Arabic in Formal Prayer: "A Good Thing"

Yes, Omar, yes.

Look at places around the world where people were cut off from traditional sources by cutting off their access to Arabic. Here are 2: Turkey (they lose the Arabic script of Ottoman Turkish and they lost the ability to acquire Arabic easily and to work with the sources easily); Algeria where the French tried to cut Algerians off from their own language as a means of social and political control (cultural genocide even if we do not count the ensuing deaths). What happens when people are refused access to their sources? It is bad enough that Muslims who do know Arabic do not live in environments in which the free flow of ideas allows them to make the best use of it. This is why organizations like Zaytuna are so important. They educate widely in the basics of the tradition and support learning Arabic. One can list the ways in which Zaytuna is problematic (I hear them coming), but this is no small service that they have done for the community. I would, also, wager that they are a major reason Wahhabism lost its hold in many mosques. They offered hardcore to fight hardcore. The hardcore of the romantic tradition against the hardcore of the romantic modernism of the Wahhabis.

But the major reason why our prayers must be in Arabic is that Arabic is the language of the Qur'an. The Qur'an cannot be translated into any language without taking an interpretive position in word choice. One loses the ambiguity, the subtlety, the clarity, and the sheer force and power of the sounds in a translation. The Qur'an--by traditional definition--is the word of God in the Arabic language as given to Muhammad through the mediation of the angel Gabriel. Who in their right mind who has access to that gift of revelation in which the very sound of a letter can transform one's soul would say get rid of it?

One other point that non-Muslims sometimes miss is that it is not hard to memorize Qur'an, nor is it frowned on to use or rely on translations, nor does one need to know the meaning of the Arabic to be hit with the meaning in one's heart.

Michael Sells Book _Approaching the Qur'an_ is excellent on the power of the langauge of the Qur'an. The book includes a CD and is intended for a broad reading audience. If anyone has not read it, I suggest they do.

Salams,

Laury

I agree, Arabic should be vital. This doesn't mean that every Muslim should have to learn it, but I think every jurist or would-be jurist should learn it. In the US, though English is the official language, you don't have to be fluent in it as soon as you step off the plane, and in areas like Colorado, where my family lives, most public information is available in both Spanish and English. Which is great, I think that's both laudable and practical. I like being in communities where many languages are spoken. But if I hire a lawyer and go before a judge about something, I really, *really* want both the lawyer and the judge to be fluent in English, the language in which US laws are written. Especially if my native language is something other than English, in which case I might miss nuance and subtlety in the law that could help me plead my case or better understand my situation. I want the best, most accurate and fairest representation of the laws available to me. So I want English-speaking (not necessarily native-speaking, but fluent) judges and lawyers.

Now pretend we're talking about the Umma and Arabic. Should every Muslim be required to learn Arabic? Of course not. That would be impossible, not to mention silly and frivolous. Is it in the best interest of Muslims to whom Arabic training is available to learn Arabic? Yes, absolutely. I'd like to point out that the Jews don't tend to bitch and moan about having to learn Hebrew. Should *all* sheikhs and qadis be fluent in Arabic? An emphatic YES. Anything else just doesn't make sense. The sheikh who sentenced that pregnant Nigerian rape victim to death by stoning a couple of years ago didn't have a reading knowledge of Arabic. Ignorance in people in positions of power is a dangerous thing.

People like Irshad Manji, who is very diffident about the necessity of Arabic training for Islamic religious authorities, want intellectual freedom without the intellect part. This takes us from ignorance into willful ignorance, which I just can't support. It's dangerous, no matter how many freedoms it cloaks itself in. Manji would be singing a different tune if they passed a law in Canada saying supreme court judges didn't have to be fluent in English, and the next day they decided to conveniently be unable to read all legal precedents that protected her from being deported for her sexual orientation or her race. Which is about the sum total of what is happening at the hands of ignorant sheikhs all over the Muslim world.

Good stuff Willow. I think people like Gustavo get it right by learning Arabic. I mean, if every Muslim had some knowledge of Classical Arabic which at least sets the basis for personal scholarship, then there would be little need to rely on a specialized class of scholars/jurists which then becomes the de-facto clergy. Not everyone would succeed or even desire to attain some level of universal scholarship, but i think with the attitude lain down, it would sufficiently expand the pool of people who can intellectually engage the sources that a whole diversity of strong cases could be made. Well, well, have I just described the Classical Muslim world, where so many scholars existed from so many ethnicities and schools of thought that it makes even me wax nostalgic? you bet ya'lls hineys I did!

- A Salafi in worship, a Sufi in society, a Secularist in government.

Another thing I would like to mention, Islam has no clergy but as a new Muslim, I notice that Muslims seem to rely too much on the "expertise" of others because of their fancy titles, usually men most of the time, but it seems to be like Catholicism with its male priesthood and male clergy.

Islam is a personal relationship, free of any human mediators, but Muslims seem to like to complicate their faith, and being fearful of being in error, they will always allow others to decide for them what is haram and what is halal, what is righteous and what is sinful, rather then follow their hearts and their conscious.

That is the only reason why I'm learning Arabic, I should also learn Farsi/Dari while I'm at it.

Gustafa: "Islam is a personal relationship, free of any human mediators"

It's exactly this sort of comment that I love abou the folks here. Maybe it's the Quaker in me.

Transliteration is interesting. There are at least a couple different schemes for Chinese, and I think I've sort of figured out how they compare. Same with Arabic. I've gradually learned to recognize what seems like francophone transliteration, and how all the various English spellings (Osama, Ussama, etc.) are probably pronounced the same. Now that I'm beginning to make simple connections, I appreciate the diversity in transliterations, but all the same it's been quite confusing and seemingly unnecessary. Having seen what became of the Bible, it makes a lot of sense to have muslims learn Arabic.

I'm a language geek and I'd love to learn Arabic to properly read the Qur'an, not to mention learn Chinese to properly read the Tao Te Ching I mean Dao De Jing.

hakim

Without question Gustavo, without question: "All languages and all forms of human communication are beautiful in my opinion. The fact that the last revelation was given to a man of the tribe of Quraysh, does not make Arabic special, no more than Hebrew is to the Jews."

I'd add Maya, Chinese (like Hakim), and any other of the languages to which God sent people messages. The Prophet (s) mentioned 313 different messengers sent over time. I cannot count them all. I love Daniel Moore's poem "Vocalization."

A real poet, gorgeous work, all of it.