Why Study Arabic and How
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-09T17:20:08.82219+00:00 | Topic: Knowledge
Why Study Arabic and How
Nouman Ali Khan
Opening Prayer
As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِيْنَ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنِ اسْتَنَّ بِسُنَّتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّيْنِ اَللّٰهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنْهُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوْا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ آمِيْنَ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ ثُمَّ أَمَّا بَعْدُ
فَأَعُوْذُ بِاللّٰهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيْمِ بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
The Quranic Foundation
"Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Quran that you might understand." (Quran 12:2)
Introduction: Two Parts of Today's Discussion
I wanted to divide our lecture today into two parts. The first part will deal with the importance of Arabic study - what's the big deal about learning the Arabic language, especially for Muslims. The latter part will focus on how to engage in Arabic study effectively - what is a very practical or result-oriented approach to learning the language.
Part One: The Importance of Arabic Study
Why Muslims Say "Quran" When Asked About Arabic
If you ask any Muslim why it's important to learn the Arabic language, regardless of their background or ethnicity, they will almost always give you the same answer: Quran. The obvious reason why one should understand the Arabic language is the Quran, and this is very important for us to remind ourselves of.
Allah's Declaration: The Quran is Arabic
What gives that answer its value is that Allah declared this Quran an Arabic document - (قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا - qur'anan arabiyya) - eleven times in the Quran. Allah mentions the Quran as something that's in Arabic, restrained by Arabic. So the Muslim, no matter what his first language is or where she comes from, will always say that the Quran is actually Arabic, and everything else - every tafsir, every translation - that's the work of human beings. That's not sacred. The sacred text is the Arabic text that is the actual word of Allah.
The Difference Between Quran and Other "Revelations"
We may not know where this belief comes from originally, but the actual proof that Muslims use and our scholars discuss is the actual words of Allah when He says:
"until he hears the words of Allah" (Quran 9:6)
Allah calls His speech "kalaam" - speech. The Quran is the speech of Allah. I'd like to share with you the difference between the speech of Allah and what others call revelation. Christians believe the Bible is revelation, right? They also call it the word of God. So there are other people that believe in other things and they call that the word of God.
The Muslim Belief About the Quran
How is our belief different? It is different in the sense that the Muslim believes that the Quran is the direct quote of Allah. The Muslim believes that the Quran is not paraphrased, it's not rephrased by the Prophet - he's actually saying exactly the words that Allah told him to say. So every word and every placement of every word is in its place, exactly the way Allah intends it to be said.
The Problem with Translation-Only Approach
The Counter-Argument
There is a modern counter-argument that Quran in Arabic is not really a big deal. You can get a dozen translations in pretty much any language, including English. You have so many translations of the Quran, so what's the big deal? Why do you have to learn Arabic anyway, because all these translations and tafasir are available, so it's not really that important anymore.
Examples of What's Lost in Translation
Let me address this claim with a couple of examples. Those of you that read Quran regularly perhaps have heard the words:
"And Allah is Acquainted with what you do"
And you perhaps have also heard words like:
"And Allah is Acquainted with what you do"
Similar words, right? If you want to get a general idea of the meaning, you will get a typical translation saying, "And Allah is fully aware in regards to what you do." The translation for both will be the same -
you get the same exact translation.
But wait a second - is this the word of Allah exactly? When Allah intends to say وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ is He intending to say something slightly different from وَاللَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ ? Because if He was saying the same thing, He would have said the same thing, right? But He didn't say the same thing. When you're reading the English translation, do you get the same thing? You get exactly the same thing - no difference whatsoever.
The Soul vs Spirit Example
Similarly, Allah says in a famous ayah:
"Every soul will taste death" (Quran 21:35)
Did you hear the word "nafs" in there? That's the word I want your attention on. In another ayah He says:
"And they ask you about the soul. Say, 'The soul is of the affair of my Lord'" (Quran 17:85)
He doesn't use the word nafs - what does He use? Ar-rooh. These are obviously two different words in Arabic. When you read an English translation of كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ you will find "every soul shall taste death." When you read a translation of وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ you will find "they ask you about the soul."
Wait a second - what was used for soul? Nafs, and now they're translating what as soul? Rooh. Allah uses two different words, but in the English translation, they both become "soul."
Historical Example: Umar's Wisdom
The Story of the Mispronunciation
In Umar ibn al-Khattab's time, there were many people accepting Islam, including non-Arabs. Because of their love of Islam, they were memorizing the Quran, but since they were students of the Arabic language, they were not perfect in their Arabic yet.
One such new Muslim was memorizing Surah al-Tawbah. While memorizing it, because of his lack of understanding of Arabic, he recited something incorrectly. He was supposed to memorize:
"Allah is disassociated from the polytheists, and [so is] His Messenger" (Quran 9:3)
Instead he was memorizing:
So instead of memorizing "rasuluhu," he was memorizing "rasulihi." Sounds pretty similar to us, right? It's just a sound difference.
The Catastrophic Change in Meaning
The original ayah means that Allah declares Himself free of those who associate partners with Him, and the same is true of His Messenger - His Messenger also disassociates himself from those who do shirk.
When you mispronounce "rasuluhu" and instead recite "rasulihi," then the meaning becomes: Allah disassociates Himself from the people who do shirk AND from His Messenger. That Allah has nothing to do with His Messenger!
Umar's Response
An Arab Muslim heard him and was shocked. This new Muslim, who didn't know much Quran yet, heard the ayah being read incorrectly and got very upset. He said, "If Allah has nothing to do with His Messenger, then I should have nothing to do with His Messenger either."
He went to meet Umar, and Umar was giving people a speech about the importance of holding on to the Sunnah. The man got up and said, "Why do you tell people to hold on to the Sunnah when Allah said He has nothing to do with His Messenger? Why should we follow the Sunnah?"
Umar asked him where he got this, and he recited the ayah incorrectly. Umar corrected him and then passed his famous fatwa:
"No one should be teaching the Quran except the one who knows the language"
Because these small mistakes in the end are not small mistakes - they are monumental mistakes.
The Quranic Command to Understand Arabic
Allah's Exact Words
Allah said, as I recited in the beginning:
"Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Quran that you might understand" (Quran 12:2)
We all believe that every word of Allah is perfect - you can't add to it, and you can't take away from it. If Allah said, "We sent down a Quran so you can understand it," what you would learn is that it's mandatory on you to understand it.
But Allah didn't say that. Allah said إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ - "We sent down an Arabic Quran so you can understand." Which means, if one wants to understand Quran, what can they never let go of?
They can never let go of Arabic, because now Arabic is Allah's word describing the Quran.
The Inseparable Connection
When Allah says:
"By the wise Quran" (Quran 36:2)
Can you ever separate wisdom from Quran? It's impossible. The same way when Allah says قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا - an Arabic Quran - can Arabic ever be separated from Quran? It's impossible.
The Universal Islamic Language
Historical Evidence
The Arabic language becomes a part and parcel of the Islamic civilization regardless of where we come from in the world. Those who come from Southeast Asia, or Turkey, or regions where Islam spread later on - it's no surprise that the ulama of Islam, the scholars of Islam that are non-Arabs, like Shah Waliullah Dahlawi or others, wrote their books in Arabic. They wrote a good amount of their research papers in Arabic, because this was the language of Islamic studies.
Poetry and the Precision of Arabic
Hassan ibn Thabit's Poetry
Hassan ibn Thabit was a great poet assigned by Rasulullah to make motivational poetry for the sahaba when they used to go into battle. To describe his tribe's participation in battle, he recited:
The first line talks about their charity - "We have these glowing bowls" (bowls being what you give charity in). The bowls are so shiny and beautiful that they twinkle during the day. The second part talks about their bravery - "Our swords are constantly dripping from the blood of rescue missions."
Al-Khansa's Criticism
When al-Khansa heard his poetry, she said it's good, but provided detailed criticism about his word choices. She said when you use the word جَفَنَات )jafanat) to talk about bowls, it means you only have less than ten bowls. You should have used the word جام )jifam), which indicates more than ten. She went through each word, suggesting better alternatives that would convey greater quantities and more impressive imagery.
The Lesson
She took his two lines of poetry and literally tore them apart with criticism. These are the same people that recited Quran day and night and never had one word of criticism about any ayah of the Quran. Can you imagine? These people were so critical about poetry, yet they never had a word to say about an ayah of Quran.
Modern Attacks on Quran's Arabic
The Orientalist Challenge
You turn to our times, and you find orientalist professors from Georgetown University, Harvard, and Hartford Seminary writing papers about ayat of Quran claiming there's a grammatical mistake here and there. There are actually research papers and theses done on this in Western society.
The Reality of Their "Mistakes"
These professors learn modern Arabic - let's pretend it has 50 rules of grammar. Classical Arabic would then have 500 rules. The comparison between modern Arabic and classical Arabic is at least 10 times more complex for classical Arabic. These professors learn one-tenth of the rules of language and then start reading Quran saying, "I found a mistake, because I don't know any rule that exists that can explain this."
That's because they haven't studied the rules - not because there's a mistake, but because they're not sophisticated enough to understand it.
The Impact on Muslim Youth
When Muslim youth, especially young people and web surfers, go around learning about Islam online and come across these websites, they get confused. They think there's a mistake in Quran. A lot of youth from around the country are doubtful about Islam because they have read things like that.
Our Defense
What's the only way that we can defend the creed of our youth and ourselves against these sorts of attacks? The only defense is that we ourselves are equipped with enough knowledge to be able to say every general Muslim should be able to defend at least the integrity of the Quran.
Part Two: The Prophetic Guidance on Learning Quran
The Famous Hadith
The famous hadith we find in Sahih al-Bukhari - Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
(Bukhari 5027)
"The best of you are those who learn Quran and teach it"
Nowadays when you say "my kids are learning Quran" or "I'm learning Quran," what do you mean by it? Mostly we mean we're learning to recognize the letters alif ba ta, or we're teaching them some tajweed, or they're memorizing some Quran. These are the things we mean when we say "my child is learning Quran" - the alphabet, pronunciation, or memorization.
The Warning About Bani Israel
In Surah al-Baqarah, Allah talks about Bani Israel. In one ayah, He lists what they did wrong against their book:
"And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except in wishful thinking, but they are only assuming"
The crime of Bani Israel is instead of actually knowing the book, they reduce it to (أماني - wishful thoughts).
Ibn Abbas's Shocking Explanation
Ibn Abbas, the great Mufassir of Quran among the Sahaba, when explaining this ayah said something really heart-shaking. He said the crime of the Bani Israel against their book is (أماني). Explaining this word, he said:
Allah says that the Jews reduced the Torah to (أَمَانِيِّ) meaning they used to know their book only in two ways: they used to memorize it, and they used to recite it, and they had no idea what it means. All they did was memorize it and recite it, and they didn't do anything else. This was their great crime against their book.
The Parallel to Our Ummah
If I asked the audience today: "Tell me a nation that everywhere in the world you go, they memorize the book and they recite the book, but the vast majority of them don't understand the book" - who does that describe? That describes us. That describes this Ummah.
The Hadith About Knowledge Disappearing
The Forgotten Sign
There's a very beautiful hadith narrated by Ibn Lubaid. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was describing a sign of the day of judgment, but what came afterwards was so scary that the sahaba forgot the sign - they only
remembered the rest of it. The hadith begins:
"When knowledge is gone..."
We don't even know what that "such and such" is because the sahaba don't remember.
Ibn Lubaid's Question
Ibn Lubaid got up and asked:
"O Messenger of Allah, how can knowledge be gone?"
Then he posed a further question:
"O Messenger of Allah, how can knowledge be gone when we read the Quran and we teach our children, and they will teach their children?"
The Prophet's Angry Response
When the Prophet heard Ibn Lubaid's response, he was so angry. He said:
"May your mother lose her child, Ibn Lubaid! I used to think you're one of the smartest people in Medina."
Then he explained:
"Don't you see these Jews and Christians - right in front of them is the Torah and the Injeel, but they don't benefit anything from them?"
This was such a profound statement: the Quran will be there, but what will be gone? Knowledge of Quran will be gone, even though children will be passed this knowledge forward.
The Requirement for True Believers
The Definition of Mu'min
Do all of us want to strive to be true believers or just Muslim? All of us should strive to be Mu'min. How does Allah describe the Mu'min?
"Certainly will the believers have succeeded: They who are during their prayer humbly submissive"
The true believers have already attained success - those who are humble and attentive in their prayers. The true believer has to have khushu in their prayer. Khushu means attentiveness, focus, alertness, humility, powerlessness.
The Problem in Our Prayers
When we stand in Salah and we don't understand Quran - and Qiyam (standing) is the longest part of Salah, and what do you do in standing except reciting Quran? - when we're standing in Salah and we're not understanding Quran and we still have to pay attention, what do we pay attention to?
We find other things to pay attention to. Some people stare at the rug and find spots where the stitching is missing. Others close their eyes and picture the Ka'bah. Others listen to the Imam for tajweed mistakes. Is that really khushu?
Allah's Definition of Khushu
Allah defined khushu in Surah Al-Hadeed:
"Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should humbly submit at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth?"
Their hearts should be full of awe with remembering Allah, and because of what came down from the truth. What came down from the truth? Quran.
Statements of the Sahaba and Scholars
Umar ibn al-Khattab's Instructions
Umar said:
"No one should teach Quran except the one who knows the language"
He also said:
"Learn Arabic because it's from your deen"
Abu Bakr's Priority
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said:
"I would rather forget a portion of Quran than make a grammatical mistake"
Ubayy ibn Ka'ab's Advice
Ubayy ibn Ka'ab, one of the great mufassireen of Quran, gave advice about our children:
"Teach your children Arabic like you teach them to memorize Quran"
Ibn Taymiyyah's Ruling
Ibn Taymiyyah said it's فَرْضٌ عَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ - absolutely mandatory on every Muslim that they have to learn the Arabic language. He gave a rationale:
"Understanding the Book and the Sunnah is mandatory. They cannot be understood except if you understand Arabic. So whatever you need to fulfill an obligation becomes an obligation."
Allah's Promise About Making Quran Easy
The Divine Guarantee
If you argue that Arabic is a pretty hard language to learn, that's the wrong attitude, because Allah fights this attitude in the Quran. He says:
"And We have certainly made the Quran easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?"
Allah says: "Without a doubt, we already made the Quran easy for remembrance." If you want to learn the Arabic language to remember Allah, guess what Allah does for you? He makes it easy. I'm not giving you that guarantee - Allah gives that guarantee.
Practical Approach to Learning Arabic
The Reality of Language Loss
We're living in the United States where primarily English is spoken. Your kids are speaking English. Even if they speak Urdu, do they speak it as well as you do? No. And their kids - will they even know Urdu? Chances are no. So long as you're in this country, there's a loss of language and a gaining of English.
The Problem with Practice
Language is all about practice. You can't use Urdu here much, which is why your children don't know it. I
have friends who studied Arabic abroad for a few months, came back speaking beautifully, then got busy with work and school. Few years later, do they still know Arabic? They remember bits and pieces.
The Solution: Start with Quranic Arabic
There is some part of Arabic that we use every single day. What part is that? We use Quran, we use dua, we use the things we say in Salah - that's all Arabic.
So a practical approach to Arabic studies is: you study the language, but when it comes to vocabulary and examples and practice, you in the beginning limit yourself to Quran. Because Allah said He made it easy anyway - isn't that the most encouraging place to start?
Why Quranic Arabic Works
Our program begins with Quranic Arabic for a few reasons:
1. It's the easiest place to start, though it is the most sophisticated level of Arabic that exists. At one level it's the most sophisticated, at another it's the most easy. It's both at the same time - that's part of its miracle.
2. So long as you're committed to your Salah and committed to reciting Quran, you can keep up with what you studied of the language.
3. Once you have a foundation in Quran, then learning how to speak is pretty easy, plus it cleans up your tongue - you're not going to make mistakes because you're used to the best form of speech.
Conclusion
There's a step-by-step process. Our program has been traveling around the country, visiting Muslim communities. I would urge all of you to make dua for the program, to give us the ability to actually serve as many masjids and communities across the United States as possible.
Additionally, make dua for our teachers that Allah may protect them, better them, keep them sincere, and allow them to serve their students in the best possible ways.
Finally, I urge all of you to keep tabs on the website bayyinah.com to see if there's a program being offered in your community anytime soon.
Alhamdulillah, at this point we have over 3000 students around the country. In most places where the Quranic track is going on, there are quite a few students that are now able to read Quran without translation and make pretty sophisticated grammatical analysis. We have students that can tell the difference between وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ and وَاللَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ and understand the wisdom in each usage.
This is a good sign of progress. Again, I urge all of you to make dua.
جَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا for your time and attention.