Every source is in Arabic: The Quran was revealed in Arabic. The Hadith of the Prophet (SAW) and the Imams (as) were spoken in Arabic. The great Shia books — Al-Kafi, Nahj al-Balagha, Bihar al-Anwar — are all in Arabic.
Read the source directly: When you learn Arabic, you read the words of Allah and the Imams (as) directly, with no translator between you and the source. A translation can help you, but it can never carry every shade of meaning of the original words.
Three kinds of Arabic: There are three kinds of Arabic. Classical Arabic is the language of the Quran, Hadith, and the scholars. Modern Standard Arabic is the language of news and modern books. Dialects are the everyday spoken Arabic of different countries. In this subject we learn Classical Arabic, because that is the language of our religion.
Four steps to reading: The course follows four simple steps: first read the script (the letters), then read words, then read sentences, and finally read Islamic texts. This subject follows the same four steps, one small step at a time.
Example
A word you already know: You already read the word الله (Allah) in prayer every day. You already say بِسْمِ اللَّهِ (In the name of Allah) before you eat. Learning Arabic is not starting from zero — it is learning to understand words you already love.
Key Terms
- Classical Arabic (العربية الفصحى) — the Arabic of the Quran, Hadith, and the scholars
- Al-Kafi (الکافی) — the most famous Shia collection of Hadith, compiled by Shaykh al-Kulayni
- Nahj al-Balagha (نهج البلاغة) — the book of the sermons, letters, and sayings of Imam Ali (as)
Quran or Hadith
Quran 96:1 — "Read, in the name of your Lord who created." — to be checked. The first word revealed to the Prophet (SAW) was a command to read — so learning to read Arabic is the first step of learning Islam.
Fresh diagram to be drawn: A simple four-step staircase in Project Desk colours — Step 1 Letters, Step 2 Words, Step 3 Sentences, Step 4 Islamic Texts — with a small Quran at the top.
- The Quran, the Hadith, and the books of the scholars are all in Classical Arabic.
- Learning Arabic lets you read the source directly, with no translator in between.
- We learn Classical Arabic in four steps: letters, words, sentences, then Islamic texts.