The Islamic Sciences
The language of the Qurʾān, and the key to every other science. Worth years of your life if you can give them. And, I want to say plainly before anything else: not knowing it does not make you less Muslim.
Said first, and said plainly
Arabic is a gift, not a gate. Anyone who makes a convert feel locked out of her own faith because she cannot yet parse a verb has misunderstood the tradition, and my research documents how much damage that does.
Karla N. Kovacik, M.A. · The Feeling Muslim Project
Why Pursue It
Access
Every translation is an interpretation. Arabic lets you sit with the words themselves, and with the vast commentary tradition that has grown around them for fourteen centuries.
Prayer
Many converts pray faithfully for years in words they have memorized by sound. Understanding those words as you say them changes the experience of standing there.
The other sciences
Fiqh, ʿaqīdah, tafsīr, and ḥadīth are all conducted in Arabic at their higher levels. The language is the entry condition for serious study of any of them.
Honest expectations
Anyone promising fluency in a few months is selling something. Classical Arabic is a long, structured discipline, best begun with a real teacher and a real curriculum, and pursued patiently. That is not discouragement. It is respect for the work.
Where to Study It
My husband, Peter “Omar” Kovacik, teaches years one and two of Classical Arabic in the Imam al-Dardir Advanced Studies Program at The Majlis Seminary, via distance. He began his own Arabic study at Qasid Institute in 2005 and has studied at institutions including the Toronto Shariah Program, Studio Arabiyyah, and Sibawayh Center since. He also continues private Classical Arabic studies with Shaykh Syed Javed Ali Shah.
Course · The Majlis
Ustadh Peter “Omar” Kovacik
For the Muslim who has prayed for years in words learned by sound, this course opens what she has been saying all along. It begins from the prayer itself rather than from a grammar table, which makes it a rare and gentle entry point into the language: you learn Arabic through something you already do five times a day.
Abū Hurayrah (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) reported that our beloved Prophet Muḥammad (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said:
Allah does not look at your forms or your wealth, but at your hearts and your deeds.
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim · 2564
A note on sources
Sacred texts cited on this page are verified against printed sources before publication. To study this science properly, rather than only read about it, the institutes on the Learning Islam page teach it with teachers who have the knowledge to give.