very good read and i think now i understood you correct, there is no point in which i can disagree with you. In germany i am facing the same isues as you guys in US. Also sometimes i am a bit jealous about you guys, you have some realy good scholars over there in my oppinion and you are realy ahead of germany if it goes to litterature about islam, keep up the good work and may Allah bless your effort and reward you all for the incredible work.

Have greatly appreciated this series and is both informative and a pleasure to read. I look forward to reading the last entry and hope we all can benefit from your work. I agree w/ most of what you say.

I must point out that I found some nuance to be missing from the following paragraph:

“Most of the non-Arab immigrant population comes from Muslim majority countries that were ruled by the caliphate, but didn’t adopt Arabic as the native tongue while some adopted the Arabic script for writing. Obviously there is some regret among these communities that they didn’t adopt the language of the Qur’an so they developed a culture of trying to incorporate as much Arabic as possible. They also formed the perception that the more Arabic words you use the more Islamic you seem. A key point about these countries is that—pre-Islam—they did not have a local theology similar to the Qur’an (i.e. people of the book) so they adopted many of the Arabic words like the word Allah to refer to God and the Arabic/Qur’anic rendering of prophets’ names.”

There are many assumptions in this paragraph which are untrue or atleast untrue for many Muslim groups brother.

You say for instance that there is some regret amongst some non-Arab Muslims for not adopting Arabic as a mother tongue. I gaurantee you that this is demonstrably false in countries such as Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the Central Asian Turkic republics. We have no regret whatsoever for having maintained our Iranian or Turkic languages and are outright proud of this fact.

We love our Rumi, our Sa’adi, our Rudaki, our Ha’afiz, our Rahman Baba, our Khushal Khan Khattal, Our Ferdowsi etc., etc. We have pride in our languages, our history and our culture and there is totally negligible desire for Arabization or regret over not having Arabic as a mother tongue. For the overwhelming majority in these countries there is no inferiority complex vis a vis Arabs or Arabic. We have been Muslims for almost as long as the Arabs and there has never been a conflict between our cultural/linguistic identities and Islam. The two things have not been mutually exclusive for us.

As for a local theology, again untrue. Many of these countries were Zoroastrian and we were perfectly aware of the concept of a singular all powerful God and we still use the word we’ve always used to describe him today “Khoda”. The word for messenger in Farsi is likewise “Paighambar”. There are many such examples.

The preponderance of Arabic loan words has more to do with Arabic being the universal scholarly language of the era, as well as the natural flow of vocabulary across languages. Similar to how English is influencing the language of most of the world today, especially in areas of science and technology. Has nothing to do with the concept of these things being completely absent from the local culture.

Sure there are some specifically Islamic expressions which are specific to Islam and introduced through the medium of Arabic. Such a thing exists in any proselytizing religion which considers itself universal. It hardly indicates a lack of higher common concepts within the local culture or any kind or regret for not adopting a language though. I think that theory is a bridge to far.

My personal observation has been that more recent converts tend to delve into the things you described. As far as immigrant Muslims, I will admit there is a very high incidence for Arabophilia within the SOUTH ASIAN( Indo-Pak-Bangladeshi) communities. The reasons for that are beyond the scope of pure observation and therefore not appropriate for me to attempt to answer…but that’s what I’ve observed.

It doesn’t ring true for every non-Arab community though. You’d be preaching to the choir if you said these things to a Persian, Turk, Afghan, Central Asian, Indonesian, Malay, Chechen, Bosnian or a Black African in Africa. It simply doesn’t ring true for most peoples in these ethnic groups.

Anyways…I’ve enjoyed the series overall and thank you for taking the time to address this issue. Jazak Allah Khair and thanks again for giving me the time/opportunity to just throw my two cents in.

WAS Bro K,

For that level the 3rd book of the Arbiyyah bayna yadayk series is good, but best would be a six month trip to Egypt at a focused center spending 5 hours a day. After that you will be able to derive a deeper relationship with the Quran and other texts.

We need more people who have reached that level to write original books in English which take from the wealth of knowledge and depth coming from the Arabic source in a much more fluid native style rather than the choppy, strangely worded and often incoherent style of the many non-native works like the Riyad as-Saliheen you mentioned.

JAK

I have enjoyed your series very very much. I am
a non-Arab Muslim that probably grew up with some of the misconceptions that you have touched on before I thought long and hard about them. I still pray in Arabic and use Arabic terms in conversations with people whom I know will understand me but now I also strive to translate and that way to gain a better understanding on what it is I’m saying.

I actually found that it was really easy to translate all the things one says in salah. So even if we were taught salah in Arabic (and over the years we’ve memorized it so it’s just second nature) we will be able to do real time translations in our head if we put in a little bit of effort.

I look forward to your plan of action immensely!

Arabic cultural impositions and the infatuation with that amongst certain Muslims doesn’t necessary mean that we have to throw away the Arabic language itself which is the key to understanding the meaning, literary beauty and intricacies of the last revealed text.

The Arabs themselves are losing the Arabic language and replacing it with their local dialects. Unless there is spoken revival of classical Arabic, it will become an ancient language that only the very few who have studied it for Academic purposes know it.

The nonsensical practices of ignorant Muslims in venerating the language and everything Arabic, and some knowledgeable Muslim speakers who bolster this by using Arabic expressions unnecessarily whether to demonstrate their knowledge or whatever shouldn’t put us off from learning Arabic.

The Language Argument surely can not be an argument for dismissal or the Arabic language, rather one reinforcing what Allah has said “We have not sent a messenger except speaking in the language of their people so that they can properly clarify the religion to them.” (Qur’an 14:3)”

It is only logical to speak to people in the language they understand, and we have seen a massive change in this amongst the subcontinental Muslims over the last decade. Friday sermons are now being delivered in English, Supplications are starting to be made in English and the volume of general publications in the English language and other languages growing.