went so far as to say that, "...the Arabic language is a part of the religion, and knowing it is obligatory. This is because the ability to understand the Qur'aan and Sunnah is obligatory on every Muslim, yet they cannot be understood without knowing Arabic, and (the general Islamic principle is that) every act that is an essential prerequisite to perform an obligatory act is also obligatory"
It is for this precise reason that it is seen that those Muslim societies that are ignorant of Arabic are, in general less Islamically Knowledgeable (and hence more susceptible to deviation) than those societies who are firmly grounded in Arabic. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the goals of the enemies of Islaam is the destruction of the Arabic language, for they realise that one of the uniting factors of the Muslims is the language of the Qur'aan.
The orientalist Philip DeTrazy wrote, in 1948 CE,
Due to the Power of the Qur'aan, the Muslims have become a united nation in their language, religion, laws and politics. For the Qur'aan has combined all the Arabs, and it is inconceivable that, were it not for the Qur'aan classical Arabic would have spread among them...And were it not for the Qur'aan, numerous peoples would not have taken up this language, and learnt how to read and write it, and studied it and worked with it. And were it not for the the Qur'aan, every nation among the nations of Muslims would have had their own language...So the Qur'aan has been a source of preserving communication between the Islamic and Arabic nations.
Sir Edward Benson wrote, "The basis of Islaam is the Arabic Language. If it is lost Islaam is lost!" One of the ministers of England, Sir Gladstone wrote,"As long as the Muslims have the Qur'aan in their hands, Europe can never prevail over the East. During the French occupation of Algeria, the French government was advised by its consulate in Algeria,"We will never be able to overpower the Algerians as long as they read the Qur'aan and speak Arabic. Therefore, we must remove the Arabic Qur'aan from their midst, and abolish the Arabic language from their tongues. And this is exactly what Kamaal Ataa Turk, the secular leader of Turkey who abolished the Islam Caliphate in 1921 did. He ordered for the Qur'aan to be recited in Turkish, even during the prayers, and transposed the Arabic alphabet with the European one, such that even today, the Turkish language, which was once written in Arabic is now written in Latin.