The Decline of Arabic

Why Arabic Is Not Optional

The Quran was revealed in Arabic. The hadith were recorded in Arabic. The entire tradition of Islamic scholarship (tafsir, fiqh, aqeedah, hadith sciences) was produced in Arabic. A Muslim who cannot access Arabic is entirely dependent on translators and intermediaries for their understanding of their own religion.

This dependency is not neutral. Every translation is an interpretation. Every intermediary makes choices about what to emphasise, what to simplify, and what to leave out. The choice in 51:47 of musi'un (those who continuously expand) over wasi' (the spacious) (a participial form that conveys ongoing action) is invisible to someone reading ‘We expanded it’ in translation. These distinctions are not decorative. They carry meaning.

Umar ibn al-Khattab said: 'Learn Arabic, for it is part of your religion.' This is reported as his statement, and Ibn Taymiyyah cited it approvingly. The principle was the practice of the early generations: Umar reportedly disciplined his sons for grammatical errors and treated proficiency in Arabic as a religious responsibility.

What Has Happened

Several forces have contributed to the decline of Arabic among Muslims:

Colonialism: The deliberate replacement of Arabic-medium education with European-language education across the Muslim world disconnected generations from classical Islamic sources.

Migration: Muslim communities in the West often prioritise the host country's language for economic survival, leaving Arabic as a secondary or tertiary concern at best.

Simplified religious content: The rise of English and Urdu Islamic content, however well-intentioned, has made it possible to feel religiously engaged without ever needing Arabic, reducing the perceived urgency of learning it.

Poor teaching methods: Arabic is often taught as a liturgical recitation exercise rather than a living language, producing Muslims who can recite the Quran without understanding a word of it.

What Is Lost

A Muslim who cannot read Arabic cannot:

• directly verify a scholar’s interpretation against the source (they can compare translations and seek multiple opinions, but the final check (the text itself) is closed to them)
• Access the primary hadith collections directly
• Read the classical scholars (like Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayyim, al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir) in their own words
• Participate in the living tradition of Islamic scholarship

They are, in every meaningful sense, cut off from their intellectual and spiritual inheritance.

What Can Be Done

The goal need not be scholarly fluency. Functional Quranic literacy (reading the Quran with basic comprehension and the ability to look up words in a dictionary) is achievable by most adults with sustained effort over one to two years. That level of ability changes what the Quran means when you read it.

Practical starting points:

• Bayyinah Dream (bayyinah.tv): a structured Arabic programme designed specifically for English speakers, starting from zero
• Madinah Arabic Books (Dr V. Abdur Rahim): a three-volume classical curriculum used worldwide, available free online
• Quranic.app: vocabulary-building with frequency statistics (learning the 300 most common Quranic words gives comprehension of approximately 70 per cent of the text)
• Arabic with Husna and similar channels: conversational Arabic for those who want to go beyond Quranic fluency

The barrier is the decision to begin, not access.

A Muslim parent who ensures their children learn Arabic is giving them something no school system, no influencer, and no algorithm can take away: direct access to God's word in the language He chose to reveal it.