sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?

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- truth_seeker
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sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
OP - December 16, 2011, 06:20 PM

lately I've started learning some basic words in the Quran.

I've managed to learn all the words in al-fatihah, and I heard somewhere that even if I managed to understand just the words in al-fatihah alone, then I would have already understood 10% of the Quran, since the words in alfatihah are repeated many times throughout the book.
- harakaat
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #1 - December 16, 2011, 10:11 PM

Quote from: truth_seeker on December 16, 2011, 06:20 PM
if I managed to understand just the words in al-fatihah alone, then I would have already understood 10% of the Quran

Highly doubt that. And the best way to learn Quranic Arabic, imho, is to move to an Arab country, and take classes there. Failing that, take classes where you live, preferably intensive classes, for as long as possible. Immersion is the best way to learn a language. You won't learn Arabic from books and videos, I can assure you of that.

Also, while this is your choice, if I were you, I wouldn't do it in the first place. I'd learn something like Russian or French. If I was interested in Arab culture, I'd probably learn spoken Egyptian or Lebanese Arabic. If I was more interested in the literature, I'd learn Modern Standard Arabic. Only if I was a hardcore Muslim would I even consider making myself go through the hell of learning Quranic Arabic as a whole new language.

قل للمليحة في الخمار الأسود
مـاذا فـعــلت بــناسـك مـتـعـبد

قـد كـان شـمّر لــلـصلاة ثـيابه
حتى خـطرت له بباب المسجد

ردي عليـه صـلاتـه وصيـامــه
لا تـقــتـلــيه بـحـق ديــن محمد
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #2 - December 16, 2011, 10:14 PM

To give you an idea of how hard Arabic is, consider this: EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY ARABIC TEACHERS, at all three schools I've been to (and they changed almost every year), EVERY SINGLE ONE, has made grammatical mistakes when they spoke MSA. And that's just MSA, not even QA. If you're a perfectionist, Arabic will drive you crazy, and you will never be able to speak it flawlessly. I will never be able to speak it flawlessly. It's a fucked up language desperately in need of either reform, or abandonment.

قل للمليحة في الخمار الأسود
مـاذا فـعــلت بــناسـك مـتـعـبد

قـد كـان شـمّر لــلـصلاة ثـيابه
حتى خـطرت له بباب المسجد

ردي عليـه صـلاتـه وصيـامــه
لا تـقــتـلــيه بـحـق ديــن محمد
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #3 - December 16, 2011, 10:25 PM

I used to take Arabic classes when I was very young. All I remember is Alif Ba Ta, Kef Haliq (how are you), Yellah (hurry up), Habibi (darling), Mafi Mushkila (no problem) and the Arabic numerals (other than some Surah's, haha): Wahid, Ithnan, Thalatha, Arba, Khamsa, Sitha, Saba, Thamaniya, Thissa, Ashra.
- almulhida
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #4 - December 16, 2011, 11:04 PM

What exactly is the difference between MSA and CA?
- truth_seeker
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #5 - December 17, 2011, 06:26 AM

Quote from: harakaat on December 16, 2011, 10:11 PM
Highly doubt that. And the best way to learn Quranic Arabic, imho, is to move to an Arab country, and take classes there. Failing that, take classes where you live, preferably intensive classes, for as long as possible. Immersion is the best way to learn a language. You won't learn Arabic from books and videos, I can assure you of that.

Also, while this is your choice, if I were you, I wouldn't do it in the first place. I'd learn something like Russian or French. If I was interested in Arab culture, I'd probably learn spoken Egyptian or Lebanese Arabic. If I was more interested in the literature, I'd learn Modern Standard Arabic. Only if I was a hardcore Muslim would I even consider making myself go through the hell of learning Quranic Arabic as a whole new language.

No, I'm trying to learn some QA not because of some interest in culture. It's because I keep hearing Muslims giving the excuse since I don't understand the Quran, then I shouldn't be commenting about. And there is probably some truth to that.

Besides i'm not trying to be a hafiz or anything. I just want to have a general understanding of what the quran says that's all.
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #6 - December 17, 2011, 08:26 AM

almulhida,

Quote
Classical Arabic (CA), also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendant used today throughout the Arab World in writing and in formal speaking, for example, prepared speeches, some radio broadcasts, and non-entertaining content.[1] While the lexis and stylistics of Modern Standard Arabic are different from Classical Arabic, the morphology and syntax have remained basically unchanged (though MSA uses a subset of the syntactic structures available in CA).[2] The vernacular dialects, however, have changed more dramatically.[3] In the Arab world, little distinction is made between CA and MSA, and both are normally called al-Fuṣ-ḥā (الفصحى‎) in Arabic, meaning 'the clearly spoken one' or the 'language of eloquence'.

Quote from: truth_seeker on December 17, 2011, 06:26 AM
No, I'm trying to learn some QA

You can't just learn "some" QA, especially if you want to read the Quran in its own language. Habibi, you'll have to learn a lot of fucking QA. Also,

Quote from: truth_seeker on December 17, 2011, 06:26 AM
No, I'm trying to learn some QA not because of some interest in culture. It's because I keep hearing Muslims giving the excuse since I don't understand the Quran, then I shouldn't be commenting about. And there is probably some truth to that.

No, there is no truth to that whatsoever. It's a red herring. You have dozens of translations available to you, you have Lane's Lexicon available to you, you actually understand the Quran better than almost ANY Arab who just picks it up and reads it without any external texts. You should only learn Arabic if you want to study the Quran in-depth, as in, actually become a scholar of the Quran. It's like learning Hebrew and Greek to read the Bible -- entirely pointless, unless you're a biblical scholar. And you really don't need to do that to see how stupid it is, and to show others how stupid it is.

If you want to learn Quranic Arabic regardless, your best bet is probably to enroll in a course at your local university.

قل للمليحة في الخمار الأسود
مـاذا فـعــلت بــناسـك مـتـعـبد

قـد كـان شـمّر لــلـصلاة ثـيابه
حتى خـطرت له بباب المسجد

ردي عليـه صـلاتـه وصيـامــه
لا تـقــتـلــيه بـحـق ديــن محمد
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #7 - December 19, 2011, 11:01 PM

Quote from: harakaat on December 16, 2011, 10:11 PM
Also, while this is your choice, if I were you, I wouldn't do it in the first place. I'd learn something like Russian or French.

I wouldn't say Russian is a nice simple alternative. It's one of the easier Slavic languages to learn, but even so it has a highly inflected system of morphology for both nouns and verbs, with paradigms that make your head spin to look at. It's better than something like Czech or Polish though, as I've heard from speakers of both languages that they find the grammar to be awfully convoluted and confusing.
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #8 - December 20, 2011, 01:47 AM

I wouldn't learn it because it's nice and simple (I'm under no illusions on that matter ), I'd learn it because I'm in love with the culture. I've started by learning the Cyrillic alphabet, in fact.

قل للمليحة في الخمار الأسود
مـاذا فـعــلت بــناسـك مـتـعـبد

قـد كـان شـمّر لــلـصلاة ثـيابه
حتى خـطرت له بباب المسجد

ردي عليـه صـلاتـه وصيـامــه
لا تـقــتـلــيه بـحـق ديــن محمد
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #9 - December 20, 2011, 05:29 AM

I have memorized more Quran than I ever cared to.

I can read a lot of basic words in it as well... the Quran is very repetitive.

Rather be forgotten than remembered for giving in.
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #10 - December 28, 2011, 05:18 PM

Quote from: harakaat on December 20, 2011, 01:47 AM
I wouldn't learn it because it's nice and simple (I'm under no illusions on that matter ), I'd learn it because I'm in love with the culture. I've started by learning the Cyrillic alphabet, in fact.

Neat. It's an interesting script. Kind of like a hodgepodge of the Greek and Latin alphabets, with a letter or two of Hebrew thrown in for good measure. And for some reason I always thought that if robots had a language its written form would look like Russian.
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Re: sup guys, what is the best way to learn Quranic arabic?
Reply #11 - December 28, 2011, 05:37 PM

Even if you became a scholar on the Quran and still argued with these people they would begin to claim that god does not want you to see so you are blind or some bullshit like that.

Harakaat is right learning quranic arabic is pointless. The same arabs that accuse you of not knowing arabic also do not understand quranic arabic so you would not be able to prove a thing to them. MSA is also difficult to learn but that would be the way to go as far as learning a new language.

Also another thing with arabic is you really need to have grown up with it to fully understand it. And to understand quranic arabic you need to have lived back when it was used. The best analogy i can think of is colors. In English we have a billion different names for different shades of colors. we have red-orange, orange-red, blue-green, green-blue, teal blah blah blah. some languages call green and blue one color.

In arabic there are words that can mean 10 different things and only in context do you understand what it means. Quranic arabic is the same way, there are verses that scholars argue what their meanings are. Also the vowels were added much later and who knows how it was supposed to be originally. I can't read arabic without vowels without messing up the entire meaning.

the other thing is what is meant to be taken literally or figuratively in the quran. many of the "scientific" miracles were just poetical references.

learning quranic arabic would not help you.

I wish parents everywhere could remove their veil of religion and see their kids for whom they actually are.
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