The beauty, strength, and political importance of retaining Urdu

This next responsibility is of very profound importance and it must not be considered as a form of separatism from the greater community, as has been cunningly suggested by the Stalinist theorists of the Labour Government. I choose the word Stalinist not to insult them, but to identify their policy. It was Stalin’s policy, set out in large didactic volumes, that all languages should be eliminated except for Russian so that the centralist control of the Police State should find its commands immediately obeyed. To this end, as we know, he forcibly moved tens of thousands of Chechens out of the Caucasus, and he ferociously crushed all the Turkic languages of the Eastern Provinces.

It is the deep intellectual responsibility of the new Muslim generation in Britain not to lose the Urdu language. Many English textbooks will tell you that Urdu was just a syncretic language of the barracks, used by soldiers. If we deconstruct this Imperialist view, we find that Urdu was the language of the great Horde, and it is the sublime, complex and poetic language which gave birth to the splendour of the Mughal dynasty which brought to the Sub-continent the only civilisation it has ever known. You must know English, and you must know the English of Shakespeare and reject the creole English imposed on the masses by the bankers’ world system, I mean, that of Pop and Hip-Hop. It is Urdu, nevertheless, which will give you the great richness and sophistication of a language refined and developed by great Sufis and poets. At the same time, you will have access to the world outside, by it. English is the dominant world language today, followed by Chinese. The third language, by usage world-wide, is Urdu.

Remember that English was a late arrival in Britain. There was Pictish and Gaelic in the north and west, while the Anglo-Saxon creole of the peasants in Middle England soon had the Danish of the Vikings imposed on it. The Danelaw governed Britain from Hadrian’s Wall to south of London. When the settled Vikings of north-west France invaded Britain, they brought with them the language they had adopted from its people. With the coming of William the Conqueror, French became the language of the elite and of trade, and remained so until the Black Death. Young Muslims must learn Urdu and work towards establishing and strengthening the Urdu schools and night-classes throughout the country.

http://www.shaykhabdalqadir.com/cont..._20022006.html

Note that the great Shaykh Abdal Qadir isn't from an Urdu-speaking background - he's a Muslim convert from Scotland.