Ali's Awakening: Mastering Arabic Language and Faith

The Arabic dialect is one of the most difficult to master. I have studied foreign languages before, but this language is especially challenging. The grammar rules are obscure and the written form is even more complex. There is no consensus on how it should be written.

At first, I thought it was just a matter of curiosity. I wanted to learn about Islam, its people and culture. But now that I've started learning the language, I can't stop thinking about it. It's like I've developed a strange addiction that has taken over my life.

I remember when I first became interested in the language. It was three years ago, while sitting in my local mosque after Jumu`ah. My father had passed away a few months earlier and I was struggling with my faith. My world felt meaningless and empty. Many times, I considered giving up on my religion altogether, but something inside me told me that would be wrong for me to do so. So instead, I used to go to the mosque as often as possible. That day was no different; except when the Imam began his khutbah (sermon), he spoke in Arabic, not English like he normally does.

As soon as the Imam started speaking Arabic, a familiar chill coursed through my body. It was similar to the feeling you get when watching an amazing movie or eating your favorite food: someone had taken control of your body and everything suddenly made sense again. Everything felt right and beautiful again, as if nothing ever went wrong in the first place.

Afterwards, as we were walking home together, my mother turned to me and asked why I looked so entranced by the khutbah during Jumu`ah that day. Before I could answer her question, she told me that she knew exactly why I looked so happy: "Because you love Arabic." Hearing her say that made me smile even more than before. She had always been supportive of my interest in languages, but she never knew about my obsession with Arabic until then.

When we got home from Jumu`ah, my mother gave me something that changed my life forever: a pocket dictionary of Arabic words and their English definitions! Oh how beautiful it was! It wasn't very big; smaller than a paperback novel probably, but it was perfect for reading on-the-go like on the bus or subway. It had been passed down from generation to generation in my family; from one Arab grandmother to another who married an American man named Joe who converted to Islam after meeting her at a mosque in New York City where he worked as a security guard. He had fallen in love with her at first sight when they met at the masjid (mosque). He said she reminded him of his mother who also spoke Arabic and wore hijab (head scarf) all the time back when he was growing up in Brooklyn during the 50s and 60s...

Why am I thinking about this?

Where was I?...oh yeah!

For years afterwards, whenever I wanted to learn new words or phrases before going to sleep at night, or anytime during school or work breaks (I'm an assistant manager at a local CVS pharmacy), I would take out my pocket dictionary from my backpack and open it on any random page...and voila -- there would be hundreds of words staring back at me! Some of them would be simple nouns like "sand" or "shoe", others would be verbs such as "to read" or "to eat" -- every single word seemed significant for some reason!