Learning Arabic 2

[bamalli]

First, you must choose a textbook to use. There are many out there, but here, only three shall be discussed:

    * The Arabic Course for English Speaking Students , (commonly referred to as "The Madinah Books." We can obtain it for you if you want, call us.) by Dr. V. Abdur-Rahim. This three book set is essentially the same as the books used in the University of Madinah Arabic Program . The only difference is that an English key has been added for the lessons in the first two books. Most of you have probably heard of it. This set has the advantage that it places heavy emphasis on Qur'anic and Hadith vocabulary. However, this is not in and of itself a good reason to buy this book set. If you do not have someone who will be teaching you, you are probably going to have a hard time learning from these books even with the keys to the lessons in the back. They were simply not designed for self teaching. In fact, the lessons themselves are completely in Arabic. The keys in the back are helpful no doubt, but for someone who wants to learn on his own, they are not sufficient. If you have someone who will be teaching you on the other hand, these books work excellently. Again, this is not to say that you cannot learn Arabic on your own from these books. It is possible. I know a number of brothers who have done so, but it is much better to use a book that was originally designed for English readers. If you are going to use this book, which many of you no doubt will since its probably already collecting dust on your shelf, then I highly recommend you use a grammar aid as a reference because I find that many people who go through the first two books come out with a need for more grammar.
    * Modern Standard Arabic, by Peter Abboud. This book is divided into a two-volume set. It has been used at many universities around America . It is very thorough in its coverage of grammar and in providing drill material to help drive the concepts home. It also has a good section at the beginning on learning handwriting and pronunciation. If you get just the first volume and go through that, it will give you most of what you need, but if you buy the second one, that would be better. This is a very good book were it not for the obscure linguistic terminology that the average reader will find difficult to decode on his own. If used along with a grammar aid such as Wightwick's, which shall be discussed shortly, you might find that problem to be a surmountable one. This book is by no means flashy. It is not full of pictures and flashy print like the other books that are out there, but if you are able to go through it fully, you will come out with a good grasp of Arabic grammar, in shaa Allah. And it is certainly cheaper than much of what is out there. I myself learned Arabic from the first volume of this book. This book has a tape set that is supposed to go with it, but you are supposed to write to the publisher to request them, I am not sure if they even still make them available. Consequently, I never bothered to get them.
    * Ahlan wa Sahlan, by Mahdi Alosh. This is another book that is used as a university textbook in America . Most will find it easier as it is filled with illustrations and has a more "user-friendly" approach whereas people complain about the Abboud book because of its "dry," academic style and difficulty. This book utilizes simpler, easier to understand terminology for grammar as well as having the added benefit of using the Arabic grammar terms. It has an extensive tape/CD set to go with the lessons as well. If you are going to teach yourself, GET THE TAPES, GET THE TAPES, GET THE TAPES. If you have not gotten the idea yet, I mean GET THE TAPES. The truth is, some people can do without the tapes or CD's, but for many, having audio reinforcement of whatever they are learning is essential. This book has the drawback of being expensive, especially when throwing in the cost of the CD set, however it does have a number of advantages over the Abboud book which make it more feasible for use as a teach-yourself textbook.

Almost any textbook can be used provided it gives you the proper background in getting the grammar down and some vocabulary, the important thing is that you be able to go through it and understand it properly. As each person is different, no one can decide definitively which will fit best for you.

The next most important tool for learning Arabic is the dictionary you use. There are two that are recommended:

    * Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. This dictionary is the best there is. Period. It is extremely thorough in the vocabulary it covers. Its greatest advantage is also its greatest drawback. The words are organized alphabetically according to their root letters. Knowing the roots helps one to gain a better understanding of the words derived. It is a problem, however, for beginners as they will have trouble finding the word they are looking for at times until they figure out how to find the roots. And that is why they need:
    * Al - Mawrid, by Ruhi al-Ba'albaki. This dictionary is organized in a simpler manner according to basic alphabetical order. This makes word easy to find. The drawback however is that the definitions are not very thorough. If you want to truly learn the Arabic language, rely on the Hans Wehr dictionary. Al-Mawrid should be only as the last resort. I call this "the cheater's dictionary." Sure, you will find the words, but if you cannot access the Hans Wehr, you cannot really access the Arabic Language. You have been warned.

Another aid you will want is Arabic Verbs and Essentials of Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Arabic by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar. Going through this book will really help you with getting the fundamentals of grammar down solidly. It is probably a good idea to go through this thoroughly once as a review. Afterwards, you will probably want to refer back to it to check certain things until they get ingrained in your memory. This book also has a helpful explanation about the organization of dictionaries such as Hans Wehr's Dictionary which will help in using it more effectively.

There is one final note I would like to make with regards to translations of the Qur'an. If you are going to be studying the Qur'an, then the best translation to use is probably the Saheeh International translation. Its language is simple and flows well while being accurate in translation.

Another book you might want to use is Easy Dictionary of the Qur'an of Abdul Kareem Parekh. This book follows the order of the Qur'an and lists each word the first time it appears in the Qur'an, giving a simple definition of the word. By the time you are done with Surat al-Baqarah, you will have learned ¼ of the Qur'an's vocabulary. That's actually more than it sounds when you consider that most of those words are amongst the most frequently occurring words in the Qur'an. This book is a relatively cheap and handy tool for learning the meanings of the Qur'an.
Pitfalls to Avoid

Unfortunately, many brothers find that they hit a brick wall in terms of learning Arabic in spite of having made some effort to learn. Often times, this is more a matter of how they tried to learn than of how hard they tried to learn. Many brothers will try and study some of the standard Arabic texts for learning grammar such as al-Ajrumiyyah . While al-Ajrumiyyah is a beneficial book without a doubt, studying and mastering al-Ajrumiyyah and other texts like it is not enough to be able to understand the Arabic language. Remember, all you really need to get started is an understanding of the basic workings of Arabic grammar. Much more important is gaining the vocabulary.

We must keep in mind that those who usually study these grammar texts are Arabs. They have spoken Arabic their whole lives. They are already capable of reading and understanding books in Arabic.

Once, I ran into a brother who was asking me for advice on learning Arabic. He had some understanding, but was unable to read books. When I asked him where exactly he was in terms of his Arabic, he began to explain to me how he had studied al-Ajrumiyyah twice with his "shaykh." And now he was going to be studying some other grammar text with him, yet he could not even read books. Initially, when I tried to advise him that he should work on his vocabulary and not really worry anymore about grammar, he remonstrated, "No, you see, I'm studying it with my shaykh." I kept telling him, "Yes, but I have never studied it at all and I read Qur'an, the books of Hadith, the books of the scholars such as ibn Taymiyyah and ibn ul-Qayyim," but he would only respond with, "No, you see, I am studying it with a shaykh." Finally, after a lengthy exchange filled with the refrain "but I am studying it with a shaykh," he finally began to realize that his real deficiency was in vocabulary.

This is a dilemma that many brothers fall into. They will study different grammar texts in their quest to improve their Arabic. They will sometimes even know far more grammar than I could ever know or care to know even, yet they can hardly pick up a book and read. Remember, beyond a rudimentary understanding of the grammar, what you really need is to develop vocabulary. Read basic books with the assistance of the Hans Wehr dictionary and in time you will find that you have made tremendous progress, if Allah wills. This may seem a tedious way to learn the language; that is because it is. However, it is also the only way.

Footnotes

   1. See Sahih Muslim (no. 867, 868).
   2. Reported by at-Tirmidhi (no. 3373), ibn Majah (no. 3827), Ahmad (no. 9701, 9719, 10178), and this is the wording of at-Tirmidhi. Declared hasan by Shaykh al-Albani in as-Silsilah as-Saheehah (no. 2654).
   3. Reported by at-Tirmidhi (no. 2516) and he said, "This is a Hasan Sahih Hadith," and by Ahmad (no. 2669, 2763, 2803). Shaykh al-Albani graded it Sahih in Dhilal ul-Jannah (no. 316-318).