Trying to learn Arabic, as a Muslim — Reflections and Thoughts (after a decade of attempts)
In a decade, you can achieve much. You could complete an Undergrad or Master’s degree, get married and start a family, build a new career, or reach a level of native fluency in a second language.
Yet, here I am, starting another Arabic course for the umpteenth time at the end of the month. I have made countless attempts to self-study, sought tens of teachers, and lost hundreds of pounds on Arabic lessons, books, and online resources. But, still cannot competently read a basic children’s book in Arabic without a dictionary nor (at least, not any longer), sustain a basic conversation.
You may be wondering just how on earth have I been trying for a decade — and still not made significant progress?
I am what you call a ‘false beginner’ – i.e., someone who has taken language lessons in the past, but did not progress, or at least can’t use their language knowledge.
The most common pattern was: Start a new course > Adjust to the teacher’s style > Get bored going through material I’ve already covered > Start to get lax thinking ‘I already know all of this’ > reach a new, unfamiliar language point > Start to struggle a bit > realise I don’t know/remember as much as I thought > not follow up in enough time > Get frustrated > fall behind > not seeing expected results > find a new class to start ‘afresh’ > rinse and repeat.
When I’d gradually decelerate throughout a course due to either not feeling much progress being made, or thought a better course is starting, I’d either fizzle out or jump ship.
There was a great varying degree of teachers all throughout; some recently came back from abroad, seeking out their first students, others were Imaams, one (only one!) was a professional language teacher, and some were simply local brothers trying to impart what they learned along the way. I’ve had teachers online, face to face, through institutes, and private. Abroad and local.
I find myself wondering what even is the point of still trying if all my attempts allude to being utterly doomed in any and all ventures to learn Arabic. Surely, after a decade of attempts yielding minute progress, I was flogging the same old textbooks to death?
Well, not really. You should look back in ‘kindsight’, not hindsight. Sometimes you will only become aware of blind spots or make sense of things much later on in life, which is fine — because life is growth. Despite what I’ve said above, I don’t feel my past experiences (attempts) to learn Arabic truly went to waste.
Even if my memory tries to hold all those grammar rules with vocab together by masking tape and staples, I was able to at least, even if very slowly, build up some knowledge and comprehension.
Regardless, it came to a point I realised, this is something I want. I love languages, linguistics, SLA theory, you name it. Anything to do with words, especially language pedagogy, I’m there.
I do believe the world of Arabic language acquisition needs an overhaul. Within our grassroots or Madrassah-esque environments, we haven’t embraced a contemporary approach to language acquisition, far too many syllabi are designed as if we don’t have forty-hour work weeks, University, school, and family to tend to. They try to cram in as much as possible, demand hours of homework and are simply not optimised with the times of contemporary language acquisition theory and methods.
This means if you, as a Muslim, are trying to learn Arabic, you are likely to explore options available in your local community or online. The chances are, if you’ve also made multiple attempts to make significant study over the years, you could feel stuck in either type of class:
Grassroots efforts offer a great sense of community and classroom learning, but you are at the mercy of whoever the teacher is, and longevity is often a pinch-point of progress. I don’t think I have ever seen a grassroots effort in my locality complete a book (e.g. Bayna Yadayk, Madinah Book series) or retain the same number of students by the end. It’s important Arabic-competent members of the community will make an effort, and it should be a staple of Masaajid and Muslim learning centres to offer Arabic classes. But, the syllabus, and language teaching skills should be brushed up for maximum results and student retention. While Masaajid and centres mean well to grab whoever they can, and oftentimes don’t have much to choose from in terms of teachers, the likelihood is whoever is there isn’t a well-trained language teacher.
It’s not to say, if someone hasn’t done a language teaching course they can’t teach effectively. They could have a natural knack or other life experience to their aid — it does mean however you might not receive particularly well-planned language lessons. There is one example of a brilliant teacher who dismantles all of my concerns about grassroots arrangements — uncle Asif Meherali has pure life experience, wisdom, and charisma. He taught the complete Madinah book series start to finish like a total pro, and it was not once boring! You can watch the whole series here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdcNa0YNM-g&list=PLh3c1SPUmZqGMOtrHD7Kd2uXuvPRDP7ou
The other type of class is, what I describe as the Madrassah-esque. It follows a structure or syllabus similar to what a full-time Madrassah student would study. It often prioritises reading, writing, and a strong emphasis on grammar and understanding terminology. In a sense, it seems great to have a ‘ready-made’, tried and tested curriculum to essentially copy and paste, all you need is the teacher.
In my experience, when such a curriculum is wedged into evening/weekend classes, or online, the progress with such classes is quite slow and not often very sustainable for the average Abdullah or Aminah. Most learners, especially those with no prior Arabic experience, can struggle to keep their heads afloat through what is intended as a full-time, studious syllabus, being crammed into part-time lessons.
What eventually happens is the students who did pay attention, staying until the end of the course and making notes, can explain a lot of grammar with examples, but not do much else independently.
Learning is a push-pull relationship between teacher and student. Despite my criticisms of the UK’s Arabic learning landscape in Muslim communities, persistent students willing to do their homework, extra revision, and plan whilst assessing their time accordingly, can make good progress regardless of the course/teacher.
Back to the topic of this article, what I hope to at least at the very minimum get across here, is learning Arabic is no easy task. It requires much dedication, time, probably a fair bit of money, and a lot of drive. If anyone else is struggling to pin down some decent progress, you are very likely not alone.
If you’re reading this, the likelihood is you are either interested in beginning to learn Arabic, trying, or have made past endeavours. That Is already a great first step forward — Because a lot of our communities tend to reduce all Arabic studies to phonemic mastery. It’s easy to close your ‘Alif baa taa’ booklet calling it a day.
Commonly, a lot of us Muslims know the Arabic alphabet with the full articulation of sound, yet have very little to no grasp of meaning. And for the most part, it looks like many in our communities are quite satisfied with this arrangement.
My reinvigorated ambition to get back into studying Arabic came about in 2020, when I went through a transformational ‘awakening’ of what Islam is, what Islam means to me, and what it is to be a Muslim. I’m not hinting a person’s Islam or ability to be a good Muslim is grounded in knowing Arabic (as a language), which sequentially means I am not linking an Islamic identity to sharing elements of a specific culture (in this instance, Middle Eastern). Despite that, there are a few benefits with learning Arabic, example being, a level of independence.
During that time of 2020, I became aware of certain scholars known for their research and often weighty contributions, two examples being Sheikh Hatim Al-Awni (some of his articles can be found translated here: https://hatimalawni.wordpress.com/, along with an excerpt from one of his works here: https://archive.org/details/worship-gateway-to-tawhid-and-takfir-shaykh-hatim-al-awni/page/4/mode/2up), and Sheikh Abdallah al Juday (https://www.cilecenter.org/about-us/our-team/sheikh-dr-abdullah-al-judai).
Despite much Googling, even with both above named scholars being huge names in their field, I could only find brief, often incomplete snippets of translations of their work. It became clear my inability to independently understand Arabic meant I was severely disadvantaged in reading and researching scholarly topics of interest to me. By 2020, I was already very jaded with not having access to the original text of Islamic books, relying on the mercy of publishing houses and translators — where, translations can be tainted by the publisher’s or translator’s worldview and leanings. However, that is a whole other discussion.
Leading on, I decided to learn Arabic with functional language skills (at the very least, to read independently) — which follows my next reflection: Learning Arabic as a functional language, and learning Qur’anic Arabic (i.e. solely for the purpose to ‘understand’ the Qur’an).
As a trained language teacher, I am well aware of the theories and techniques behind language acquisition. Those approaches are not needed if someone wishes to ‘understand’ the Qur’an. In fact, to say ‘understand the Qur’an’ will even have its own implications to consider. What exactly ‘understanding’ is may differ from person to person, it could be to simply know the meaning of words, or it could mean to have a deeper comprehension — how much Arabic you need to study for either goal will likely be very different levels of depth.
In my experience, many teachers, and students alike, will have the overall, very broad intention of learning Arabic to ‘understand the Qur’an’. Personally, I think this is the wrong approach. Teachers and students should be very specific in understanding their desired outcome so the most optimal, accordingly planned lessons can be taught/studied effectively.
If both the teacher and students share a common language, it is crucial expectations are managed from the beginning to avoid potentially wasting time, and incurring frustration. As much as students should do their diligent research to ensure a class/teacher is right for them, teachers should also check to ensure they are recruiting the right students. It doesn’t ever hurt for teachers to lay out their teaching methods and realistic learning outcomes either.
Language skills are not linear, they will only ever grow into other skill sets and expand. If, someone wants to learn ‘Qur’anic Arabic’, then I’m sure if they did decide to begin studying MSA, or, ‘functional Arabic’, they will acquire some language and skills to benefit from studying the Arabic of the Qur’an. The same is vice versa, too, if someone begins their journey with ‘Qura’nic Arabic’ they’ll likely be able to get a good start in practical language usage.
Neither approach is ‘wrong’ or better than the other, it simply comes down to what someone wants to (first) achieve or the resources available to them. Again, above all of, you can still streamline your Niyyah to begin either route of study for Deen purposes.
Leading on from the above, I feel Muslims will sometimes have a subconscious hesitation they’re somehow ‘wrong’ to want to start learning Arabic as a practical language, they’re somehow meant to sit through slow, thorough, grammar-laden classes intended for ‘Taalib-e-Ilm’ and trudge their way through Ajrumiyyah. Everyone has a different aptitude and goal — languages are meant to enrich our life, not to become a burden of emotional baggage, thinking you need to force yourself down a specific path.
It’s worth having a listen to this short, ten-minute video from an institute which focuses on language application at the get-go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBgv_pDvtrI&t=242s. The key point to take away is, even if you want to learn Arabic primarily for ‘Deen’ purposes, you should still aim to ‘live’ the language.
This is just my own reflection, learning grammar can be akin to learning maths. It’s rather similar to putting the ‘right’ number in the ‘right’ place. Whilst I do agree we should aim for excellence, none of us learned our mother tongue through being taught grammar. For learners to begin their language journey with a heavy focus on grammar is not conducive to becoming confident with the language.
Grammatical excellence should come later, because, firstly, the formative period of learning a new language is all about exposure, trial and error. It can feel particularly stifling and if learners don’t get enough opportunity, or at least, worthwhile opportunity (I mean, chances to use the language in ways in which they see it as practical, or at least ‘working’), they will rapidly lose steam.
Second, there’s a likely chance learners don’t know their own native language’s grammar all that well. Interestingly, what many people discover is when they start learning a new language, they begin to also learn their native language's grammar! If someone does have a good grasp of their native grammar, it will definitely help to learn an additional set of grammar rules. So, considering most students probably won’t be strong in their native grammar department, a grammar-heavy Arabic class could potentially constrict progress, especially in larger classes. It can feel like trying to take in too much cross-referencing between two languages.
The way I see it is, language is very much similar to working out a jigsaw puzzle. If you try to begin with the centre pieces and work your way out to the edges, you’ll be taking the most ineffective approach to try and get the bigger picture (no pun intended).
Instead, the easier way to solve a jigsaw puzzle, no matter how big and complex it is, is to start from the edges. Once you have a general idea of how things are shaping up, everyone else will fall into place much easier.
Arabic or any other language is not so different from a jigsaw puzzle — if you can get at least some idea of what holds the language together (basic syntax, pronouns, simple verbs, etc), you will have a much better chance of then becoming more confident and acquire greater grammar awareness if you decide to study more thoroughly.
Before moving on to my next musing, it’s worth clarifying what I’m getting at when I say a ‘grammar heavy focus’, because, you of course need grammar to form coherent sentences — my criticism is mostly surrounding a method of teaching known as the ‘grammar-translation’ approach. Students are given short grammar rules, vocabulary, and translation exercises to put their new grammar to use. The method teaches people about language but doesn’t really help in how to effectively use language.
My theory is, as so much of our Islamic tradition is in text format (Qur’an, hadith, books of Usul etc), it’s easy for Arabic teachers to take this approach, thinking it will essentially gear up the student to make the most of reading texts independently.
It’s very unlikely you will learn everything from one course or teacher (as I wrote earlier, learning Arabic, or any language, is not a linear path). I made the habit of jumping from class to class in search of ‘better’ beginner lessons when things were starting to not make sense, essentially, reaching my ceiling of understanding (as I wasn’t growing much beyond this point). Each course you complete should be a springboard, I made the error of thinking if I keep changing teachers, I will at some point land in the right place to begin making progress.
With all that being said, I’m complicating matters here. What truly reigns superior above all else is commitment and dedication. It’s not hard to start seeing results — you just need to revise the most common grammar rules, learn some vocab, and start practising (outside of lessons, too). Once you get the ball rolling, you’re set to expand your competency.
Some will encourage making a 5–10 year goal to track your language learning, which isn’t a bad idea. But it makes the journey seem longer than what it really is — setting goals between 3–6 months is much more reasonable because that is truly as much time as you need to start seeing results with consistent practice. When I taught refugees, some had zilch levels of English. Yet, with the right guidance and effort, could hold basic conversations or more after 3–6 months of consistent practice.
It’s a very easy trap, to over-complicate matters because we think has to be complicated! Complexity doesn’t necessarily equal something being of higher value — is perhaps the most important epiphany unveiled during my decade of attempts. This Ted Talk is a great breakdown of how learning a language can be easily broken down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0&t=889s
Thinking over everything I’ve written up to now, I’ve been able to reach some epiphanies leading to a more balanced mindset of what is within my sphere of influence to control. It simply comes down to making a conscious choice, being honest with how you learn and where the real hurdles are along the path.
Looking back, I’m glad I’ve at least sustained some sort of effort over the years. Moving forward it feels like now is a better time for me to get back into my Arabic, studies, albeit this time with a plan — I do personally see Arabic as part of a Muslim identity, and I feel, if I were to just give up now, I’d lose a part of myself and remain incomplete for life.
To conclude, this post is more of a journal entry than anything else. But if you have read this far, I’m hoping it will resonate with at least one other person on this journey, or at the very least, provide some food for thought.
