The Arabic Language Is Fortunate In Islam
As long as the religion of Islam is the fastest growing, the Arabic language will be the most widespread.
I am always struck by the close relationship between the religion of Islam and the Arabic language, as it is hard for those who convert to Islam to wholly understand the matter of worship except in the Arabic language. So, they are two inseparable pairs.
However, who is affected by whom? And who raised whom? Is the Arabic language that raised Islam or vice versa?
The great linguist David Crystal says in his book The Death of Language:
“Language dies when no one ever speaks it.” For the language to remain alive, its speakers must not be less than 500. According to some statistics, only 600 languages remain — out of a total of approximately 6,000 languages in the world — that are considered safe from extinction. A language becomes extinct when no one speaks it.
A report by the American “Pew” Research Institute stated that Islam is the fastest growing, as reported on the “BBC Arabic” website in March 2017; He stated that in the year 2070, it would be the most widespread religion in the world. He added that although the largest Muslim population was in Indonesia in 2010, it will be the largest in India in 2050. It is expected that Muslims will constitute 27% of the European population in 2050; in addition to that, it is expected that seven people out of 50 people in the United States as a Muslim in the same year.
So, as long as the religion of Islam is the fastest growing, the Arabic language will be successively the most widespread because these Muslims must speak the Arabic language; This is a necessity for performing acts of worship, especially the five daily prayers, as well as the rituals of Hajj.
Dr. Muhannad Al-Falluji says in his book “The Lexicon of Paradise”:
“The Holy Qur’an and the hadith of the Prophet provided two reference encyclopedias of the language of vocabulary and Arabic grammar, and they were the two most important reasons for preserving and maintaining the Arabic language so that it would be the most vital language in the world for 14 centuries. Then, these two sources opened the eyes and minds of the Arabs to the enormous knowledge of the sciences of defunct civilizations, expanding their perceptions and enriching their language.”
And he went on, “Islam has turned the coarse Arabs and Bedouins into a nation that calls for a higher goal in life. After Islam, many words acquired new religious meanings, such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, zakat, and words such as believer, Muslim, infidel, immoral, and hypocrite.” The Islamic leadership also generated administrative terms such as caliphate, state, ministry, judiciary, and hisba.
In the introduction to “Language Jurisprudence and the Secret of Arabic,” Imam Tha’alabi says:
“He who loves God Almighty loves His Messenger Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, and he who loves the Arab Messenger loves the Arabs, and he who loves the Arabs loves Arabic in which the best books were revealed to the best non-Arabs and Arabs, and he who loves Arabic is devoted to it, perseveres in it, directs his aspiration to it, and whoever guides him, God, for Islam and open his chest for faith and give him good ethics in it. I believe that Muhammad, peace is upon him, is the best of messengers, Islam is the best of religions, the Arabs are the best of nations, and Arabic is the best of languages and tongues, and the desire to learn it from religion, as it is the tool of knowledge and the key to understanding in the religion and the reason for reforming the living and the resurrection. Then it is to achieve virtues, contains chivalry, and all kinds of virtues, such as a fountain for water and a fount for fire.
Thus, the Arabic language is fortunate to be associated with Islam. As he raised it and made it alive until the Day of Resurrection, God Almighty has given eternal care to His Holy Book, and He, may He be glorified and exalted, said: “Indeed, We have sent down the Quran, and We are His guardians” (Al-Hijr: 9).
So, Islam is the secret to the survival of Arabic.