INTERROGATING THE IMPORTANCE AND RELEVANCE OF ARABIC LANGUAGE TO THE STUDY OF SHARI’AH

Abstract

This paper attempts interrogating Arabic language as a language, the importance and relevance to the study of Shari’ah generally. It demonstrates that Arabic, is a medium of communication, not a sacred language as some believe. Prophet Muhammad received his message from God in Arabic and with the rise of Islam, Arabic shifted from a little-known tribal language to the lingua franca for the Muslim world and plays great role in international affairs today. The study found that the Eleventh century marked a period of stagnation for Arabic language but its status as the language of Islam was never threatened. Shari’ah’s language remains Arabic in which it was revealed and which the language of the prophet Muhammad is. Thus, the understanding of the rules of law from the Qur’an and the Sunnah can only be derived if stylistic peculiarities of Arabic language, its lexical meanings and structure are understood. All sources of Shari’ah and contributions of jurists to it have been preserved in Arabic. Prayers and pilgrimage were to be observed with Arabic. The paper discovers that, Classical Arabic has a vocabulary in which the meaning of each root-word is so comprehensive that it is difficult to interpret it in a modern analytical language word for word, or by the use of the same word in all places where the original word occurs in the text. Thus, study of Shari’ah without the least knowledge of Arabic may be as futile as dealing with English law without the knowledge of English language.