Spiritual Concordance

 Spiritual Concordance

Though people can pray in any language, when Muslims perform their daily obligatory prayer – the Salat, it is observed in the language the Quran was originally revealed. The wisdom behind this is for the attainment of concordance. For instance, it would be chaotic if different people with various languages and dialects gathered to worship – perform Salat. However, by adopting a uniform mode, people of various languages across the world, who may not have been able to communicate with one another, can worship together concertedly. Hypothetically, without understanding the respective languages of one another, an Australian, Bosnian, Cape Verdean, Danish, English, Fijian, Gambian, Honduran, Italian, Jamaican, Korean, Liberian, Malaysian, Norwegian, Omani, Pakistani, Qatari, Russian, Samoan, Tahitian, Ugandan, Vietnamese and Yemeni, can congregate for Salat (worship)in unison. Additionally, the spread of the Arabic language is a spiritual by-product. The Arabic language was spread because people wanted to understand and appreciate the Quran, not because Arabs wanted their language globalized. 

The meaning of the message of the Quran supersedes the Arabic language itself. Of what use is it to one's soul or physical well-being if one can recite the Quran, but the meanings of those words have no impact on one's life? Though understanding Arabic is advised to appreciate its beauty and uniqueness, the primary objective is in the meaning of the words, and not just the words. Even to ethnic Arabs and Arab speakers, the Quran is unique because of its rarity. The language is considered classical Arabic, which is slightly different from standard Arabic. It is important to emphasize that the Arabic language is not meant to extirpate our primary languages and cultures but complement what we already have in our possession. Also, it is not compulsory to have Arabic names when accepting Islam. Any name, in any language, is suitable, as long as the meaning of that name does not negate the fundamentals of monotheism – either through the deification of human beings or the glorification of autochthonous deities. This naming condition applies to Arabs as well. Human names should not glorify helpless deities.  

From an historical viewpoint, as the Arabic language spread, it became an internationally acceptable standard of communication at some point in history, just as the English language is contemporarily. As I often quip, people speaking English contemporarily would probably have been speaking Arabic if they existed in the era of the "Islamic Golden Age". Historically, Arabic was once the dominant language of scholarship, knowledge acquisition and the sciences. Non-Muslims who studied Arabic were primarily motivated by knowledge – science, and Muslims who studied Arabic were primarily motivated by Religion – Islam. A comparative historical analysis highlights the probability that the Western world realised the linguistic possibilities attained with Arabic's global success at the time, and adopted the same model with their languages, especially English. Though such a strategy would be more material oriented than spiritually motivated. In sooth, the Arabs were not exactly preoccupied with the dominance of the Arabic language. The language becoming widespread is a consequence of Islamic propagation by Muslims generally, and not primarily a devised strategy by the Arabs.

Excerpt from pgs 259-261 of P.R.I.S.M: Primal Religious Instruction Serving Mankind by M.B.O Owolowo ©️