I came home from school the other day to sound of a beautiful Arabic nasheed playing. I followed the sound and found my dad sitting at the computer listening to the nasheed.
"Isn't it beautiful?" he asked me.
"Um.. yeah. It is." I responded.
I'm not as fluent in Arabic like my father is, but I was at least able to pick out the main idea of the nasheed. I noticed the nasheed was talking about the attributes of Allah. No wonder my father was grinning from ear to ear.
He turned to me and asked, "You do understand it all, Don't you?"
"Somewhat." I confessed.
He began explaining the nasheed and even added his own commentary on the subject. Our conversation somehow shifted to the eloquence and importance of the Arabic language. He recalled the time he used to read the Arabic book "La Ta7zan" (Don't be Sad by 3a'aid Al Qarni) to me and my siblings , and we loved it so much. He bought us the English version so we would be able to read it on our own. We all took turns reading it, but none of us ever finished it. Don't get me wrong, I think the English version is very well written, but its no where near the Arabic version.
"The same thing applies to the Qur'an, but unlike other books, its written with even more eloquence, precision, and beauty. If you really read Surat Al Fatiha and think deeply about it's meaning," He told us, "You would not be able to hold back tears."
"But Baba," I asked, " We read Surat al fatiha everyday in salah. Is it the fact that we don't contemplate on what we're reading, or..."
THAT'S when he told me this gem that i will inshallah, never forget. "Uthman bin Affan may Allah be pleased with him, once stated: "لو طهرة قلوبكم، ما شبعة من كتاب ربكم " He told me. Which roughly translates as "If your hearts were pure, you would not have enough from the book of Allah.Subhanallah, there are many people in the world who read the Qur'an without fully understanding it. And I'm not trying to criticise anyone by saying this. I’m speaking to myself first. So we may try to read it in a different language – one that we understand. But reading the Qur'an in another language, whether it be English, or Spanish or any other language is no where near the Arabic Qur'an. This is why I encourage everyone to at least try to learn the Arabic language.
Now, one of my biggest goal is to learn how to read and speak Arabic...fluently...inshallah.
3 comments:
Which nasheed was it?
Don't remember. I'll have to ask my dad.
Allahuakber! Arabic is the purest and powerful of all languages.
Indeed i agree what your dad said.
Our Muslim Ummah is a fortunate Ummah(Nation).It was forbidden from what causes distress to soul(music) and was given in replacement what brings tranquility to heart (Qur'an)
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