ARABIC AS THE LANGUAGE OF ISLAM (ENGLISH SPEECH)

Assalamualaikum Wr Wb

The Excellency all the judges

The excellency the officials

And dear all audiences,

First of all, let us thank to Allah who has created many kinds of people in this world with many different languages

Second of all, let us give Solawat and Salam to our last Prophet Muhammad SAW who spoke good words in Arabic and has received Allah’s saying in Arabic.

Dear audiences,

There are 194 countries and 100 more languages spoken in this world. Subhanallah! Allah has created such heteregeneous people in this world. Among those languages, there must be the most special language of all. Many people say it is English because it is an international language. Asians say it is Chinese. Youngsters say it is Korean because they like Korean dramas and songs. Which one is true? Allah said in Alquran: إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ (Yusuf:2). Allah has given us the whole content of Alquran in Arabic. Ibnu Kasir said in Tafsir Ibnu Katsir, Tafsir of surat Yusuf: it is because the best kitab (Alquran) is given to the best Rosul (Nabi Muihammad) with the best language (Arabic) on the best land (Arab) through the best angel (Jibril) and first-given to Muhammad on the best month (Ramadlan). Now, do you want to choose what many people say, what Asians say, what youngsters say, or what Allah says? Of course what Allah said in Alquran shows that Arabic is the most special language. Our prophet Muhammad SAW also spoke Arabic, which makes all Hadist is written in Arabic.

            As we all know, Alquran and Hadis is the foundation of our religion Islam. If we understand completely about Alquran and Hadis, we understand our religion Islam completely too. To understand wholly about Alquran and Hadis, we do not need to master English, Chinese or other languages. But we need to master Arabic. What if Alquran and Hadis translated into English and we learn them by mastering English? It sound the same, but is is NOT. Each language has its own idioms, its own diction, its own way to express something. Not all sentences in one language can be translated easily to another language with the same meaning. For example: in English we have “notorious” which means similar to famous, but famous in a bad way. And we do not have the word for it in Indonesia. In Indonesia, we only have “terkenal”. This shows that one word in one language cannot be easily translated into another language. So, to learn Islam as a whole we need to master Arabic, not other languages

Dear audiences,

Knowing the importance and the use of learning Arabic as the language of our religion, let us learn Arabic deeply from now on. As time goes by, during our learning process, we might fall in love with Arabic language. When we have already loved it, we will be more in love with Alquran and Hadis which use this language. It does not mean that learning other languages, suc as English, Chinese is not necessary. If it gives benefit to our religion, why not? But the first foreign language we must master is Arabic because that will make us fall in love more with Alquran and Hadis which use Arabic and make us understand more deeply about Islam of which basic knowledge is written in Arabic. As Syaikhul Islam Ibnu Taimiyah in Kitab Iqtidho Shirotil Mustaqim said that If we get used to speaking in Arabic, it will affect to our love to Alquran , Hadis and our ability to understand them and the saying of Salafussolih easily. Abu Bakar bin Abi Syaibah, from Umar bin Yazid, said: Umar bin Khattab wrote to Abu Musa Al-Asy’ari:…Learn As-Sunnah, learn Arabic and I’roblah Al-Qur’an because Al-Qur’an uses Arabic.”

That is all from me. I hope after this we have a strong willingness to improve our Arabic.

Thank you very much

Wassalamualaikum wr wb