Level One teaches in just 15 lessons the complete content of an entire full-time academic year at a British university. With 3-4 hours of tuition and approximately 4-5 hours worth of exercises and vocabulary learning to be completed outside class every teaching day, this course offers participants a firm grounding in the skeletal structure of the Arabic language. We expose participants to most of the general paradigms of Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology, including the ten most common forms of the Arabic verb and the nine derivations of each form.
By the end of level one, students should:
• Be able to read simple Arabic texts using a dictionary
• Be capable of basic conversation using simple vocabulary
• Be able to read this sentence in Arabic and translate it into English:
• Have a vocabulary of approximately 500 words
• Be familiar with most of the general grammatical structures and syntax
• Master the ten most common forms of the Arabic verb and the nine derivations of each form.
Method
The approach taken combines traditional methods of teaching classical Arabic with modern techniques developed to teach Arabic to English speakers. As well as having to memorise various passages, students will be required to translate selected texts both from English to Arabic and from Arabic to English.
All Level One courses are taught in the English medium, but participants are encouraged to start conversing in Arabic.
Students are expected to complete all set exercises for the next class. Failure to do so on two consecutive occasions usually makes it difficult for a student to catch up and may result in the student having to discontinue the course. To maintain high standards, class sizes are restricted.
Course Texts
All participants will be required to purchase the following:
1. 'Arabica' by Salman Hasan
2. 'English-Arabic Dictionary' by Hans Wehr
The textbook 'Arabica' is written by the principal tutor and co-founder of the Ibn Jabal institute. It is as yet unpublished but is presently made available to participants on Ibn Jabal courses free of charge. This book has grown out of the experience gained during the intensive courses taught over the last six years to some very capable students. It is tailored precisely to the requirements of an intensive course combining techniques taken from both the Indian sub-continent and the Arab world with modern approaches developed in the early twentieth century for teaching European languages to English speakers. The objective of this book is to make the learning of the Arabic language easier without compromising the very high standard we expect of our students. We believe that this book will be a valuable asset to the English speaking world and a contribution to this field.
Entry Requirements
Although this is a beginner's course, it does assume prior knowledge of the following
Familiarity with the Arabic alphabet and the ability to read (without comprehension).
Basic ability to join the Arabic letters (without comprehension).
Participants are required to learn the vocabulary in the ‘Prep Vocab Pack’ available on the website, prior to embarking on the course.
The course is very intensive and rigorous and we look for strong academic ability in participants. This is often evidenced by high grades in academic exams such as A-Levels. It is not uncommon for the average A-Level grade of one of our classes to be AAB. High grades however, are not a strict criterion for admission and this should not discourage prospective applicants from applying. Those with strong A-Level grades generally do well but have not always proven to be the best linguists. Other determinants, such as rigorous prior preparation, motivation and solid hard work from participants often tip the balance and we give such factors greater importance.
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Level 2
Intensive Applied Classical Arabic
Level 2 offers those who have completed Level 1 or have reached an intermediate level in their Arabic an excellent opportunity to apply their knowledge of Arabic and improve their comprehension. Participants negotiate challenging but tractable extracts from various genres of Arabic literature and hone their skills in translating from both Arabic to English and English to Arabic.
We see Level 2 as an immersion course after the hard grind of level 1. Grammar in Level 1 is taught ‘prescriptively’: we state the rules and then illustrate them with minimalist examples so that the student can learn a lot of grammar in a short space of time. In Level 2 grammar is taught ‘deductively’: we encounter bodies of language, whether written or spoken, and decipher them. The teaching of grammatical rules is incidental and attendant to this. In Level 1 the student approaches meaning through structure; in Level 2 they try to grapple and negotiate with meanings and refer to structure to facilitate that.
Level 2 applies all the grammar of Level 1 and takes it further. Participants are stimulated to interact with the language in all four key areas in this order of priority:
1. Reading 2. Writing 3. Listening 4. Speaking
Participants are given materials and exercises that are both interesting and stimulating and at the same time challenging and intensive. Although each lesson is almost a discrete entity there is a trajectory of progress so that each lesson involves activities that consolidate previous learning and introduces new material. The overwhelming emphasis is on vocabulary building. This is achieved not only by straightforward vocabulary learning, but also by memorising adhkar (devotional supplications), hikam (aphorisms), shi’r (poetry), Qur’an, Hadith and amthal (proverbs).
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Level 2
Tajweed and the Language of Tajweed
Further details will be posted shortly
Go to Tajweed Course Details
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Level 3
Introduction to the genres of the Shariah
Level 3 is taught almost entirely in Arabic medium, with only occasional recourse to English. It is designed to introduce, using both classical and modern Arabic texts, the main principles and salient issues shaping central genres of classical Islamic law. By means of this close study of selected texts, participants gain an intimate grasp of the disciplines’ taxonomy, nomenclature and specialised technical terms.
The disciplines from which texts are selected are:
Usul al-Fiqh (Jurisprudence)
Mustalah al-Hadith (Hadith taxonomy)
Fiqh Muqaran (Comparative fiqh)
Tafsir ayat ahkam (Linguistic and legal Quranic exegesis)
Balagha (Rhetoric: the science of eloquence)
Level 3 targets those students who have successfully completed level 2 or have reached an intermediate moving onto advanced level with their Arabic. It assumes that participants have no or only a cursory exposure to the language of these disciplines in Arabic. As such, it is a language course and students should not expect to become masters in any of these fields from this course. The objective is to open the door to these disciplines by teaching the student how to navigate in each discipline in order to expedite the path towards further future study. We hope and pray that this endeavour will lead in the future to some of our students mastering one or more of these disciplines and go on to become teachers and researchers who make noteworthy contributions to the field.
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Level 4
Hanafi Fiqh with Comparative References
Level 4 is taught entirely in Arabic. It is a close study of
Level 4 is designed to provide the participant with a firm grounding in the language and legal rulings of Hanafi Fiqh by means of a close study of a classical Hanafi fiqh text. References are made throughout the course to corresponding issues in other madhabs to provide the participant with a comparative perspective. Participants are furnished with adilla (evidences) from the Quran, Sunnah, Ijma and Qiyas in order to give them an in depth appreciation of how the Hanafi madhab is constructed, along with a cursory glance at the other madhabs.
Level 4 targets those students who have successfully completed level 3 or have reached an advanced level with their Arabic. It assumes that participants have no or only a cursory exposure to Hanafi Fiqh. As such, it is a language course and while participants will be required to learn a lot of fiqh, they should not expect to become hanafi fuqaha (jurists) from this course. That is not to say that this will not happen in the future. We hope and pray that this endeavour will lead to some of our students mastering the fiqh of all four madhabs and go on to become teachers and researchers who make noteworthy contributions to the field.
"Indeed in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest"
Our Lord! Verily, we have heard the call of one calling to Faith: 'Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed.
Our Lord! Forgive us our sins and expiate from us our evil deeds, and make us die (in the state of righteousness) along with Al-Abrar
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