Balancing Arabization Series: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX

Issue #5 – Dealing with a Non-Arab Beginner to Prayer

I worked for almost 4 years in Kuwait as the Director of English Da’wah on the Islam Presentation Committee. I witnessed many conversions and interacted with many new Muslims over those years. When I first started there, the official legal system in compliance with the Ministry of Justice is to give new-Muslims an Islamic (Arabic) name and then to begin teaching them to pray in Arabic. The official test of sufficient knowledge and practice for a convert man to marry a born Muslim woman was that he could say the prayer in Arabic! By the grace of God and a few sittings with some scholars and the ministry, we changed that ludicrous criterion.

Islam is a universal divine message to mankind with guidance on how to properly interact with both the Creator and the creation. The gist of this message is to develop a spiritual focus in one’s life, preparing for the afterlife in which we will be judged for our decisions in this life. In living this divine purpose and calling others to it, we must develop a strong understanding and representation of that message in our own native tongue. Here I would like to remind you of the verse which is the basis for this whole series:

“And We did not send any messenger except [speaking] in the language of his people to state clearly for them […]” (Qur’an 14:4).

Sadly, the Arabization of Islam for non-Arabs has basically led us all to feel like the more Arabic words we use, the more authentic of a Muslim we are. I have been to many Islamic schools and found that most kids from non-Arabic backgrounds can readily recite many chapters of the Qur’an as well as many supplications in Arabic. The problem, however, is that most of them have no clue what it means. Worse than that, they have been programmed to think that it’s not important to know what it means as long as it is said in Arabic. I have even met children of Arab parents who speak conversational colloquial Arabic quite fluently, yet still cannot explain with any accuracy some of the things they have memorized.

I cringe when I hear a non-Arab say that they will “offer” their prayers. Linguistically, you can make sense of it, but spiritually, it sounds like you are doing something for God without benefit to yourself, or worse, something that He needs. Maybe I’m making a wrong assumption here, but the Qur’an makes it crystal clear that God is not in need of anything from us and that “[w]hoever does righteousness—it is for his own soul […]” (Qur’an 41:46).

I’ve never heard an Arab say such a thing in Arabic, the equivalent of which would be “سأقدم صلاتي (sa uqaddim salaati)”. They say, “سأصلي (sa usallee),” which means “I will pray” or more precisely “I will supplicate and seek the forgiveness of my Lord.” It seems that since some non-Arabs generally don’t understand their prayers they feel like it is something they are offering God whom they feel needs it from them.

The purpose of this article is to take personal/social experience coupled with our scholarly tradition in order to raise the level of Islamic spirituality in the masses. Case in point, the crux of the problem we are attempting to solve is in the well-known claim that salah (prayer) must be completely in Arabic, otherwise it is invalid. To be fair, there are some scholars who have made such a broad, sweeping dogmatic statement. The reason why they make this statement is that this particular detail of Islamic Law is taken as a “given” and thus not taught comprehensively in most Islamic degree programs. The truth of our tradition is that there is no such statement by the Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) nor is that by any means an agreed upon opinion amongst our scholars. The fact is, which I will, God willing, illustrate with ample references that such a statement may be the position of some scholars, but is not representative of prevailing opinions among traditional scholars of Islamic legal theory especially when it comes to a new Muslim.

First of all, so that people will not miss the point, the leader (Imam) of a prayer must have certain qualifications and one of them is that they have mastered the prayer as it was practiced by the Prophet ﷺ, which includes Arabic. Therefore, I am not calling for the tradition of Islamic prayer to be changed. Rather we are looking into Islamic legal theory to solve a problem leading to spiritual weakness in new-Muslims and kids raised in non-Arab environments. What I am suggesting is specifically for converts and children raised in non-Arab environments who are trying to learn the prayer which is supposed to be a deeply spiritual experience.

The position that I will be defending is that the Qur’an must be said in Arabic, but can be translated for silent prayers until one masters the meaning in their native tongue and then masters both the word-for-word and comprehensive meaning analysis in relating the Arabic to the English (or their respective native language). The remembrances (adhkar) which are said may be translated, but are preferred to remain in Arabic so the system would be similar to learning the Qur’an. The salah (prayer) of one who uses a translation for the remembrances is still a valid prayer, albeit not preferred, regardless of how long they rely on the translations. Supplications which were said by the Prophet ﷺ follow the same suit, whereas it is permissible in prostration (sujood) to supplicate to your Lord from your heart in your own language, Arabic or otherwise.

The following are the textual and scholarly references to support this suggested practice.