Learn Arabic Easily - Get in here

[guest050817]

Salamunalaykum,

 

I have been trying to learn Arabic here and there, but finally I have decided to become far more consistent. I want to show you all how to learn Arabic very cheaply - if not almost freely online. For too long we have been accused of only memorizing latmiyats, barely learning the Quran, and being obsessed about Ashura.  Lets show the world we didn't just grab hold of the ahlulbayt and forget what the Quran was.

 

Don't feel Arabic is for arabs. In fact, the Arabs of today have broke up into dialects and do not talk the pure original arabic of the Quran and they themselves need to learn it like us.

 

Learn Arabic. Make your children have it as their first language - pure arabic, not the dialectical one.

 

Unless you read the translations, if you simply recite Quran as many do without bothering to read the translation - you are wasting your time. The Quran was revealed to guide, and  while memorizing it and reciting it has it's place and benefit, it's useless unless you understand it and are guided by it.

 

Additionally, we know it is the word of God because of it's unique style of arabic which is beyond the scope of human ability to objectively imitate, even in the shortest Surah. This is the living miracle that affirms it is indeed the word of God in an objective sense, and it is what made the arabs of that time - one of the key reasons- convert to Islam. Anyone who plays this fact down and is a muslim needs to go back and study their religion before putting in doubt to others.

 

There's a teacher who goes through the Madina books and has over 400 + hours of their teaching posted online.

Go here to obtain the videos: http://www.lqtoronto.com/videodl.html

 

Essentially, you just start from lesson one and follow them. He goes through the three popular medina books. YOU CAN OBTAIN THE BOOKS FREELY HERE - BY THE AUTHOR HIMSELF, SO IT IS NOT STEALING: http://www.lqtoronto.com/downloads.html

 

Book one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arabic-Course-English-Speaking-Students/dp/1872531512/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=12VQJSZPZ40N4R1893H3

 

Book two: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arabic-Course-English-Speaking-Students/dp/1872531520/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=109D9N6TCQS4WZKMH6FD

 

Book three: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arabic-Course-English-Speaking-Students/dp/1872531539/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=10DMJ3NBT9W18AMEK3VJ

 

You can then literally watch all 400 hours, and truly grasp the Arabic grammar.

 

I recommend watching the videos as 1.5x the speed, or 2x the speed, so you can grasp it in less time (by going on youtube and just going on the LearnArabic youtube channel after requesting the youtube html5 player).

 

My tip for learning Arabic is , learn the grammar first from the grass roots. Arabic grammar is far more nuanced than English grammar. It is not that hard to learn as people like to exaggerate. Just start at the bottom slowly. This really is the main secret. It isn't about learning word lists or learning how to say phrases. It's knowing how to break down those phrases and knowing why there is a certain word order, or a certain way to change the way you pronounce a word or what word you pick or what pronoun you add before what word. I made the mistake of just memorizing basic phrases and also word lists, and this is useless in learning arabic in of its own.

 

Within 4-5 months of watching one video lesson a day, you can cover all three books and really get to grips with Arabic grammar and really build your vocabulary in the intensive course.

 

YOUTUBE CHANNEL: LearnArabic

Books to get: Madina books 1-3

 

http://www.lqtoronto.com/videodl.html

 

This resource has all the video tutorials, and it follows the books page by page. Essentially you are getting over 400 hundred hours worth of targeted free tuition , teaching you Arabic naturally. No downloading or signing up for a course, or so on.

 

 

So you have hundreds of hours of free targeted tuition. Cheap books which have been used, tried and tested that work for beginners. The only thing left to do is actually go through them!

 

The books are quite cheap. The lecturer going through each page of each book has videos uploaded free of charge. The only thing standing inbetween you and learning arabic is making time!

 

If you want supplementary help with Arabic Grammar, i recommend these videos a long side the madina ones:

 

 

 

Go on his channel for the rest of the videos.

[Ali-F]

Salam alaykum

 

 

Well, I tried to learn arabic. When I say "tried" it's because I did not know how to write and read arabic at all (I can however speak arabic), and I watched some online free videos, and it was quite good. What I did learn was the alphabet, how to write words, etc. basic things, but I needed to use these basic things to something, because I couldn't read something yet. I could write simple words, but no reading. I found out that the free materials was not enough (and the Medina Books (400 hours) wasn't enough, because I did not have the basic things and reading in order. 

 

What do you think I should do in my situation? 

[guest050817]

Salam alaykum

 

 

Well, I tried to learn arabic. When I say "tried" it's because I did not know how to write and read arabic at all (I can however speak arabic), and I watched some online free videos, and it was quite good. What I did learn was the alphabet, how to write words, etc. basic things, but I needed to use these basic things to something, because I couldn't read something yet. I could write simple words, but no reading. I found out that the free materials was not enough (and the Medina Books (400 hours) wasn't enough, because I did not have the basic things and reading in order. 

 

What do you think I should do in my situation? 

 

Salamunalaykum dear brother,

 

With regards to reading arabic - can you read any of the Quran? If not, perhaps try to learn some Tajweed i.e reading arabic before going on further?

 

If you mean reading arabic without any of the fatha or kasra, i.e no symbols to help you, then i recommend this Madina book series, from the start.

 

This is because when you start to learn arabic grammar, you begin to know how to read and pronounce the words. For example, forgive my phonetics but to say book you say kitabun. If you add an Al at the front it becomes Al Kitabu. If you add a Fee it becomes Fee'l Kitabi.

 

Can you see the nuances in reading it? This comes when you learn grammar.

 

If you want to learn to read arabic, then i recommend tajweed/reading the Quran with the help. Then start the grammar so you don't rely on the fatha's and kasra's etc.

 

Tell me if i helped brother as i am also on my journey to lean arabic and this is what helped me.

[Ali Musaaa :)]

May Allah reward you and bless us all with the Tawfeeq to learn the language of Islam so we can truly appreciate His Book and the legacy of His noble Messenger [sawa].

[Marbles]

Wow excellent resource. Thanks to the web, one can't complain of lack of material to learn the language of the Quran. Only the lack of will can be blamed.

 

What I find remarkable is that the renowned Madina course is designed by a non-native Tamil Muslim, who himself had to learn Arabic the hard way. I'm sure he can empathise with the problems we non-natives face when learning the grammar and syntax with the help of another language.

 

I am so tempted i want to start listening to one video and/or one chapter every two days so by year end I am sure I will be able to understand a lot of Arabic which as of now goes right over my head. I can read Arabic perfectly and have the rules of tajweed ingrained into me from the childhood. Would that help me to grasp the grammar and syntax quickly than the complete beginners?

 

Commendable job, OP. Thanks a lot. May Allah reward you for encouraging the nons in this regard.

[guest050817]

Wow excellent resource. Thanks to the web, one can't complain of lack of material to learn the language of the Quran. Only the lack of will can be blamed.

 

What I find remarkable is that the renowned Madina course is designed by a non-native Tamil Muslim, who himself had to learn Arabic the hard way. I'm sure he can empathise with the problems we non-natives face when learning the grammar and syntax with the help of another language.

 

I am so tempted i want to start listening to one video and/or one chapter every two days so by year end I am sure I will be able to understand a lot of Arabic which as of now goes right over my head. I can read Arabic perfectly and have the rules of tajweed ingrained into me from the childhood. Would that help me to grasp the grammar and syntax quickly than the complete beginners?

 

Commendable job, OP. Thanks a lot. May Allah reward you for encouraging the nons in this regard.

 

If you can read the arabic in your signature without any of the vowels to help you, then you do have a sort of head-start. You know, i'm also a begginer, and i know how to read arabic with vowel sounds. I think the issue with arabic is knowing how to pronounce words, the new alphabet, the tounge uses ,which puts off a lot of non -muslims who had no idea of how to recite or read Arabic off. We sort of have a head-start. You probably have a bigger head start than me in that you can - i assume- read your signature in arabic? I needed the vowels at first, but if you can read without vowels it makes life a lot easier. I.E you already know the grammar rules of reading and vocalizing but there is still a lot to learn - i.e you need to know how to form your own sentences, the meaning etc although i am no expert.

 

But for both of us there is a lot to learn, but the good news is it is possible!

 

The fantastic thing is the Madina book author also has an advanced course where he actually goes through the Quran , and books on literature to gain a real sense of mastery! All free.

 

To everyone else, THE FOLLOWING ARE NOTES AND MP3 AUDIO FILES AND MORE RESOURCES ON THE MADINA BOOK SERIES.

 

http://abdurrahman.org/arabic/madina-arabic.html

Edited December 7, 2014 by Tawheed313

[Ali-F]

Salamunalaykum dear brother,

 

With regards to reading arabic - can you read any of the Quran? If not, perhaps try to learn some Tajweed i.e reading arabic before going on further?

 

 

Thanks brother. The problem is that I need beginner-material.

 

 

Maybe I should have a private-teacher ?

[Marbles]

If you can read the arabic in your signature without any of the vowels to help you, then you do have a sort of head-start. You know, i'm also a begginer, and i know how to read arabic with vowel sounds. I think the issue with arabic is knowing how to pronounce words, the new alphabet, the tounge uses ,which puts off a lot of non -muslims who had no idea of how to recite or read Arabic off. We sort of have a head-start. You probably have a bigger head start than me in that you can - i assume- read your signature in arabic? I needed the vowels at first, but if you can read without vowels it makes life a lot easier. I.E you already know the grammar rules of reading and vocalizing but there is still a lot to learn - i.e you need to know how to form your own sentences, the meaning etc although i am no expert.

 

I can only read but have no inkling of the meaning of most words and don't know how to form sentences. I need vowels to read correctly as of now.

 

The text in my signature is not Arabic; it's Punjabi in Shahmukhi script, which is derived from Arabic script but has additional consonants and a completely different syntax.

[Ali Musaaa :)]

You can get the Medina books online for free if I'm not mistaken. I'll have a look for them

[mina]

To avoid the without-vowel-reading problem my prof.in university started with short and easy sentences so that we recognized rather than read the words.Then we learned grammar and started reading short unvocalized texts.This is a good method to learn reading and understanding unvocalized arabic texts.We used fairy tales and easy primary school stuff.

But still much to learn...

[Ali Musaaa :)]

Awesome crash course on Tajweed by Hafiz 'Chuck' Conners:

 

Part 1

 

Part 2

[guest050817]

I can only read but have no inkling of the meaning of most words and don't know how to form sentences. I need vowels to read correctly as of now.

 

The text in my signature is not Arabic; it's Punjabi in Shahmukhi script, which is derived from Arabic script but has additional consonants and a completely different syntax.

 

Salamunalaykum,

 

Yes! Sorry for the error.

 

You are in my boat if you can read Arabic with the vowels on , but find it hard to read it without any vowels at all. 

 

We do have an advantage in that we know how words sound, we are familiar with the alphabet, even a few words here and there, so it's essentially in our minds, rather than say trying to learn Chinese where we aren't even familiar with the words and sounds.

 

The course will teach us grammar, howto read without vowels, how words change depending on where you put them in the sentence, how to make your own sentences, etc, whilst expanding your vocabulary and so on.

[baqar]

The text in my signature is not Arabic; it's Punjabi in Shahmukhi script, which is derived from Arabic script but has additional consonants and a completely different syntax.

 

Shahmukhi doesn't seem to be any different from Urdu.

[guest050817]

In the name of Allah, the most beneficient, the most merciful.

 

So you , like me don't have money to invest in a tutor or enroll in a class - or perhaps lack time or the capacity to go somewhere. Perhaps you also lack the courage, or want to learn it at your own pace. I was in this boat, i am currently half way through the begginer course, and this is a way for anyone of you to learn it - trust me.

 

1. If you are a muslim, reading the Quran, you have a good advantage. You know the sounds, words here and there, and whether you know it or not - despite not knowing the grammar, you recite the proper grammar even if you need vowel sounds and are essentially just repeating what you read and hear.

 

 

There is a free resource online, with the Medina Books - a world renowned course. It gets better, there is a video, free online, for every single topic of all three books(free online), as well as hand-outs for grammar - free online, worksheets (free online). When you advance past this stage, there are conversation drills, selections from the Quran, and word by word lessons on two big surah’s in the Quran. All free, with their books online for anyone to learn - they were donated by a professor in Arabic. It also integrates the Quran from the beginning , slowly , step by step.

 

The course is a legitimately proper course, not a small handbook with colouful phrases or something that lacks proper structure. It's an intelligently designed free course, no sign up.

 

How i advise you to learn:

 

1. Madina Book One: http://ia801407.us.archive.org/1/items/ArabicLanguageCourseBooks/Madina_Book1_Arabic_Text.pdf

2. English key for Arabic book one: http://www.lqtoronto.com/englishkey.html

3. Hand out -essential- (conjugation, grammar):http://www.lqtoronto.com/handouts.html

4. Book one solutions: http://www.lqtoronto.com/handouts.html

 

**Important**

 

To access the lectures: http://www.lqtoronto.com/videos.html

 

1. Go to video's, select book one, DVD 1, then A1. After this go to A2, and A3. Then the next lesson is B1/2/3. Then the next lesson is DVD 2, A1/2/3, and so on.

2. The teacher speaks *very* slowly, to save time and get things done in half the time, you can hear him clearly if you double the speed of the youtube video.

Go to: https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=GB

Request html5 player.

Then on the video options in the bottom right set it to 1.5x or 2x the speed. This will make it so much easier to listen to him, concentrate, and save so much time.

 

 

What about the other two books and the Quran videos and lectures? You can literally access everything here. I have shown you how the resources are roughly set for book 1 to give you a guideline

 

All free resources (the author himself donated): http://www.lqtoronto.com/downloads.html

 

 

It has been recommended by a brother to also go through this :

http://www.sacredlearning.org/resources/fundamentals_vol1.pdfand learn the tables - the earlier on the better.

 

 

I also recommend watching these videos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Motivation:

 

1. If you play the videos which are extremely slow at 2x the speed, you can get a two hour and thirty minute lesson done in an hour and fifteen minutes. You can manage to do this daily , and in 4-5 months complete all three books!

 

2. You no longer need a teacher to go through the lessons, he goes through each and every example.

 

3. There are handouts, and the course is set out intelligently.

 

4. It's free! The only thing it is going to cost is your time and your effort.

 

 

 

We pray to Allah swt to make it easy for us, inshAllah. To grant us knowledge and open our heart and minds in aquiring this knowledge.

 

 

Spread this on so others can benefit - post any great resource to supplement this if you can!

Edited July 2, 2015 by Tawheed313

[aliasghark]

Duolingo's mobile app is pretty good too, their easy to learn Arabic course was launched recently: http://incubator.duolingo.com/courses/en/ar/status

Edited July 2, 2015 by aliasghark

[Ali_Hussain]

There is actually a hadith from Imam al-Baqir ('a) I think, possibly narrated by al-Saduq in al-Khisal advising us to learn Arabic because it is the language of the Qur'an. But I can't manage to find it.

[notme]

Great! Thanks for sharing.

[Lordofgemini]

There is actually a hadith from Imam al-Baqir ('a) I think, possibly narrated by al-Saduq in al-Khisal advising us to learn Arabic because it is the language of the Qur'an. But I can't manage to find it.

Yes recently read that.

Also the a scholar in before after lecture qouted this verse.

12:2

Sahih International

Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand(he used the word tadabur- contemplate).

Saying, it is wajib for us to learn Arabic.

[Ali_Hussain]

Yes recently read that.

Also the a scholar in before after lecture qouted this verse.

12:2

Sahih International

Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand(he used the word tadabur- contemplate).

Saying, it is wajib for us to learn Arabic.

 

assalam 'alaykum,

 

Could you post it please, it's been doing my head it not being able to find it

[Lordofgemini]

assalam 'alaykum,

Could you post it please, it's been doing my head it not being able to find it

All i could find was:

It is narrated from Aslami from his father who has narrated from the sixth Imam, peace be up on him, who said,

"Learn Arabic! It is the LANGUAGE OF Allah in which He spoke to His creatures and talked to the people of the past."

Imam Jafar bin Muhammad as Sadiq said:

"Learn the Arabic, the language of the final word of Allah."

^ this is from the Quran tafseer ali pooya , on the verse 12:2

[Abu Nasr]

This is wonderful! Thank you brother Tawheed.

 

I really needed a good vocabulary book and from what I've heard "Madina- A Glossary" is a really good start for someone who already knows bits of Arabic vocabulary.

[Reza]

Here's the YouTube version of the DVD's, since they are pretty large downloads.

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/xgond53391

[guest050817]

Here's the YouTube version of the DVD's, since they are pretty large downloads.

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/xgond53391

 

You can watch them directly on the website (embedded youtube videos):http://www.lqtoronto.com/videos.html

[Reza]

You can watch them directly on the website (embedded youtube videos):http://www.lqtoronto.com/videos.html

 

Oh cool, I guess that works better.  But these are so long, how can we watch all this while living our hectic work and consumer lifestyles?

[gajarkahalva]

Anyone recommend a good arabic english dictionary to go with this?

[Ali_Hussain]

Anyone recommend a good arabic english dictionary to go with this?

 

This is the best one for English speakers:

 

http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=702,ll=2035,ls=5,la=2798,sg=687,ha=464,br=623,pr=102,aan=395,mgf=583,vi=254,kz=1566,mr=412,mn=893,uqw=1046,umr=695,ums=577,umj=515,ulq=1186,uqa=281,uqq=230,bdw=h580,amr=h416,asb=h632,auh=h1015,dhq=h358,mht=h579,msb=h155,tla=h70,amj=h507,ens=h166,mis=h1401

 

But it isn't the best for beginners because if they don't have a grasp of sarf, they won't be able to find the roots to search for.

 

If would be great if there could be a fully digitalised version of Lane's Lexicon or Hans Wehr that would find words of any form rather than roots.

 

Total beginners should just use google translate for individual words (not for sentences, for the most part, it isn't able to translate them)

[guest050817]

Oh cool, I guess that works better.  But these are so long, how can we watch all this while living our hectic work and consumer lifestyles?

 

Essentially, play the video at 1.5x or twice the speed. You may think this might make it inaudible, but the teacher speaks extremely slowly, if you turn the speed to 1.5x or 2x, you can get a whole lesson of three lots of 45 minutes done in just over an hour.  One can dedicate perhaps four hours or five hours  week and can in seven months complete all three books, if they supplement it with other things - i.e watching cartoons in fusah and trying to immerse yourself in the language, making posters, practising.

 

What i wrote:

 

1. Go to video's, select book one, DVD 1, then A1. After this go to A2, and A3. Then the next lesson is B1/2/3. Then the next lesson is DVD 2, A1/2/3, and so on.

2. The teacher speaks *very* slowly, to save time and get things done in half the time, you can hear him clearly if you double the speed of the youtube video.

Go to: https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=GB

Request html5 player.

Then on the video options in the bottom right set it to 1.5x or 2x the speed. This will make it so much easier to listen to him, concentrate, and save so much time.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Tawheed313

[alirex]

Oh cool, I guess that works better.  But these are so long, how can we watch all this while living our hectic work and consumer lifestyles?

Its my own style of learning . I don't know if it works with you. Learn two different language same time, this way you will learn both due to comparison.

 

Imam Ali (as) said : " Momins are always busy " .. that means they are always thinking about something, calculating, writing, reading etc .. So while moving to office from home you can make your brain busy in comparisons.

[guest050817]

Its my own style of learning . I don't know if it works with you. Learn two different language same time, this way you will learn both due to comparison.

 

Imam Ali (as) said : " Momins are always busy " .. that means they are always thinking about something, calculating, writing, reading etc .. So while moving to office from home you can make your brain busy in comparisons.

 

Salamunalykum,

 

Could you elaborate on this please brother?

[alirex]

Salamunalykum,

 

Could you elaborate on this please brother?

If you want to learn a language , it is better to learn two different languages same time.

 

I got this idea from kids who are studying in schools and learning different things same time. I too learned Urdu/English/Hindi same time from school , that indicates our brain is designed to compare things more better then just concentrating on one thing.

 

Lets take an example : While reciting salaat if we just concentrate on words then there is chance we will loose concentration after sometime. But when we are reciting and concentrating on words as well as meaning our both Brain .. The present and the sub conscious one both become busy on one direction. That is why all the Scholars are recommending this trick to perform salaat. Recite as well as concentrate on meaning, so both brain will become busy.

 

Same way if we learn two different languages we will learn easily.

[aliasghark]

^ wow I hadn't thought of that, but it's so true!

 

I found it hard to persist in learning Italian when it was the only language I was learning for a few months, but paradoxically when I'm learning multiple languages now (including Arabic) it seems to be going much faster! 

[Ali_Hussain]

^ wow I hadn't thought of that, but it's so true!

 

I found it hard to persist in learning Italian when it was the only language I was learning for a few months, but paradoxically when I'm learning multiple languages now (including Arabic) it seems to be going much faster! 

 

His theory isn't necessarily correct for the reasons he's claiming, once you 'learn' how to learn a language, you are able to apply that to another language, that could also be a reason.

 

Although we all find inspiration in different ways, but I know that before I started learning Arabic, my Spanish was much better than it is now, now when I try to speak I use a lot of Arabic words, thinking they are Spanish.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Ali_Hussain

[aliasghark]

Haha, yes that does happen (mixing up words) to me sometimes too but it's quite manageable and part of the fun :) 

[Ali_Hussain]

Haha, yes that does happen (mixing up words) to me sometimes too but it's quite manageable and part of the fun :)

 

...yes except when the person is staring at you thinking you are a crazy man :blink:

[gajarkahalva]

http://www.lqtoronto.com/