Intellectual Resistance

CHANGE YOUR LIFE

 Imagine opening the covers of the glorious Qur'an and being able to understand and feel the real sweetness of what you are reciting? Imagine being able to locate any hadith from the Prophet or the Imams online and understand it directly from the very words they used to speak more or less? Imagine being able to watch far higher quality lectures from scholars in Arabic that we English speaking people do not get. Imagine being able to read the words of classical scholars on a verse of the Qur'an, or their commentary on a hadith that simply isn't accessible in the English language? Imagine being able to feel the beauty of Arabic poetry, being able to follow news in the Middle East, and so much more.

Don't be put off by Arabic or feel it is too difficult because you hear a lot about the complex grammar, and sometimes the feel it is just abstract words on a page. If you follow this method, you will be able to get some incredible progress in the Arabic language in 2018. No other language save Arabic has as much online resources, as much attention given to it, and as many people volunteering to promote the cause of learning it. The internet is awash with some of the most precious and valuable resources. 

it is important to understand, Arabic is based on mainly a Trilateral route system, and so getting to grips with how verbs can change and be modified from that route (Sarf-Morphology) and how words change depend on where they are in the sentence (Sarf and Grammar) are important especially for a highly inflective and very sophisticated but learnable language like Arabic.

Want to feel inspired? Watch this beautiful lecture by Hamza Yusuf on the Arabic language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RKV_s52f0o

So how do I learn it?:

There are many courses out there, but the one I completed and I feel is best for English speaking people are the Medina Series. Not only are all the books  for this course free and online, you have people who have produced far more summarised and to the point tutorials and lectures which save an incredible amount of time. 

The Medina books come in three volumes, and you can download them for free on the official website here: http://www.lqtoronto.com/madinaarabic.html

The best lectures I have ever seen teaching these have got to be the summarised, yet comprehensive ones on this youtube channel;

Medina Book1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHHCQMGIzlJtaKFzl7dzvuPdlAktclJUledin

Medina Book2: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe-aPVZYx1lH4CSVh_WkZEUrfsUF-japn

Medina Book3:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl7FSzR4VMXnK9lAZNs3KaX_fLhTHuU4D

Furthermore, there is a website with even shorter videos that can be used as a revision guide or to help introduce concepts in a clearer way that should be use to supplement the above:

Year 1 summarised Arabic grammar: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBv6B6E0IuHgw7symFQKGdqaWgS5yYP31

Year 2 summarised Arabic grammar: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBv6B6E0IuHhF7Z0CZiq222KUj0aUnDMv

All Medina series resources, handouts, grammar books: http://www.lqtoronto.com/downloads.html

Medina Arabic conversational drills: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS4jnMwZk3wopoTkXo689FwbpiDYJ0W4B

Building vocabulary

It is essential the language is more to you than abstract words on a page, and that you do not only learn grammar , but you greatly build your vocabulary too.  I would use this first, and I also highly recommend to anyone with an Android Phone, or with a Laptop or device, to download the free Anki Software here: https://apps.ankiweb.net/

Once you have done so, download a deck of vocabulary by searching for 'Arabic words MSA' as well as 'Medina book 1 vocabulary' and 'Medina book 2 vocabulary' and 'Medina book 3' vocabulary. Anki uses spaced repetition, which is highly effective in learning vocabulary and you are shown a certain number of new words per day, as well as repeats of words you've been through. If you do this over a long period of time it can help you accumulate more vocabulary.

 Just as a warning, before embarking on this book try to get to at least half way through book 3, because you  may not understand why a certain word has five forms in the table, if you do not understand how Arabic can use the same three letter root in order to change the meaning of the word. Here are some of the best resources to do that: 

The following PDF contains 83% of Quranic words by use. If you learn this small document you know 83% of the words used in the Qur'an by use: https://ia600406.us.archive.org/18/items/80Percent/80_percent.pdf

Feel the language is real

In order to make the language feel real, rather than just abstract words on a text you have no connection to, I highly recommend watching subtitled, quality Arabic cartoons. The following are some of the very best:

1. Tales of Women in the Qur'an:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG7hgjybLl7pVItspz0nvtJTN2xkpUn1E

2. Tales of humans in the Qur'an: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG7hgjybLl7oGrRjriW4H6R-LaJwmDFnV

3 Tales of animals in the Qur'an: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG7hgjybLl7rzH2ClknLpzbPHR5yLWC32 

4. Muslim scientists: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG7hgjybLl7rjuFulohTxs0zq7RYl0AJN

Dictionaries:

I don't recommend using one until you finish the Medina series, however, once you understand roots of words, different verb forms, and are good with morphology, the following dictionaries are great, and all free online and the most recommended:

1. al-Mawrid:  http://kalamullah.com/Books/alMawrid.pdf

2. Hans Wehr searchable dictionary:  https://giftsofknowledge.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/hans-wehr-searchable-pdf.pdf

Dictionaries like this can be confusing for English speakers, and so this is a great video as to how to use the Hans Wehr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcQw_yMkm3I

Useful resources to supplement the above:

1. Fundamentals of classical Arabic: http://kalamullah.com/Arabic.html

2. Learning the Arabic of the Qur'an: http://kalamullah.com/Arabic-language-of-the-Qur'an.html

3. Word-for-word Qur'an translation (one of the best!): Volume 1: Volume 2: Volume 3

4. Essentials of Arabic verbs: http://kalamullah.com/Books/Arabic Verbs and Essentials of Grammar 2nd Ed.pdf

5. 101 rules of Arabic grammar:  https://www.scribd.com/document/362303444/101-Rules-of-Arabic-Grammar-pdf

6. Umar series [Biography of the Prophet and the early conquests , and while we Shias differ on details, a lot of it is neutral and in classical Arabic subtitled into English]: https://archive.org/details/MBC-Omar-Series

7. Modern standard Arabic picture book: http://www.shiplife.com.br/downloads/Arabic.pdf

8. Basic Arabic vocabulary picture book: https://www.scribd.com/document/241062227/Arabic-Vocab-for-Basic

Further advanced books:

Once you have completed the Medina Series, the same author of those books has written some excellent further books to strengthen ones Arabic:

1. Selections from the glorious Qur'an:   http://www.lqtoronto.com/sfgq.html

2. Surat al-Hujurat: http://www.lqtoronto.com/hujurat.html

3. Nur al Nur: http://www.lqtoronto.com/nurunalanur.html

4. From Esfahan to Medina: drvaniya.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/From-Esfahan-to-Madinah-With-Lexical-and-Grammatical-Notes.pdf

5. Salawayh story book 1: https://www.scribd.com/document/61410066/Sahlawayhi1

6. Salawayh story book 2: https://www.scribd.com/document/61203309/Sahlawayhi-2

7. Salawayh story book 3: https://www.scribd.com/document/61203325/Sahlawayhi3

Make a Dua for me and all those currently on this journey. Remember, if you remain consistent at something, and continue to do it, even if you take a little bit of time from your day, it will eventually pay off. Seek the help of Allah, be sincere in your intention, and be patient. In languages there is a something called the 'inflection' point, which is where after many months of learning, or even close to a year, everything starts to come together and learning starts to become fare more rapid and the language starts to click, and I found this is the case for Arabic. Sticking to it will be off, and you will inshAllah if you follow the right method and are consistent, get to that point.