Description
Arabic is spoken as a mother tongue by between 250 and 400 million people across 25 countries. Over abillion people can read the script even if they can't understand the language. And Arabic happens to beone of the official languages of the United Nations. Therefore, many people learn the language forformal reasons. At about 1,500 years old, Arabic also happens to be a very old language. It was the language ofscholarship throughout the rule of the Islamic empires - a period of well over 1,000 years from the 7thcentury right down to the 19th and even 20th. The greatest books of medicine, geology, law, philosophy, and basically any subject you can imagine were all written in the finest Arabic. Therefore, many of themost advanced people in their fields of study learn Arabic for scientific and anthropological reasons. Arabic is also the language of the Qur'an (the Islamic holy book). It doesn't matter what your beliefs are, the Qur'an is unequivocally, undeniably and undoubtedly the greatest form of Arabic literature, andindeed the greatest form of literature, period. The beauty of this piece of literature is, in fact, quiteliterally, miraculous. Therefore, tens of millions of people learn this language to witness firsthand thebeauty and miracle that is The Qur'an. religious reasons. In fact, emphasis has been placed on studying the Arabic language by the Prophet (PBUH) himself whenhe said to the effect: learn the Arabic language as you learn the Islamic obligations and practices. Hiscompanions, who, remember, were Arabs, used to learn Arabic despite the fact that it was their mothertongue. They used to say: teach your children Arabic. They used to correct each other's grammar. Theywould consider it unacceptable to make a grammatical mistake. And the scholars that followed them inlater centuries all emphasized learning Arabic. Imam Abu Hanifa said to the effect: I would've madelearning this language compulsory had I not deemed it difficult on the people. That is because1. in order to truly understand the message of God as it was revealed, one must understand it inthe very language it was revealed, and2. the Qur'an is a literary miracle - really, a full blown miracle - and in order to witness it, youneed to simply learn the language and you will witness a miracle with your very own eyes
