As for speaking any tongue but Arabic without necessity, the early generations loathed it with the utmost aversion, forbade it, and left behind well-known statements on the matter—many of which the author has already cited.

They regarded Arabic as one of the essentials of the religion, while other languages were, in their view, a badge of hypocrisy. Hence, when they conquered new lands, they hastened to teach the inhabitants Arabic until it spread like light in the darkness, despite the difficulty and hardship involved.

Arabic is the language of Islam, the language of the Qur’an, and sound understanding of the Book and the Sunnah can be achieved only through it. It is therefore one of the indispensable requirements of Islam; neglecting it or treating it lightly must inevitably weaken one’s grasp of the faith and foster ignorance of it.

I thus consider it a grievous mistake to allow other languages to compete with Arabic in the curricula of Muslim countries in general, and at the expense of Arabic in particular.

There is no justification for imposing foreign languages on all—or even most—students at every stage of schooling. Reality bears this out: pupils in today’s schools where foreign languages are compulsory are weaker in Arabic, while they have gained little worth mentioning from those other tongues.

They are like a traveler who has worn out his mount yet failed to reach his destination. Moreover, such languages become a heavy burden and a frightening specter for most students.

Yes, a nation may indeed have a genuine need for people trained in certain foreign languages. In that case, those selected to meet the ummah’s need should learn them, or the nature of