Note: Did you know we are Christian, for most of the days in a year? Keep reading and you'll be just as shocked as I was when I began this research....I enjoy traveling and meeting people from different backgrounds. I respect multiculturalism but not at the expense of losing my own culture.
It is understandable that there is a great concern as regards the various problems with one's original language in relation to second or third languages for communication. Most of our parents read and write a language other than English - Urdu, Panjabi, Maratti, Mandarin, Arabic or Portuguese. Most of our kids speak English with different accent than ours'. And if we ever lived in a Scandinavian country then along with English, some of our family members can almost understand and somewhat even articulate in Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, French and/or German. Seems pretty cool innit?
Personally, I stoutly believe that a person's language constitutes his or her cultural, social and personal value. Our language is more than a tool of communication, it is a quantitative component of our existence. The way we perceive and comprehend the world ourselves and others is processed, structured and expressed by means of language. In this sense language makes our conscience, it formulates our identity as a person and distinguishes us from being simply a part of a mass, while, at the same time, language brings us closer to a specific group of people. The words of a language represents a collection of experiences, history, ethics and morals of a people who speak it. Thus, every language connects its speakers with the the past and the future, it gives them the physiognomy of a nation. This is why language evolves and matures our beliefs and thoughts, it renews our commitments and our relations.
Learning a foreign language and replacing it with one's original languages means substituting one's reason, sentiments, morals and conception of the world with another. For example, my original language is urdu but I write, think, dream and speak in English. English is the unofficial language of present day Christianity and Paganism. Before everyone gets upset with me thinking I am calling English a Kafir language let me prove that deeply ingrained in English is an illustration of a "foreign" worldview.
For instance, English days of the week and months are named after pagan gods - Sunday is from sun god; monday, moon god; Tuesday is god Tyr; Wednesday is named after god odin, Thursday, god Thor, Friday, god Frigga and Saturday after god Saturn. January comes from Roman Janus, the god of power. Feb from Februa, the Roman festival of purification. March is named after the Roman god of war. April is from Aprilis, latin name for the goddess of fertility. May is Maia, Roman deity of growth. June is the name of the goddess of marriage, the wife of Jupiter. It is also attributed to Junius Brutus, the god of crop growth and ripening. July came from Julius Caesar and August is obviously Octavius Augustus Caesar. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. mean 7,8,9,10 in Latin.
English years are numbered after the birth of Christ. BC is Before Christ and AD is After Death of Christ (but Esa a.s never died, Allah saved him and he ascended to the Heavens). English academic school calendar revolves around polytheism, specifically prophet and saint worship - for example, there is the feast of St. Michael on Sept. 29, celebration of Trinity on Dec. 25th and festival of St. Hilary on Jan. 13th. English special occasions are marked by observance of sin- Valentine's Day is a day of fornication. St Patrick’s Day is the day of drinking. Mother's Day originated with Christians going to "mother church" or cathedral. Halloween/ all Hallow's Day is appraising the powers of the devil. Even our food is contaminated. We eat Quaker Oats, Angel Delights, devil’s cake, brownies and hot cross buns.
This is how a language engineers a person. It gives meaning to our words that structure our articles of faith, our conventions, and approach. Today's Muslims are more of a reflection of "Bend it like Beckham" and "Bride and Prejudice culture" - a brew of Hollywood and Bollywood than an ambience of the lives of the Sahaba (r.a) - companions of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). We are Muslims but we find modesty and covering, living on rent and taking the bus instead of mortgaging a house and leasing a car so estranged. We pity the Muslim who seek God instead of pride. We think its weird that some Muslims yearn for spiritual reward more than we lust after flesh, metal and plastic. We live for good taste and good looks and they are busy perfecting their intentions and actions. We think these type of Muslims are extremists, brainwashed, backward fundamentalists. But are they really losers or we are?
Back home and in the West we learned English, French or German for the sake of educational and professional improvement in terms of income or social prestige. The foreign language gave us material success and status but this did not come without a religious deficit. Foreign language divorced us from Islam and liaised us to Kafir customs and mores.
Shakespeare, Herman Melville and Scott Fitzerald taught us in Romeo and Juliet, Moby-Dick and The Great Gatsby that hedonism and nihilism is the way of life and happiness. Mary Shelley and William Golding convinced us in Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies that human beings are nothing but fickle, foppish and ferocious fiends. George Orwell desensitized us to totalitarian governments in 1984. J.D Salinger and J.K Rowling explained in Catcher in the Rye and Harry Potter that power is acquired through superstition, magic and occults. Louisa M Alcott's Little Women, Amy Sherman's Gilmore Girls and Marc Cherry's Desperate Housewives showed us the different shades of the female gender. Homer Simpson, Ross Geller (Friends) and Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half men) set precedence for acceptable masculine behaviour. Overall, our impressions of everything from personal hygiene and health, our choice of cars and cuisines, the dress we wear to the dreams we have -almost everything is shaped by the language we speak. If we speak English then necessarily we'll read things which are English and watch English shows and unintentionally espouse English habits and philosophy on life. We may now pass as posh Canadians or Americans, integrated to the teeth but we have become very impoverished Muslims as a result. We don't even remember what real Islam looked like. And the worst part is, we don't even care.
"To have a second language is to have a second soul," said Charlemagne around 800 CE. If this is true then no wonder souls are devoid of a sense of Islamic identity, Qurni'c paradigm and sunnah consciousness because we do not understand the Islamic language - Arabic. Language doesn't just stir conversations but it allures our thoughts, perceptions, sensations, experiences and intuition. For example, in Arabic language, the duration of life is بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ morning and evening. So an Arab person lives life, one day and night at time. There is really no grief about the best or anxiety over the future. An Arab speaker assumes that he only has one morning or a single evening to live so he makes the most of it so he lives a life without regrets or stress. But this doesn't mean an Arab speaker will gamble his life away for drugs and women because he does not hope to live very long. He understands الْحَيَاةَ life which is from the root ح ي ي to be lived with modesty ( حياء ) and in moderation. An Arab speaker knows that he is خَلَقَ created, the very word denotes that his formation has a God and purpose. Similarly, in Arabic, the verb tomorrow is interpreted as the next life and Hereafter or Day of Judgment. So Arab speakers grasp the notion for tomorrow as the time and place when they will stand before the Creator and answer for their their life and actions on earth. When you ask, in perfectly normal Arabic and in the present tense, “What is your plan for tomorrow?” The Arab speaker thinks of tomorrow as life after death, the time of recompense. So he won't say he has a day of or he is going somewhere tomorrow. He will think of Heaven and Hell. How do we fathom destiny in English? It was Buster's destiny to win the pizza eating contest or Cinderalla's destiny to marry the prince. In Arabic, destiny is not the same as a lucky coincidence or the fruit of one's labour or the highest aspiration of one's life but God's Will and Decree. So the Arabic language comes with its very own and unique Islamic cognitive toolkit which we cannot truly appreciate and benefit from while speaking English or Urdu or French, Japanese or Italian.
So I need to learn Arabic. I feel every day I am moving further and further away from Islam. I pray, wear Hijab, eat halal, read the Qur'an etc in routine. I feel I am not being a conscious Muslim. Like I need to change the way my brain is wired or something, reprogram myself so I am in Allah mode all the time. So that my ideas, emotions, reactions, gestures and speech are Rabbaani. I wanna run away the Kafir mentality, attitude and dress. I want to resurrect the time of the Sahaba (r.a). Reinstate the environment of Madina at the time of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). I cannot think of any better way of achieving this than through learning the Arabic language. I think it would be ideal to go to Bayyinah Institute but I think for now I should start with Madina Books by AburRaheem Fha and various Arabic dictionaries at home. Slowly do the exercises and memorize new vocab and grammar rules.
Reference: HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? [6.12.09]
By Lera Boroditsky http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html
Does Your Language Shape How You Think? By GUY DEUTSCHER http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?pagewanted=all
It is understandable that there is a great concern as regards the various problems with one's original language in relation to second or third languages for communication. Most of our parents read and write a language other than English - Urdu, Panjabi, Maratti, Mandarin, Arabic or Portuguese. Most of our kids speak English with different accent than ours'. And if we ever lived in a Scandinavian country then along with English, some of our family members can almost understand and somewhat even articulate in Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, French and/or German. Seems pretty cool innit?
Personally, I stoutly believe that a person's language constitutes his or her cultural, social and personal value. Our language is more than a tool of communication, it is a quantitative component of our existence. The way we perceive and comprehend the world ourselves and others is processed, structured and expressed by means of language. In this sense language makes our conscience, it formulates our identity as a person and distinguishes us from being simply a part of a mass, while, at the same time, language brings us closer to a specific group of people. The words of a language represents a collection of experiences, history, ethics and morals of a people who speak it. Thus, every language connects its speakers with the the past and the future, it gives them the physiognomy of a nation. This is why language evolves and matures our beliefs and thoughts, it renews our commitments and our relations.
Learning a foreign language and replacing it with one's original languages means substituting one's reason, sentiments, morals and conception of the world with another. For example, my original language is urdu but I write, think, dream and speak in English. English is the unofficial language of present day Christianity and Paganism. Before everyone gets upset with me thinking I am calling English a Kafir language let me prove that deeply ingrained in English is an illustration of a "foreign" worldview.
For instance, English days of the week and months are named after pagan gods - Sunday is from sun god; monday, moon god; Tuesday is god Tyr; Wednesday is named after god odin, Thursday, god Thor, Friday, god Frigga and Saturday after god Saturn. January comes from Roman Janus, the god of power. Feb from Februa, the Roman festival of purification. March is named after the Roman god of war. April is from Aprilis, latin name for the goddess of fertility. May is Maia, Roman deity of growth. June is the name of the goddess of marriage, the wife of Jupiter. It is also attributed to Junius Brutus, the god of crop growth and ripening. July came from Julius Caesar and August is obviously Octavius Augustus Caesar. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. mean 7,8,9,10 in Latin.
English years are numbered after the birth of Christ. BC is Before Christ and AD is After Death of Christ (but Esa a.s never died, Allah saved him and he ascended to the Heavens). English academic school calendar revolves around polytheism, specifically prophet and saint worship - for example, there is the feast of St. Michael on Sept. 29, celebration of Trinity on Dec. 25th and festival of St. Hilary on Jan. 13th. English special occasions are marked by observance of sin- Valentine's Day is a day of fornication. St Patrick’s Day is the day of drinking. Mother's Day originated with Christians going to "mother church" or cathedral. Halloween/ all Hallow's Day is appraising the powers of the devil. Even our food is contaminated. We eat Quaker Oats, Angel Delights, devil’s cake, brownies and hot cross buns.
This is how a language engineers a person. It gives meaning to our words that structure our articles of faith, our conventions, and approach. Today's Muslims are more of a reflection of "Bend it like Beckham" and "Bride and Prejudice culture" - a brew of Hollywood and Bollywood than an ambience of the lives of the Sahaba (r.a) - companions of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). We are Muslims but we find modesty and covering, living on rent and taking the bus instead of mortgaging a house and leasing a car so estranged. We pity the Muslim who seek God instead of pride. We think its weird that some Muslims yearn for spiritual reward more than we lust after flesh, metal and plastic. We live for good taste and good looks and they are busy perfecting their intentions and actions. We think these type of Muslims are extremists, brainwashed, backward fundamentalists. But are they really losers or we are?
Back home and in the West we learned English, French or German for the sake of educational and professional improvement in terms of income or social prestige. The foreign language gave us material success and status but this did not come without a religious deficit. Foreign language divorced us from Islam and liaised us to Kafir customs and mores.
Shakespeare, Herman Melville and Scott Fitzerald taught us in Romeo and Juliet, Moby-Dick and The Great Gatsby that hedonism and nihilism is the way of life and happiness. Mary Shelley and William Golding convinced us in Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies that human beings are nothing but fickle, foppish and ferocious fiends. George Orwell desensitized us to totalitarian governments in 1984. J.D Salinger and J.K Rowling explained in Catcher in the Rye and Harry Potter that power is acquired through superstition, magic and occults. Louisa M Alcott's Little Women, Amy Sherman's Gilmore Girls and Marc Cherry's Desperate Housewives showed us the different shades of the female gender. Homer Simpson, Ross Geller (Friends) and Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half men) set precedence for acceptable masculine behaviour. Overall, our impressions of everything from personal hygiene and health, our choice of cars and cuisines, the dress we wear to the dreams we have -almost everything is shaped by the language we speak. If we speak English then necessarily we'll read things which are English and watch English shows and unintentionally espouse English habits and philosophy on life. We may now pass as posh Canadians or Americans, integrated to the teeth but we have become very impoverished Muslims as a result. We don't even remember what real Islam looked like. And the worst part is, we don't even care.
"To have a second language is to have a second soul," said Charlemagne around 800 CE. If this is true then no wonder souls are devoid of a sense of Islamic identity, Qurni'c paradigm and sunnah consciousness because we do not understand the Islamic language - Arabic. Language doesn't just stir conversations but it allures our thoughts, perceptions, sensations, experiences and intuition. For example, in Arabic language, the duration of life is بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ morning and evening. So an Arab person lives life, one day and night at time. There is really no grief about the best or anxiety over the future. An Arab speaker assumes that he only has one morning or a single evening to live so he makes the most of it so he lives a life without regrets or stress. But this doesn't mean an Arab speaker will gamble his life away for drugs and women because he does not hope to live very long. He understands الْحَيَاةَ life which is from the root ح ي ي to be lived with modesty ( حياء ) and in moderation. An Arab speaker knows that he is خَلَقَ created, the very word denotes that his formation has a God and purpose. Similarly, in Arabic, the verb tomorrow is interpreted as the next life and Hereafter or Day of Judgment. So Arab speakers grasp the notion for tomorrow as the time and place when they will stand before the Creator and answer for their their life and actions on earth. When you ask, in perfectly normal Arabic and in the present tense, “What is your plan for tomorrow?” The Arab speaker thinks of tomorrow as life after death, the time of recompense. So he won't say he has a day of or he is going somewhere tomorrow. He will think of Heaven and Hell. How do we fathom destiny in English? It was Buster's destiny to win the pizza eating contest or Cinderalla's destiny to marry the prince. In Arabic, destiny is not the same as a lucky coincidence or the fruit of one's labour or the highest aspiration of one's life but God's Will and Decree. So the Arabic language comes with its very own and unique Islamic cognitive toolkit which we cannot truly appreciate and benefit from while speaking English or Urdu or French, Japanese or Italian.
So I need to learn Arabic. I feel every day I am moving further and further away from Islam. I pray, wear Hijab, eat halal, read the Qur'an etc in routine. I feel I am not being a conscious Muslim. Like I need to change the way my brain is wired or something, reprogram myself so I am in Allah mode all the time. So that my ideas, emotions, reactions, gestures and speech are Rabbaani. I wanna run away the Kafir mentality, attitude and dress. I want to resurrect the time of the Sahaba (r.a). Reinstate the environment of Madina at the time of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). I cannot think of any better way of achieving this than through learning the Arabic language. I think it would be ideal to go to Bayyinah Institute but I think for now I should start with Madina Books by AburRaheem Fha and various Arabic dictionaries at home. Slowly do the exercises and memorize new vocab and grammar rules.
Why And How To Learn Arabic - Nouman Ali Khan - Bayyinah Institute
Reference: HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? [6.12.09]
By Lera Boroditsky http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html
Does Your Language Shape How You Think? By GUY DEUTSCHER http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?pagewanted=all
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