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I know from experience that one of the main challenges when learning Arabic is the missing Tashkeel. In case you are wondering Tashkeel is the term for the Harakat or the Diacritical Markers like ‘Fatha’, ‘Dhamma’, ‘Kathra’ etc. that are put on the letters which tell you how to pronounce them. You find these marks on the Quranic text for example.

While the experienced Arabic reader doesn’t need them to read Arabic text, it can be a major challenge for the beginner. Without the Harakat,  you might find trouble, not just with the pronunciation, but also in making out the words.

You Have 3 Ways to Master Arabic Reading Without Harakat or Vowel Marks

• Read to someone and have them correct your mistakes
• Read a lot of books with Harakat
• Listen to audiobooks and follow along

I will help you with the latter two options.

Unfortunately it can be extremely hard to find books with vowel marks. But the good news is, I have compiled enough books for you here to practice your reading till you wont need the Harakat anymore. InshaAllah.

Best Arabic Books For Beginners With Tashkeel

I have tried to pick out the books that are most beneficial for those setting out on their journey of seeking Islamic knowledge. These are books highly recommended for beginners. So these books can teach you Arabic and at the same time give you a strong foundation in ‘ilm.

1.Tafsir Al-Sa’di :

Written by Sheikh Abd ar-Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di (born 1889), it is a clear, concise Tafsir that is considered Authentic. It is widely considered the best Tasfir for beginners, due to its simple methodology and avoidance of unnecessary details. It is a great place to start reading the Quran in Arabic as it will give you enough context for the verses you don’t understand.

I have complied the Juz Amma of Tasfir Al-Sa’di with Tashkeel here. Click here or on the image below to download.

Inshallah it will give you enough practice to move on to the remaining without Tashkeel.

In case you want to the full text with Tashkeel you can go to islamweb.net/maktaba. Click on the (تَ) icon at the top left to activate Tashkeel.

2.Arbaeen Al-Nawawee – The 40 Hadith of Imam Al-Nawawi

These 40 Hadith hand-picked by Imam Al-Nawawi are so popular and recommended for beginners and advanced students alike because they cover many basic concepts of our Deen across many sciences. Try to understand as well as memorize as many as you can from these Ahadith. Download here

3, 4, and 5. Al-Usool Al-Thalatha, Al-Qawaid al-Arba’a and Kitab al-Tawheed

These 3 books are by Sheikh Muhammed ibn Abdul Wahhab, on Aqeedah or Islamic Creed. These are important books to read when setting out to seek knowledge as they teach the most fundamental concepts of Tawheed very thoroughly. I recommend that you proceed in the order mentioned with these three books as the first two are very short and simple while Kitab al-Tawheed is a bit longer. It helps to listen to the explanations or recorded duroos of these books which you can find online.

Al Usul Al-Thalatha

Al-Qawaid Al-Arba’a (PDF + MP3)

Kitab al-Tawheed (The file contains other texts as well)

6. Seerah: Saheeh Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyyah

I haven’t found any appropriate Seerah books with Tashkeel so far. But here is a great Audio book.

This is a great book to listen to while you are in your car or on your daily commute.

7. Zad Al-Mustaqni’

Zad al-Mustaqni’ is the summary of the book al-Muqni’ by ibn Qudama, which is one of the main references of Hanbali fiqh. This book claims to contain the strongest or best opinions of Imam Ahmad on various issues. While you definitely need a teacher, or at the very least an explanation of the book to understand the concepts properly, it is nevertheless a great way to get some reading practice. Download here.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks are a great resource you should never overlook. Most people spends hours and hours on their daily commute or in their car. Some go on long journeys often. All these opportunities are goldmines for learning. While reading a book might not be practical in many of these situations. Listening to audiobooks can be perfect. Go to the Resources section where I have  100’s of hours of full audiobooks you can download for free. Load them up on your phone now.

Where To Go From Here?

A few months of hard work with these books should be enough for you to move on to reading without Tashkeel. Once you do, there is no turning back. There are more that 1000 years of books and wisdom waiting for you to explore.

Learning Arabic in the middle of a hectic schedule can prove quite a challenge. But language learning is all about keeping the momentum going.
Here are a few ideas that can help you stay ahead with your Arabic, even if you are really busy.

Why Keep Working On Your Arabic Vocabulary?

While it is important to take the time to learn grammar, words are the building blocks of the language. And while Arabic has more words than any other language, you need a surprising few words to start understanding things.

Arabic Word Frequency Lists

That is where frequency lists come in. There is always a huge difference between the number of words in a language and the number of words in active usage. While many might know the meaning of English words like ‘intricate’ and ‘ludicrous’, no one really uses it in day to day conversation. So if you are learning English to communicate informally, you should start with words that are used in conversation.
The same goes when learning Arabic. If you are learning Arabic to understand the Quran, you need to start with words in the Quran. Putting the words of the Quran into a frequency list, yields some amazing results. For instance, we find that just 70 words make up about 50% percent of the Quran. Mastering these 70 words and the ways they can be used, can help you understand half of the Quranic text in Arabic. Amazing right?

Download the entire frequency list of the Quran here.

How To Keep Learning New Words

Once you have determined which words you want to learn, you need to find the time to do it in between your busy schedule.
What most people don’t realise is that they have the most powerful learning tool right in their pocket. It is available to them wherever they are, 24/7. Yes, your mobile phone.

The average person spends a whopping 90 min on the phone every day. Source
So the next time you get the urge to check Facebook on your phone, do this instead:

Flashcard Apps: Anki and Quizlet

Flashcards are a proven way to learn. Moreover, it’s a great solution for busy people. So as I was saying, the next time you get the urge to check your phone, open it up and learn a new word!
There are two awesome apps for this: Anki and Quizlet

Anki

Anki is the more sophisticated of the two. It is a spaced repetition system that works really well. You chose one of the shared decks, shared by other users, or make your own. Anki shows you a word and then shows it to you again after a specific period of time. You can choose hard, good, easy or see again based on how easy it was to recall it. Based on that Anki decides when to show it again.
You can find Quran word lists in the shared decks

Quizlet

Quizlet is a straightforward flash card app for those who prefer simplicity. You can keep reviewing the cards until you learn them. Quizlet has great Quranic word lists uploaded by users as well.

How To Practice The Words You Learn

Always remember! You will never really master a word unless you use it. In this case, you can search for the word you learn in the Quran with an app like Zekr. Zekr, lets you search the Arabic words and find all its versions in the Quran. This will let you see it in context.

Another great way to practice your words is to write short essays or even a few sentences using the words you have learned. Then get it corrected at lang-8 or italki. These sites let you find a native speaker who will correct your writings for a small fee. If you can afford this, this is something I definitely recommend. If not, then put your writing up on a community like reddit learn_arabic. Someone will be ready to help you out InshaAllah.

إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ -12:2

“Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur’an that you might understand.”

The Quran is an amazing book no matter what language you read it in. But trust me when I say this; you have never really read the Quran until you have read it in Arabic. That is why you have to learn Quranic Arabic.

The sudden changes in style, the short verses with powerful meaning, the rhyming words – it is something you have to experience for yourself. In fact, the language of the Quran is so sublime, that it froze the version of Arabic it was revealed in through time. What we know today as Modern Standard Arabic is almost the same as Quranic or Classical Arabic. The major difference is the addition of new words for the modern context. This is because unlike most other languages, Arabic never changed or evolved. Read more about how Arabic never changed in my blog post.

But It’s Hard to Learn Quranic Arabic Right?

I’ll try to give my honest opinion here. I’ve been learning and trying to improve my Arabic for more than 9 years. I have also taught it and watched people learn. And the answer to the question depends on what level of Arabic you are looking to achieve.

1. To achieve complete Mastery – It is something I would put in the region of ‘very very difficult’. I don’t think that is an exaggeration. I say this because Arabic is not like other languages. And even most native Arabs can’t speak with perfect I’rab (the word suffix system in Arabic). If you pay attention you find that in colloquial Arabic they don’t pronounce the word endings most of the time. To be fair to the native speakers, you could say that people don’t speak with the complete I’rab anymore. But, that was the way classical Arabic was spoken, but even then, people used to make mistakes. And that was seen as a huge embarrassment. There is even a word for making mistakes in I’rab – al-laḥn.

Moreover, Arabic is exceptionally rich and intricate with a large number of synonyms for many words. The problem is each has a slight difference in meaning. For example, ‘lion’ has more than 300 synonyms. Al-‘Anbas is “The Lion from Whom Other Lions Flee”, al-Hirmās is “Aggressive Towards People”, and al-Asjar is “The Lion Whose Eyes Are Bloodshot”.

“Names of the Lion by Ibn Khalawayh”, Page 2, Academia.edu, Retrieved June 12, 2018.

Here is another example of how intricate Arabic can be. Abu Bakr al-Siddīq (ر)  saw a man with a garment. He asked him:

أتبيعه؟

Do you wish to sell it?

He replied,

لا، رحمك الله.

What he meant was, ‘No, may Allah forgive you’. But the sentence could also mean, ‘May Allah not forgive you’.

Abu Bakr said to him:

May the tongues of your people become upright; could you not have said:

لا و رحمك الله؟

That sentence would have made the intended meaning perfectly clear. The addition of the ‘waw’ here makes all the difference.

The reason I am telling you all this is because I want you to understand that learning Quranic Arabic is a lifelong quest. You definitely don’t need this level of mastery to understand the Quran in general. But, the more you advance your Arabic the more you see the beauty of the Quran. There are many levels to understanding the Quran. The effect it had on the people of the Quraish to whom it was revealed was profound. The more your Arabic moves closer to theirs the more you see the linguistic genius of the Quran. So while those ‘learn with 5 minutes a day’ apps and 2-month intensive courses are all a great start, remember that’s what they are – just a start.

2. To be able to understand the Quran – This should be your first milestone. And, this is one that will give you immense satisfaction when you achieve it. Contrary to what I told you about achieving absolute mastery over the language, this is an easy task. I am talking about being able to understand most of the verses of the Quran in Arabic. You might not yet be able to speak Arabic fluently at this level. But when you read the Quran with the aid of a translation, knowing the Arabic grammar and words, gives you a whole new level of insight into the meanings.

The Quranic Arabic Learning Plan

In the rest of this post, I am going to try and show you the fastest and way to get there. Please note that I am not making any claims about this being ‘the best methodology ever’. This is the best I have come up with based on my experience and research. Also, I will keep updating this post if I feel improvements can be made Insha Allah. So be sure to check this post often.

Focus on Relevant Quranic Vocabulary

It’s obvious that vocabulary is the first thing people start learning when they want to learn a language. But if you want to learn Arabic to understand the Quran, then start with words used in it. It’s surprising that many books designed to teach classical Arabic to beginners have many words that are never going to be used in the Quran. If you want to understand the Quran, why waste time learning the Arabic word for seashells, dentist or radio? You can get to that later when you get past the basic level.

Frequency List of Words in the Quran

So if you want to get fast results, I suggest, using a frequency list. A frequency list is when you take all the words in a language and you arrange them based on the frequency of usage. When you do that for the Quran, you get some amazing insights. Take a look at this infographic:

If you master the meanings of the first 70-100 most frequent words in the Quran, you will know the meaning of more than 50% of the words in the Quran. Amazing right?

Apps like Anki flashcards and Memrise are also great for learning words. My favourite is Anki, where you can upload a list of flash cards, and it will keep showing them to you at specific intervals. This is based on a great learning technique called spaced repetition.

Here are 100 most common verbs in the Quran:

But remember words are only going to make sense to you if you put them in the right context. That is why it is important to use a textbook simultaneously. Which brings us to step 2.

Grammar and Sentence Practice – Use A Text Book

Grammar is the backbone of a language. When it comes to the Quran it is not something you can skip. It is extremely important that you become very thorough with the fundamentals. Once you get the basics of Arabic grammar down, it just keeps giving. It will help you understand the Quran and every classical book you read. So take this step very seriously at the outset. The good news is that Arabic grammar is extremely logical and straightforward.

The book I recommend is the same one I started out with. I still think it is one of the best Fus’ha (classical Arabic) textbooks available. It is called, ‘Al Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk’. Consisting of 4 books and audio cd companions, the series aims to develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. What is different about this course is that it follows a hands-on approach and explains concepts through examples, without being overly theoretical.

Ideally, you need a teacher for this series of books. If you can’t find locally, there are excellent free videos teaching the book. Make sure you check them out.

If you just follow along with this book and actively keep learning vocabulary, you will soon start understanding the Quran. By the time you reach book 3 and 4, your Arabic will be pretty immaculate.

Sometimes the grammatical concepts need a bit of extra explanation. For this, I recommend using an English grammar reference book like ‘Fundamentals of Arabic Grammar’ by Husain Abdul Sattar.

Practice

Practice is the real game changer. During our university intake, there were a lot of guys who spoke no english. There were also a lot of us who wanted to learn Arabic. Some of us would hang out with people from other countries and make an effort to speak the language even though we were terrible at it initially. And some others were too shy and they would stick to their own circles and groups. At the end of the 4-5 years, those who made the effort to practice and make friends who spoke another language made drastic improvements. I’ve seen guys go from scratch to speaking amazing english. And the same when it comes to Arabic.

You learned how the words work in a sentence from your text book. Now you need to actually say it to someone for it to be hardwired into your brain. You need to hear it being said to you. A lot.

If there is someone you can speak Arabic to, great! If not you just need to get creative. Language learners have put together some amazing ways to immerse oneself in a language. One great resource is italki.com where you can find a native Arabic speaker willing to help you out with your Arabic in exchange for you teaching him English or your native language. You don’t even need a native speaker in the beginning. Someone who can hold a basic conversation in Fus’ha will do. For more language exchange sites see, ‘The 10 Best Language Exchange Sites’.

Also, get your writings corrected by native speakers at lang-8.com.

You can return them the favour by correcting their writings in your native language.

Communities like Reddit.com/r/learn_arabic are great places to hang out with other active learners.

It is also important to listen to Arabic lectures and programmes. Have you noticed that when you learn a new word in a new language you tend to forget it a few times before you can remember it? But if you hear a new word in a language you know well, you remember it just after hearing it once. This is because of the connections in your brain. It is used to the language. To hardwire Arabic into your brain likewise you need to get plenty of listening time.

Summary

So this is the simple and straightforward outline I have for learning Quranic Arabic. To recap:

Focus on relevant words using frequency lists. Use techniques like spaced repetition.

Follow at text book – ‘Al Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk’. Find a teacher offline or online.

Practice, practice and more practice. Use websites to find someone to practice with if you can’t find them locally. Hang our it relevant communities. Get help.

If you stick to the plan with dedication where you are following a regular schedule. And if you make sure you are practicing, you will be surprised how fast you can make progress with Arabic. You will be understanding the Quran in Arabic in no time, insha Allah.

If you ever need any help with planning your program, or there is something you can’t get your head around, just reach out to me. I will be glad to help if I can.

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