Islam, Arabic and Us

The Quran was revealed to the Prophet in his mother tongue, a language in which he spoke and thought, a language of that land, a language which the people surrounding him would understand and relate to.

During the time of Prophet Muhammad's Preaching of the Last and Final of the divine religions, people of Arabia often asked him regarding the choice of language for Gods religion, to which Allah answered in the following verses.

“And thus: We have revealed to you a Quran in Arabic so that you may warn the Foremost of all towns and those who dwell around it, and may warn of the Day of Gathering, which is beyond all doubt. One group will be in the Garden, and one group will be in the Flames.” (Quran 42:7)

“Now if We had made it a Quran in a non-Arabic tongue they would surely have said, “Why is it that its verses have not been made clear? Why – a foreign tongue and an Arab?” Say, “For those who accept it, this is a Guidance and medicine for a wholesome life. But as for those who will not believe (Arabs or non-Arabs), in their ears is deafness, and so it remains obscure to them. They are like people who are called to from afar.” (Quran 41:44)

“Behold, We have sent it down in all clarity, in the Arabic tongue, so that you might encompass it with your reason.” (Quran 12:2)

“Behold, We have made it a Quran in clear Arabic language that you may fully understand.” (Quran 43:3)

All the above verses clearly signify that Quran was revealed in Arabic because it was the language of the Prophet PBUH and it was the language of the people he was sent to preach and bring to the righteous path.

Now, coming to the present day Pakistan, where the most widely spoken and understood language is Urdu, why do the Molvis insist on keeping Arabic the language of preaching of Islam rather than the common spoken tongue, its because of the following reasons.

Lack of Understanding creates distance,reverence,hardheadedness, fanaticism, intolerance and ritual instead of understanding and practice.

Lack of understanding keeps a distance between the divine message and the common man, providing space for the Merchants of religion to fit themselves in and control and sway the masses as they see fit.The bigger the distance between the Divine and the common, the more space occupied by these merchants and hence more leverage over the masses.

Islam has no clergy, the clergy  interpreting the verses of the Bible as they saw fit was one of the flaws of Christianity that Islam eliminated with one consistent book and the complete life of its prime practitioner, the Prophet Muhammad PBUH.

The Indian Subcontinent has always been a place of Castes, People have always been segregated on the basis of Birth, color, castes and wealth. When Islam came to the Indian Subcontinent bearing the flag of All humans being equal and the only defining quality of a human being his Piety, masses thronged to this message and converted to Islam that gave them emancipation from the chains they had been stuck in due to no fault of their own, This left the people in authority and power same as the people having nothing but good deeds, by hook or by crook, they had to find a way to re-ascertain their superiority over the commoners, but taking away the new faith from the ordinary man that gave him equal rights to a high born was out of the question as the faith was the only thing he had going for them, and he would die before he would let go of his faith, so the ingenious plan was to let him have his faith but they took the message away from the commoners, They told him that the message was so Divine that changing it to the common tongue will corrupt it. Hence, today after more than one millennium since Islam dawned in the subcontinent, people have their faith yet they understand nothing of the message ,we are again back to square one, where one's status is determined by the caste he was born in, where the common peasant looks up to the Chaudhry of the village for his entire well being as if everything was in his powers, instead of looking up to the Almighty.

So, today despite the whole of our country created in the name of religion, religion is nowhere to be found in practice, while people willing to die for our religion are a dime a dozen, people who are willing to live their lives according to it are nowhere to be found, despite the chant of Allah o Akbar (Allah is the Greatest) emanating from every nook and corner of the country, we all look towards our mortal gods to ensure our well being, despite hearing the words of Hayya Alal Falah (Come towards salvation), the words that should move us to our core, the words dont make us twitch a muscle, despite us bowing in front of Allah in prayer and saying He is the greatest, we get out of the mosque and bow down to every superior mortal thing we set our eyes on,despite every mosque of every sect praying towards Kaaba, we believe that we are the righteous ones while the others are condemn-able to death.

The one and only reason of us loving our religion yet not practicing it is because the first and foremost act of our religion, the Namaz, is in a language foreign to us.