I was at a Muslim Conference several years ago where at dinner time a stand-up comedian was performing. During his act he made fun of a Muslim lady in the audience. She was an advocate for reform in Islam. His dig at her was “You don’t speak Arabic? And you want to reform Islam”. Almost everyone in the predominantly Muslim audience laughed. This incident was a milestone for me. Most Muslims believe that knowing Arabic is essential to know Islam. As a result, many Western Muslims spend time and money traveling to distant places such as Egypt, Yemen and Jordan to learn Arabic. Interestingly , I don’t know more than a handful of adult Western born Muslims who became fluent in Arabic as a result of living for a few years in an Arab speaking country. The few who were able to do it, are now Arabic teachers in the West.
Another category of people move to Arabic speaking countries to teach their children how to speak Arabic. In most of these cases, the children pick up Arabic when they are surrounded by Arab speakers but when they get back home to the West, they lose fluency in the language quickly.
The difficulty in picking a new language as an adult creates a super class of people in the Muslim communities in the West. This super class consists of people who usually have a natural proclivity toward language. Just like gifted musicians and other artists, these people are born with a valuable talent, they can pick up languages. These people do not have to be spiritually advanced or even morally conscientious however, they are very sought out by Muslim communities as teachers. The people who are most in demand have learned Arabic and are good at public speaking. This small category of people control a lot of the thought and direction in Muslim communities. So, what is wrong with this?
There were not many people who could read and write fourteen centuries ago when Islam came about. For early Muslims to convey Islam to the next generation and to preserve the tenets of the religion, it was important to learn to read, write and understand Arabic. Not only that, it was important to understand Arabic poetry, idioms and accents of the time if one was to understand the Quran. However, In the 21st century, knowing Arabic to access the teachings of the Quran or Hadith is not required. In fact, Arabic is the fundamental barrier that keeps most Muslims from accessing the Quran. They depend on Arabic speaking individuals to tell them what to do in matters of religion.
First, It is important to note that Arabic is not one language; different Arabic dialects are spoken in different Arabic countries. If someone is fluent in Arabic it is not a given that they understand Islam.
Many people can recite Quran verses and Hadith but their understanding is shallow.
In order to gain wisdom, you have to internalize Quran’s teaching through personal spiritual struggle. This has little to do with language.
As of this writing, there are close to fifty translations of the Quran in English. There are about ten different interpretations available. The academics and scholars who have translated and interpreted the Quran have spent many years to accomplish their goal. It is important that scholars continue to translate and interpret so that Muslims can have a wide range of opinions and perspectives to choose from. For this reason, in order to access the Quran, it is no longer required for a seeker to learn Arabic. Due to the advent of the internet, Muslims can access most of the translations, transliterations and interpretations online and through applications. All the information is at their fingertips. It is better for Muslims to spend time trying to understand wisdom principles in the Quran and Hadith as opposed to focusing on learning Arabic and learning to pronounce Arabic the way Arabs do. It is a better use of your time to think on your own, discuss and understand ideas from the Quran as opposed to being enamored by people who have memorized it and recite in Arabic.