Al-Nisf and fate of the nation
Other Voices
CBy Ahmad alsarraf
olleague and former KAC pilot Sami Al-Nisf says in a tweet: “Some people deal with the abundant Arabic language in the same way some Islamists deal with the true Islamic religion and consider it a fragile and weak religion to the extent that even an article or a caricature harms it. English is the language of the times and the future, and learning from childhood and mastering it like other peoples of the world, is the only hope to prevent the ‘continuation’ of our cultural decline.
The tweet came in response to calls to strengthen the teaching of Arabic and fortify it with heritage stories, so that the children know who Sinbad was, Shaater Hassan (tale of Egyptian), Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri (blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer), Hayy ibn Yaqzn (an Arabic philosophical novel and an allegorical tale written by Ibn Tufail in the early 12th century and others, because of fear of the depletion of the Arabic language in the homes and the demise of its star or stopping talking with it which requires all parties to develop plans and programs to remedy it.
Al-Nisf demanded that such people find a comprehensive intellectual system, because the language is a fabric of culture. These people argue that children know the cartoon characters which embody Arab models only from the West and by following their films, which is a ‘state of selforientalism’, that is to say we identify ourselves with products coming from the West, and that we lose an entire civilization when we neglect our Arabic language.
We tweeted at the time, saying that this talk, if true, can only be achieved under a secular state. Many of the figures that some have called for introducing them to the Arab child are rejected by influential parties. Neither al-Ma’arri nor Ibn Rushd nor dozens of Muslim scholars are welcome to teach their biographies, and therefore cannot be proud of them. We cannot follow the rule of ‘pick and choose’ from history and heritage, but must be taken as a whole, as did all the countries of the free world.
Our whims should be distanced from the choice of this character and leave that, or leave it to the leaders of the states to impose their personalities on the system and curriculum, which is already backward, this will complicate matters.
Saying that if we do not tell our children who are Sinbad or Aladdin, we will lose an entire civilization, this is a great exaggeration, and I do not know of what civilization they speak about. The Arabs and Muslims, in general have religious beliefs and known heritage, but they are not owners of civilization in the contemporary sense.
This fear for the Arabic language is fundamentally unjustified. It is the language of the nation, its cultural container, and confining it to a narrow range within the heritage will it be incapable of development and possibly death. Language, any language, needs new blood and development, to give and take from others.
Throughout its nearly 1400-year history, the Arabic language has taken thousands of words from Syriac, Aramaic, Indian and Iranian languages and it retained its personality and gave many other languages in return. So why so much fear?
During the British rule and after independence, the leaders of India addressed the Indian people in English. India’s best universities still use English alongside Hindi, and this has not weakened the Indians culturally, scientifically, or morally, and finally they successfully launched a vehicle that landed, for the first time in history, on the dark side of the moon.
The Arab child’s learning of the English language will not weaken his culture or attachment to his heritage, and vice versa closer to truth, and this is from my own experience with my children and grandchildren.
If we assume that I am wrong, what is best in the following two options: a child who knows Arabic well, and excels in English since childhood and can see the cores of human thought within seconds or a child who knows excellent Arabic and nothing else? In the light of the result of the answer to the two questions above we can know the fate of this nation.