Open Letter: Arabic Language should be Compulsory in Academic Curriculums

“In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful”

Open Letter
To, Dr. Sania Nishtar
Federal Minister for Education and Training
Room No. 101, 1st Floor, C Block, Pak Secretariat,
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.

Subject: Arabic Language should be Compulsory in Academic Curriculums

Respected Madam,

Asalamo Alykum. English, being an international language and hence a necessity, is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. More and more official and academic scripts are being converted to English to create uniformity of the official language being used across the country. I have no objection to it as uniformity helps cut disparity between English-medium and Urdu-medium students.

Arabic, on the other hand, has the mere status of being our ‘religious’ language. Israel, one of the strongest countries of the world today, has Hebrew, its religious language also as its official language. Their official documents, academic books and signposts are all in Hebrew. Hebrew is very similar to the language Arabic. If they can do it, we could have done it too.

However, it would be too much to ask for at this point in time.

What we can ask for is the revival of the Arabic language in our academic curriculum. The teaching of Arabic language is consistently being neglected and reduced in teaching for the past many years.

Our knowledge and recognition of Arabic has become so low that we do not even understand the script of the five daily prayers we say, the little supplications we make on different occasions and the recitation of the Holy Quran. We do not know what we are reciting.

Most of us look down upon the acts of sorcerers, who recite unfathomable wordings, commonly known as jantar mantar, and expect results. We Muslims today, are no better. We recite our prayers, supplications and the Holy Quran just like jantar mantar, that is, without knowing its meaning, and expect Allah Almighty to answer our prayers.

It is not sufficient to pay lip-service to our religious scripts and memorize a few translations without being able to connect them to the original Arabic wordings. We should be able to understand the Arabic words individually as we recite them.

I request you to inculcate the teaching and learning of Arabic in our academic curriculum right from playgroup all the way up to the highest educational level, just like English and Pakistan Studies has been made compulsory.

May Allah Almighty reward you in this world and the Hereafter, Ameen. Wsalam.

From,
[Name/Initials], [Location],
[Date].

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To,

Dr. Sania Nishtar
Federal Minister for Education and Training
Room No. 101, 1st Floor, C Block, Pak Secretariat,
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.

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May Allah Almighty bless you...Ameen!