By Bilesanmi Abayomi
Islamic scholars have called on the government to recognize Arabic in Yoruba Land during the annual Arabic Language Day celebration.
The call was made at an AL-MUNIRIYAH ara program themed “the future Arabic language in Yoruba Land,” recently held at Ketu Central Mosque, Kosofe, Lagos.
Ustadh Ismail Adam, who is a graduate of Arabic with two master’s degrees from Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, in Arabic education and literature, and Malik Sudes University, Riyadh, delivered the lecture.
Speaking to the Kosofe Post’s principal correspondent, the guest lecturer said that he basically came to Lagos to deliver a lecture on the future of Arabic. One of the things that he has spoken about is methodology. When we maintain a good methodology for this language, it will be fine for us.
He noted that the means of teaching the language are very important. According to him, in fact, in some Arabic schools today, when the founder goes on or passes on, if the school finds it hard to maintain the structure on which the founder had laid the foundation for the Arabic language speaking or learning school, it passes on.
Therefore, the new director comes with his own idea, not following up with where the other, the dead lecturer, or the founder, had placed it. So it becomes a problem merging the idea of the gone, the person that has died, and the new person that has come afresh.
Adam’s advised that one of the ways out of solving problems affecting Arabic languageis to set up a purpose-based committee where the scholars will be based on solving the problems of Arabic.
Continuing, he said, “They will be set up, and the membership will be selected from different places. This is one way out. Number two is that another thing is to set up libraries that will be officially beneficial both within the madrasa, the school, and outside.
“For those within the madrasa and outside the madrasa. Then, however, we should identify the purpose for which somebody is learning the language. Some people learn it for business reasons, some learn it for tourism reasons, and some learn it for religious reasons. So, we will know where to concentrate everyone who is learning the language for these purposes. There are two reasons why people learn a language: for specific purposes and for general purposes. We identify the reason why somebody is learning the language, and when we put all these in place, it will be easy to sail through these problems the Arabic language is facing in present and contemporary time.”
He said those in the field of poetry have a lot of role to play in promoting the language in the Yoruba setting. Secondly, train the trainer programs for those who are teaching Arabic language need to consider how to present the language in a modern trend that will fit into the Yoruba set up. Perhaps using Yoruba to promote Arabic will ease its difficulty when it arises.
SEE: World Arabic language Day: Imam Imran Rufai commends Al-Munirat on celebration
The organizer, proprietor, and administrator of Al Munirah Arabic and Islamic Academy, , Ustadh Suilamon IBRAHIM, Al- gamawi, said it was a first-of-its-kind lecture promoting the field of teaching Arabic language and Islamic study to people.
Explaining, he noted that “so far, through our training, through my training from the primary level to the secondary level and then to the university level, I have realized that most of our people don’t know the techniques or the technical know-how on how to teach or train people in Arabic literature and Islamic studies.” We have to find another way or design something that will accommodate everybody. So we sit and discuss Arabic languages and Islamic studies.
“Alhamdulilahi, today is 18 December. The United Nations celebrates Arabic on December 18 because, on December 18, 1973, they adopted Arabic as one of the official languages. Since then, till now and forever, they’ve been celebrating Arabic on December 18. So in this part of the world, namely Yorubaland, most people don’t even realize what Arabic is, rather than celebrating it or understanding its deep value.
Reacting to Islamic clerics still celebrating the prophet Muhammad’s birthday, Eid el Maulud, on the day of World Arabic Day, they said it was due to the parochial sense reasoning of our people.
“Eid el Maulud needed to be celebrated in the month in which the prophet Muhammad was born, not in the aftermath of someone being born in January. He has to celebrate his birthday on that day, not in March or April; that shows their sense of ignorance. “So we need to upgrade our people and tell them that we shouldn’t be stagnant,” he said.
“We must move forward and develop ourselves.” We must be the sons and daughters of time. That is, you must be in tune with time—what is happening today and what is happening to the world. So we have to adapt to society, to the environment, and to the time. So that’s why I realized that today, on April 18, Al Muniriyaah Academy needs to celebrate Arabic on this day of celebration. Celebrating Arabic means that we should get a theme or topic that is critical—something that has something to do with us or something that will solve our problem.
“So we gather together and discuss it. we call experts. So the person that knows what is going on with us, our problem, the way forward, and the solution, that’s why we invited him from Ilorin to come and deliver the lecture to celebrate Arabic on this day.”
Algamawi further noted that the government is the major problem confronting the language study because the authority doesn’t appreciate pure Arabic language or Arabic and Islamic schools, often called organized Arabic and Islamic schools.
Adding that, “Because we have unorganized ones. If you don’t know the class, they don’t have classes, no staff room, no prescribed books, no scheme of work, and no timetable; they are just doing it the way they want. But organized ones have classified classrooms; they have primary, junior secondary, and secondary levels. These are the organized Arabic schools, and these are the people we invited for the program.”
However, she said, “But our government doesn’t even recognize Arabic schools because there was a time one of my people had problems, and I had to follow them to the Ministry of Education, Alausa, where they told us that they don’t recognize Arabic and Islamic schools. I told them what could be done to get them recognized.
“Because in the North, there’s a Directorate of Arabic Schools, but here in the South West, we don’t have one, and that’s the major problem we have. Because if we have directorates of Arabic schools in the South West, we will be able to fashion out the scheme to know the time.
“The topic one is doing at Kosofe Local Government, another Arabic school at Amuwo-Odofin or Lagos Island Local Government will be treating the same topic.
“As we have in public secondary school in Kosofe now, a topic they’re treating in mathematics here in the second or third week is the same topic they would be treating in Epe, Badagry, and Lagos Island, respectively. In Arabic school, the reverse is the case because the government doesn’t recognize Arabic school; that’s our motive, and we want to recognize Arabic school so that they will fine-tune the scheme and everything.”
He appealed to the government to first recognize Arabic schools by giving them beneficial recognition so that everything would follow.
The other Arabic and Islamic schools that participated in the World Arabic Language Day celebration include Rifat Arabic school, Alapere; Al- Qariyatul Arabiyyah Litaalimili Arabiyyah Wa Thaqafatil Islamiyah, Ketu; Al-Manialu Soofi Arabic school Ketu and Aseese, Ogun state, among others.
The Kosofe Post reports that on December 18, 1973, the United Nations adopted Arabic as the sixth official language of the organization, and the day has since been observed worldwide to mark the beauty and richness of the Arabic language.