Studying Arabic on Your Own

As Salaamu Alaykum,

Sorry but I’ve got it in for these ‘Arabic Language Institutes that only few can afford, and even fewer can get to, so please pardon this do-it-yourself service announcement…

Here is the self-study course and materials that I used to get started (the links are just examples of how accessible the books are, and their titles- I do not mean to advocate purchasing from any particular vendor or publisher):

Arabic Grammar text:

Arabic-English dictionary:

Saheeh al-Bukhaaree (Arabic and English):

http://store.dar-us-salam.com/product/H02c.html

The reason I prefer the grammar book above is because it seems to include many of the rules of ‘Arabic grammar and explains everything entirely in English- though it always provides the ‘Arabic terminology for the parts of speech and gives all the examples in ‘Arabic…

The ‘Arabic-English Al-Mawrid has almost never failed me where it comes to finding definitions, and I simply cannot stand the Hans-Wehr or Lane’s Lexicon dictionaries. Also, the English-Arabic dictionaries will only be useful if you want to draft something in ‘Arabic yourself and need to look up English words to find the ‘Arabic.

Saheeh al-Bukhaaree is the best bet for starters since it contains some of the most well-known narrations, and seems to have the easiest ‘Arabic to understand. I know that may seem weird to some, that statement, but trust me, you do not want to start out with al-Muwata of ‘Imaam Maalik- the ‘Arabic is extremely difficult to understand and hard to find in the dictionary as well. I started out with al-Muwata and can still remember the looks on ‘Arabs faces when I asked them to help me with some terms whenever I didn’t have my al-Mawrid with me- huh?

Course:

Start writing out narrations by hand in ‘Arabic, start with the shorter narrations, look up each word, and write down the definitions. Transcribe narrations, particularly those of interest to you, while you also transcribe the lessons in the grammar book. Apply whatever you learn in the grammar book to your transcriptions of Saheeh al-Bukhaaree.

The grammar book referenced above contains the verb charts for most combinations of 3 and 4 letter roots, with most variations of the varying weak radicals of the root. This will come in handy when you start looking up verbs to find out what tense and form they are in, in order to translate them more accurately…

Seriously, within about the first 90 pages or so of the grammar book, one will have a fairly strong grasp of the basics of ‘Arabic grammar and morphology. It’s up to you to do the exercises or not- I did not since I do not intend on bringing any grievances before parliament, congress or the U.N….

At first copying even one narration in ‘Arabic would take me at least 2 days, spending an hour or so per day, as I did not even know the alphabet at the time. Also, in the beginning I would take very long to find the definitions since it can be difficult to find the correct root when the verb is in a different form or tense than the root form of perfect tense, 3rd person singular (which is how ‘Arabic-English dictionaries entries are found).

For example, transcribe by hand the narration:

عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ الْإِيمَانُ بِضْعٌ وَسِتُّونَ شُعْبَةً وَالْحَيَاءُ شُعْبَةٌ مِنْ الْإِيمَانِ

Looking up each word, you will find the definitions:

‘an= ‘from’ (in the context of the chains of narration it almost always means ‘on authority of’)

an-Nabee= ‘the Prophet’ (noun: it ends in kasrah since it is the object of the preposition ‘an or ‘from’)

Sallaa= ‘may (Allah) send prayers’ (is a 3rd person masculine singular verb, with subject ‘Allah’ following, accompanying preposition ‘alay-hi, though separated by the subject)

Allahu= ‘Allah’ (noun: with dhammah indicating He is the subject of both verbs ‘sallaa’ and ‘sallama’ in the clause)

‘alay-hi= ‘upon-him’ (preposition ‘alaa, or ‘upon’, with masculine singular pronoun -hi, or ‘him’, affixed to the end)

wa= ‘and’

sallama= ‘may (Allah) send greetings (upon him)’ (3rd person masculine singular verb, which also takes on the subject ‘Allah’ and the preposition ‘alay-hi, ‘upon him’ through reflection and word order)

qaala= ‘he said’ (3rd person masculine singular form of the verb, subject is referring back to an-Nabee with the implied subject ‘he’)

al-‘eemaanu= (the) ‘Belief’ (noun: is nominative, or the subject due to its’ ending in dhammah; ‘the’ is dropped in the translation due to its’ actually being a definite article intended to show ‘true’ Belief and not just any belief)

bidh’un= ‘a number from 1-10’ (noun: derived from badha’a, the verb meaning ‘to cut, split’; it is a masdar, or verbal-noun, or a noun form derived from the verb explained by the ‘Arabic linguists and shaarih ‘Ibn Hajar to be any number between 1 and 10)

wa= ‘and’

sittuuna= ‘sixty’ (noun: it has the fathah on the end to indicate accusative; for some reason even though the number is describing the word ‘branch’ which appears feminine due to the ta marbutah, the tens up to 90 in ‘Arabic will always have the masculine plural -uuna or -eena ending)

shu’bat-an= ‘branches’ (feminine noun with tanween, or nunnation -an at the end to show accusative and indefinite, it functions to indicate the word as the indefinite object of the predicate clause, as opposed to the primary clause)

wa= ‘and’

al-hayaa’u= ‘shyness/modesty’ (noun: this word begins a new subordinate clause and so has a dhammah indicating that it is the new subject of the clause)

shu’batun= ‘a branch’ (noun: the -un ending is again tanween or nuunation of the ending dhammah to indicate it is the accusative indefinite noun of a verbal sentence, or the object as opposed to the subject)

min= ‘from’ (a preposition)

al-‘eemaani= (the) ‘Belief’ (noun object of a preposition always takes a kasrah on the end)

Then try to put together all of the definitions with appropriate placement due to the rules of grammar into a comprehensible translation. What is important to realize is in this whole narration there are no verbs expressed after Qaala, so the verbs are all present tense and hidden.

So the translation would read:

“On authority of the Prophet, may Allah send prayers and greetings upon him, he said: Belief is [a number from 1-10 + 60] branches; and modesty is a branch of Belief…”

So you see the verb ‘is’ cannot be found in the ‘Arabic since it is a present tense form of the verb ‘to be’.

It may take some time before you reach the point where you are explaining even in as much (or little, depending on who you are) detail as I did above, but that’s the idea, to keep progressing as much as possible…

I know there is far more that can be explained about the above narration, and I may not have gotten everything correct, however that is leaps and bounds from where I was just 4 years ago, lip-syncing the Qur’aan, and envying others who even comprehended somewhat the ‘Arabic involved.

And yes there is a whole deal in the explanation of the narration about the whole 60-something parts of Belief, and the other narrations that state 70- that’s not really part of all of this, and the narration says what it says…

Eventually people who persevere will eventually also begin to utilize the expansions or shuruuh of the narrations that aid greatly in understanding the difficult terms like ‘bidh’un’ and the 1-10 parts plus 60 issue, etc…

I have been studying ‘Arabic on my own, since the fall of 2004, and while I could have waited until I had the money and time to dive into ‘Arabic, I did not, and am very happy to have persisted in study.

I would be happy to help out anyone who would like to know how to get started on their own, and answer any questions about the books and how to use them.

With all the effort many people exert on secular studies and work, there is no excuse for any hesitation and lack of effort to learn the language of the Qur’aan and Sunnah, hiding behind the excuse of not being able to travel half-way around the world, and not having the small fortune it would take to do so…

By studying on your own you may not get a degree, obtain any special status as an alumni of a ‘real overseas institute’, or get to the top of the list in any Islamic centre or masjid to lead the prayer as a self-taught student of ‘Arabic and Islam, however you will have absolved yourself of the sin of having been given enough intellect to figure out how to use these machines, but not having learned the Deen of Allah, Exalted is He, and the meaning of the Qur’aan al-Kareem…

If this hopeless Caribbean, lost in Mexico, with as much resources as a pauper can get the books together and spend enough time to figure things out, then so can you, so let’s get it together then shall we?