Outlook of the Arabic language

In cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization held, a symposium on (the outlook of the Arabic language) from 1 to 3 November 2002. I presided over the opening session of this symposium and delivered the following speech, which I thought convenient to publish on account of its importance for the future of Arabic language:

“I am delighted to welcome you all to this International Symposium held by the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank. It is a pleasure for me, at the outset of my speech, to commend the constructive cooperation between the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and  the Islamic Development Bank. On this occasion I would like to convey my thanks and appreciation to  my brother, Dr.Ahmed Mohammad Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank, for his kind cooperation which gave birth to this conference, whose desired objectives we pray Allah to achieve.

There is no denying the fact that the Arabic language is going through some problems in the present time. These problems are generally ascribed to old factors and to new ones. These problems are in all circumstances resolvable, thanks to the lights shed on it by the enthusiastics for the language of their Glorious Qur’an and the receptacle of their great civilization. We should always be optimistic about the future of this language, on the basis of comparing it with the status it had in the nineteenth century, where it reached its rock bottoms in terms of style and terminology. It was almost devoid of creative generation or derivation. It was overloaded with rhetorical embellishers, which its users thought that they are, thanks to these embellishers, renewing with the booming era of Arabic. However since the beginning of the twentieth century, Arabic managed to recover from weakness and became the medium of communication and one of the international languages adopted within the international bodies and  conferences, which is thought in various world universities.

The causes of the problems suffered by the Arabic language are mainly attributed on one hand to the expansion of the role of foreign languages at the expense of Arabic language and to the adherence to the quollocial dialects on the other. These represent a threat to the Arabic languages, since any elimination to the standard Arabic in favor of any other language or quollocial dialects weakens Arabic and dwarfs its status. The causes represent therefore  a threat to the Arab Islamic culture and contribute to the weakening of the Ummah, and loss of its identity and heritage. If learning a foreign language is an imperative necessity for keeping abreast of the fresh innovations of the era of modern technology, mastering the Arabic language is the basic requisite of creation in all areas,  of contributing to the progress of our Arab Islamic Ummah, and renewing with its glory and its civilization.

Thanks to Islam the Arabic language spread to Asia, Africa and Europe and many languages borrowed a great deal of its lexical items. The expansion of the Arabic language did not stop at that limit, it is now booming in most of world countries, through the expansion of Islam there, and  Muslims are now aspiring to learn the language of the Qur’an with the view to knowing and being well-versed in their religion.

Based on what has been previously said, there is now an enthusiasm for learning the Arabic language either among Muslims who do not speak Arabic, the language of the Holy Qur’an and the receptacle of the Islamic culture or among researchers who became aware of the value of the Arabic language seen as the language which hosted a great and  rich civilization of big gift. This civilization is to be credited with tendering great services to the human civilizations throughout ages. It supplied those civilizations with the crops of science and knowledge, enriched their assets. Thus it became the key to the civilization riches. This has made it the focus of  interest for scientific centers  worldwide.

Aware of the importance of  Arabic language and its leading role in the life of the Islamic Ummah, the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since its foundation devoted its attention to its expansion, its teaching development, and to deepening the awareness of the importance of its role.

Since its creation in 1982, ISESCO included , in its successive action plans, many programs and activities seeking to provide the adequate educational curricula, training Arabic teachers to teaching methods, through the adoption of modern methods and techniques. These programs have been implemented in various Member States, and among the Islamic minorities and communities overseas.

The concern of the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has not been limited to the foregoing, it also created in 1998 ISESCO’s Educational Center in Chad and it set up in 1998 a Department for Islamic studies and Arabic Language in Moscow state university. The department offers educational, cultural and academic services for students from Russia and from the recently independent states of the  ex-Soviet Union.

The implementation of an ambitious civilization program concerned with rewriting the languages of the Islamic peoples in the standardized Qur’anic script falls within this framework. Up to now the writing of seventeen African languages has been standardized. These languages were originally written in Arabic script before the colonial era , where the European colonialism replaced Arabic script with Latin script. This is a highly significant achievement of the Islamic organization, which is bracing itself at this stage to embark on implementing the second part of this program by standardizing the writing of the languages of Islamic peoples in Asia , within the framework of the cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank , the World Islamic Call Society, and the center for Arabization studies and research.

Within the context of concern to teach Arabic to non native speakers of Arabic, The Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization published a number of books and studies on teaching Arabic to its non native speakers, either in Arabic or in  some of the languages of  Islamic peoples. Some of these studies have been translated into European languages.

The achievements of the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in expanding the Arabic language and Islamic civilization, are numerous and divers,but the context does not allow for their enumeration. What we mentioned is only a drop in the sea. A cogent and crystal clear evidence for the Islamic Organization concern for the Arabic language, its expansion, and for the dissemination of the Islamic religious faith lays in holding this symposium in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank, to look into the reality and outlook of the Arabic language, with the view of  diagnosing the illnesses blocking its development and expansion.

Thus the Islamic, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization  is stepping up efforts to adopt the adequate measures for keeping the Arabic language alive and productive within the life of the Ummah, with the view to building the Islamic entity, and activating the role of the Arabic Language in shaping the Islamic Future, in the age of globalization and conflict of civilizations, which we are striving to transform into an era of dialogue and coexistence among civilizations.”