Learning a Language – Learning Arabic
Learning a language is a life changing experience. A language contains in itself a belief system, a culture and a worldview of its own. When you learn a new language, you open yourself to a new civilization with a rich literary heritage, history and ideals.
Research has proved that learning a new language makes your brain grow, and increases the efficiency of the brain. A new language widens the horizon of knowledge and understanding, enabling you to live a more successful and happier life.
Language of the Quran
What better language can there be than the language of the Quran. Arabic is a wonderful language, encompassing thousands of years of Poetic, Scientific and Literary Heritage. It was the language Quran was revealed in, and the Classical Arabic has stayed the same for the last 1400 years. Every language becomes unrecognizable over a period of a thousand years, but the classical Arabic has remained absolutely unchanged. Learning the language will open up a thousand year long Islamic Golden Age of Love, Peace and Scientific Progress. The classical Arabic is still in use today, and is used in newspapers, official documents, and TV programs.
Conversational Arabic
The conversational Arabic has many different varieties in different parts of the Arab world. The Arabic spoken in the Hijaz is different from the Arabic spoken in the gulf. Again it is different from the Arabic spoken in Iraq and Levant, while the people of Maghrib have their on different version. The language of Egypt is the most commonly understood Colloquial version because of its used in Television, media and films.
Some would argue that a learning a new language serves no purpose when you can read a translated work. But the truth can’t be any far from this assumption. It is possible to translate the words, but it is impossible to replicate the same meaning and convey the same essence in a different language, and it becomes even more difficult when idioms and poetry is translated!
Learning a Language – Learning Arabic
It is even more difficult to translate something from Arabic into English because of the very different syntactical and grammatical structure of the two languages. Arabic words follow a root and pattern system, and many words are formed from a single root word and follow a pattern. It is also possible that a word may find its root in two different words. Allowing for a more in depth understanding of the word.
Quranic Arabic is absolutely fascinating and marvellous. It has been translated in almost all of the languages and has been translated by multiple writers in each of the language. Though the translations are accurate and convey the meaning of the verses, but most of the times it becomes impossible to convey the real essence and mind-blowing beauty of the original text. The versatility of the Arabic language makes every word carry in itself a multitude of meaning that cannot be encompassed in any other language. In the next blog, we will explore in detail some of the words that can only be loosely translated into any other language and have a much more deeper meaning in Arabic.