Much has been said about our beloved Arabic language — countless phrases and sentences praising its beauty, breadth, flexibility, reach and challenges. So what are the most beautiful things ever said about the Arabic language? Here at your site (Belaraby Apps ) we share the most beautiful quotes about the Arabic language — the loveliest things said about Classical Arabic, in sayings, poetry and prose.
It is our beautiful language on its day of celebration: World Arabic Language Day
The Most Beautiful Quotes About Classical Arabic
It is the language of the Holy Qur’an, the language of Dhad. It was granted a great honor, for the Noble Book, the Book of the Lord of the Worlds, was revealed in it
to the final Messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was the most eloquent of people in speech, which further raised the honor of the Arabic language;
for it was the language of the Prophet (peace be upon him), which God Almighty enabled him to master.
Verses and sayings have been related about the Arabic language that tell of its importance and merit:—
Read also: Linguistic riddles about the Arabic language to celebrate Arabic Language Day
1- What Did God Say About the Arabic Language?
The most beautiful thing said about Arabic is in the perfect revelation that raised its honor when it was sent down in it.
- God Almighty said: “Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur’an that you might understand” (إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ) [Yusuf: 2].
- “In a clear Arabic tongue” (بِلِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُبِينٍ) [Ash-Shu’ara: 195].
- “An Arabic Qur’an, without any crookedness, that they might become righteous” (قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا غَيْرَ ذِي عِوَجٍ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ) [Az-Zumar: 28].
- “And We certainly know that they say, ‘It is only a human being who teaches him.’ The tongue of the one they refer to is foreign, while this is a clear Arabic tongue” (وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُ أَنَّهُمْ يَقُولُونَ إِنَّمَا يُعَلِّمُهُ بَشَرٌ لِّسَانُ الَّذِي يُلْحِدُونَ إِلَيْهِ أَعْجَمِيٌّ وَهَذَا لِسَانٌ عَرَبِيٌّ مُبِينٌ) [An-Nahl: 103].
⇐ Read also: Printable quotes about the Arabic language – backgrounds about the Arabic language
Time-Honored Sayings About the Arabic Language
The most beautiful things the early generations said about our lovely language — from the Companions, their successors and the people of wisdom.
2- Sayings of the Companions About the Arabic Language
- Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) said about the Arabic language: “Learn Arabic, for it is part of your religion, and learn the laws of inheritance, for they are part of your religion.”
- He also said: “Learn Arabic, for it strengthens the mind and increases one’s chivalry.”
- Among the sayings of Imam Ali (may God be pleased with him): “Speak, and you will be known, for a man is hidden beneath his tongue.”
- And he (Umar) wrote to Abu Musa al-Ash’ari: “As for what follows, gain understanding of the Sunnah, gain understanding of Arabic, and read the Qur’an in proper Arabic, for it is Arabic.”
- As for Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz: “A man speaks to me about a need he deserves to have met, but he makes a grammatical error, so I deny it to him — as if I were chewing
sour pomegranate seeds, out of my dislike for hearing such mistakes. Another speaks to me about a need he does not deserve,
but he speaks correct Arabic, so I grant it to him, out of delight at what I hear of his speech.” He also said: “I almost grind my teeth when I hear a grammatical error.” - Abu Bakr (may God be pleased with him): “Grammar is like salt in food — one cannot do without it.” Abu Nu’aym narrated in “Riyadat al-Muta’allimin” from Ibn Shubruma,
who said: “The adornment of men is grammar, and the adornment of women is good health.” - Zayd ibn Harithah (may God be pleased with him): “I did not know the meaning of: ‘Creator (faatir) of the heavens and the earth’ [Al-An’am: 14]
until I heard a woman of the Arabs say: ‘I originated (fatartuhu) it,’ meaning ‘I began it.'” He also said: “If anything in the Qur’an is obscure to you, seek it in poetry, for poetry is the register of the Arabs.” - And Uthman ibn Affan (may God be pleased with him): “When God sent down His Book in the Arabic tongue, made His Messenger the one to convey the Book and wisdom in his Arabic tongue,
and made those who were first to this religion speak it, and since there was no way to preserve and understand the religion except by preserving this tongue,
knowledge of it became part of the religion and the closest path to upholding the rites of the religion.”
⇐ Read also: Quiz questions about the Arabic language with answers
3- Sayings of the Early Scholars About the Arabic Language
The righteous predecessors took great pains to teach their children all the sciences, and the very first thing they were keen on was that their children’s tongues be straight and correct in Classical Arabic,
keeping them away from the causes of grammatical error.
- Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik: “A grammatical error in speech is uglier than smallpox on the face.”
- Abu al-Aswad al-Du’ali: “I find a grammatical error as painful as a sting in the flesh.”
- Ibn Taymiyyah (may God have mercy on him), in his book “Iqtida’ al-Sirat al-Mustaqim”: “For the Arabic tongue is the emblem of Islam and its people,
and languages are among the greatest emblems by which nations are distinguished.” - He also says in the same book: “Know that becoming accustomed to a language has a strong and clear effect on the mind, character and religion, and it also has an effect on
resembling the first generation of this nation, the Companions and their successors; resembling them increases one’s mind, religion and character. The Arabic language itself is part of the religion,
and knowing it is an obligation, for understanding the Book and the Sunnah is an obligation, and they cannot be understood except by understanding the Arabic language, and whatever an obligation cannot be fulfilled without is itself an obligation.” - Imam al-Shafi’i said: “The tongue that God Almighty chose is the tongue of the Arabs, so He sent down His Mighty Book in it and made it the tongue of the Seal of His Prophets, Muhammad
(peace be upon him). For this reason we say: everyone who is able to learn Arabic should learn it, because it is the foremost tongue.” - He added: “People did not fall into ignorance and disagreement except by abandoning the tongue of the Arabs and inclining toward the tongue of Aristotle.”
- Ibn al-Athir says: “The Arabic language is the queen of languages.”
- Among the most beautiful things said about the Arabic language is what is reported from Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, who was of Persian origin: “By God, to be satirized in Arabic
is dearer to me than to be praised in Persian.” - Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi’i (may God have mercy on him): “This Arabic was built upon a magical foundation that keeps its youth everlasting, so it neither grows old nor dies;
for it was prepared from eternity as an orbit revolving around the two great earthly luminaries (the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger, peace be upon him).
Hence it holds a wondrous power of enchantment, as if it were the spell of magic.” - “No people’s language has ever been humbled except that they were humbled, nor has it declined except that their affairs were in retreat and decline.”
- “Language is one of the manifestations of history. History is the defining trait of a nation; however you turn it, given its connection to the nation’s history
and the nation’s connection to it, you will find it the enduring trait that does not vanish except with the loss of national identity and the nation’s severance from its history.”
⇐ In pictures: Who first spoke Arabic — information for kids
4- The Most Beautiful Poetry About the Arabic Language
Arabic is the language of poetry and the arts; in it, poets competed in elegy, praise and satire, as well as in love poetry and romance.
- The poet Hamad bin Khalifa Abu Shihab, in his poem “The Arabic Language”:
“O language of the Qur’an, O sun of guidance ** may the Most Merciful protect you from the cunning of foes.
Is there upon the face of the earth a language ** that has made an echo ring in the ear of time
as you have made it ring in a world ** that knows nothing of you at all?” - The poet Hafiz Ibrahim says: “I am the sea; in its depths the pearl lies ** hidden, so have they asked the diver about my shells?
Woe to you! I wear out, and my beauties wear away ** yet among you, though the cure be hard to find, lies my remedy.” - The poet Ahmad Shawqi, about Arabic:
“Indeed, the One who filled the languages with virtues ** placed beauty and its secret in the letter Dhad.”
⇐ Read also: World Arabic Language Day ideas for kids – educational activities about the Arabic language
5- Sayings of Great Figures About the Arabic Language
- Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may God have mercy on him): “For the Arabic tongue is the emblem of Islam and its people, and languages are among the greatest emblems by which nations are distinguished.”
- He also said: “It is known that learning and teaching Arabic is a collective obligation. The early generations used to discipline their children for grammatical errors,
so we are commanded — whether as an obligation or as a recommendation — to preserve the rules of Arabic and to correct the tongues that stray from it,
so that the way to understanding the Book and the Sunnah is preserved for us, and so that we follow the Arabs in their speech; for if people were left to their errors, it would be a deficiency and a flaw.” - Ibn Khaldun stated that the sciences of the Arabic tongue have four pillars: language (lughah), grammar (nahw), rhetoric (bayan) and literature (adab). Knowing them is essential for the people of the Shari’ah,
since all the rulings of the Shari’ah are derived from the Book and the Sunnah,
which are in the language of the Arabs; those who transmitted them from the Companions and their successors were Arabs, and the explanations of their difficulties come from their language.
So whoever seeks knowledge of the Shari’ah must know the sciences related to this tongue. - From the words of Malik ibn Anas: “Proper grammatical inflection (i’rab) is the jewelry of the tongue, so do not deprive your tongues of their jewelry.”
- Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani used to say: “Learn grammar, for it is an adornment for the lowly and its neglect is a disgrace for the noble.”
⇐ Read also: The importance of teaching Classical Arabic to kids – my language is my identity
6- What Did Western Scholars Say About the Arabic Language?
The Arabic language is one of the pillars of humanity’s cultural diversity, and it is one of the most widespread and most used languages in the world.
Among the most beautiful things the orientalists said about Arabic:—
- The scholar William Work: “Arabic has a softness and flexibility that enable it to adapt to the demands of the age.”
- The Frenchman Ernest Renan: “The Arabic language began all at once at the utmost perfection — the strangest thing to have occurred in human history; it has neither infancy nor old age.”
- One of the most beautiful things said about the Arabic language is what the German Sigrid Hunke said: “How can a person resist the beauty of this language, its sound logic,
and its unique charm?! Even the Arabs’ own neighbors in the lands they conquered fell captive to the spell of that language.” - The German philosopher Fichte: “Language makes the nation that speaks it a single, tightly-knit whole subject to laws. It is the true bond
- between the world of bodies and the world of minds.”
- He continued: “Those who speak one language form a single, integrated entity bound by nature with firm, though invisible, ties.”
- The Frenchman William Marçais: “The Arabic phrase is like the lute: when you pluck one of its strings, all the strings resonate and tremble for you,
and then the language stirs, in the depths of the soul, beyond the bounds of the direct meaning, a procession of emotions and images.” - Dr. George Sarton: “The language of the Qur’an, being the language of the Arabs, was made complete by this renewal. God endowed it with a flexibility that made it capable
of recording the divine revelation in the best way, with all the subtleties of its meanings and dialects, and of expressing it in phrases of elegance and solidity.
Thus the Qur’an helped to elevate the language.”
⇐ Read also: The most beautiful cards about the Arabic language .. wonderful designs for World Arabic Language Day
7- The Most Beautiful Things Said About the Arabic Language on Twitter
- The Arabic language is the language of the Holy Qur’an, of which we are proud. It is a heritage we must preserve and take pride in.
- Happy day to the Arabic language, our first language; happy day to our language and the identity that sets us apart from all other nations — the language of the Holy Qur’an,
the noble Prophetic Sunnah, the language of literature, poetry, civilization and refinement, a language we cherish and take pride in. - We celebrate #WorldArabicLanguageDay so that this occasion may be a motivation
to embrace our linguistic identity and to raise the awareness of future generations of this great heritage. - When we speak of the Arabic language, we cannot help but picture it beautifully inscribed, lovely and authentic — and so it truly is;
a language of poetry and the arts. - A language to which the ears delight as to a melody, with words that settle deep in the soul; it travels within you and carries you along, and the lover finds his joy in its verses and poems; because #WeAreProudOfIt, for it is a language of poetry and the arts, and we celebrate it on its splendid day. #WorldArabicLanguageDay
⇐ Read also: Coloring pages about the Arabic language .. World Arabic Language Day in pictures
We have shared with you the most beautiful quotes about the Arabic language, printable quotes about the Arabic language and time-honored sayings about it.
For more purposeful articles for teaching the Arabic language, follow Belaraby Apps.
An Illustrated Story for Kids About the Scholars of the Arabic Language
A gift to the friends of the Hekayat Belaraby app: the series Illustrated Stories for Teaching the Arabic Language — Arabic children’s stories that encourage little ones to love reading and instill in them a love of the Arabic language from an early age,
and that take part in teaching them the basics of correct reading and proper spelling rules.
Don’t miss the illustrated kids’ stories about teaching the Arabic language; they motivate little ones to learn Arabic in a simple way. Here are the most beautiful illustrated educational stories about the Arabic language, used as teaching and guidance aids.
Read them with text and pictures on the Hekayat Belaraby app, used as teaching aids for kindergartens during World Arabic Language Day activities
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We have shared with you wise sayings and quotes about the Arabic language and the most beautiful things said about Classical Arabic, from the words of great figures and poets, both Arab and non-Arab. We hope you, our followers, will share your comments and suggestions with us, for your opinion matters to us.
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