BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
I was in a qiyamu lail gathering at a masjid here in Southern California and the imam had such beautiful recitation of the Qur'an that blown me away. The amazing thing was that half of the time he was crying. I too cried, not because I understood the verses of the Qur'an, but because I was very sad that I did not understand a word he was reciting. How beautiful it would be if I understood it! I wept and wept just like him. At that moment I made an intention to study Arabic but I did not know how or where. SubhanAllah, after the prayers I sat down with a sister and we started talking about the beautiful tranquil night and then a question just leaped out of my mouth. I asked her if she knew any good place that I could learn Arabic. She said she didn't know any but she had a friend who had taken Arabic and noticed she knew some Arabic and that she would find it out for me. And there was where it began. I enrolled in the Arabic class immediately after I received the information from her but missed quite a bit during my hajj. At hajj, a friend told me that she had been taking her children to Egypt to study Arabic. SubhanAllah, she never told me this before even though I had known her for a few years prior to this. I can't forget this encounter---SubhanAllah, we were like sardines in Mina tent--legs over legs, we could only lie down on our sides to sleep but don't get me wrong--it was the most beautiful hajj for me and my children despite the seemingly uncomfortable conditions. So I thought I go outside to pray and get fresh air (the only place I could find to sit was beside a bathroom!). It must be 1 or 2 in the morning. My friend had the same idea and we sat by the bathroom talking about our children (we both brought our children along with us at that hajj) and this was when she told me about her kids Arabic studies in Egypt every summer. That summer I went to Egypt to study the language of the Arabs with my boys for 8 months. This is by no means we are experts in Arabic now--to the contrary, we have so much more to learn and sad that we are losing it. Allah knows best our intentions and make it easy for us to understand His religion. Ameen. Please remember us in your du'as.
Learning the language of the Arabs is very important. You have to take this mission seriously for yourself and your children. This is a small sacrifice for the religion of Allah. Without Arabic there is going to remain a barrier between you and understanding the religion of Allah since the original text of this religion is in Arabic, whether it is the Qur'an or the hadith. Many good Islamic texts are still in Arabic and you need Arabic to learn them properly. Learning Arabic is a process and you can never be a master at it but even at the level that most Arabic language centers teach you, you will see the difference in your devotion and your love for Allah and loving Allah is a beautiful thing. This is only the beginning. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, asked Zayd Ibn Thabit, Allah be very pleased with him, to learn Hebrew because he wanted a Muslim to read and write correspondence between him and the Jews. And Zayd learned Hebrew in 15 days. Zayd learned a foreign language as a Muslim. What about you learning Arabic that is necessary to understand what your Lord want you to do? One might argue that Hebrew is similar to Arabic, so it would be easier for one who already know Arabic, but still, you shouldn't take years to plan to learn the language of the Qur'an or worse not having the intention at all. Go right at it, don't wait. If you make the intention and sincere, Allah will make way for you.
The example of Zayd also tells us that it is also important for us to encourage our children to learn other foreign languages because Muslims are dealing with many nations of the world. It is important that Muslim learn these foreign languages in spreading Islam effectively. Of course, the priority is the language of the Arab.
May Allah grant us and our children tawfiq. Ameen..
And Allah knows best
Wassalaam
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