Easy Arabic Reading

[Oday Forster]

Ihave 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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

3a8082e126