Language Preservation as Cultural and Spiritual Resistance

When we encourage parents to teach their children to speak their native tongue, it is often received as daunting advice and dismissed as far-fetched idealism. “At least they understand it”, they settle.

The reality is, we don’t want you to teach. Remove the image of chalkboards, 6-volume textbooks, homework, and tutors. Instead, we are asking you to choose connection over convenience and directly use your language. In your everyday interactions with your kids, whether in play or in giving direction, talk to them in your mother tongue instead of neglecting that part of yourself and depriving your children of it. Say it in Arabic, in Bangla, in German, in Malay. Say it in colloquial Lebanese, in Colombian Spanish, in Wolof, or in Urdu. Our languages are treasures, and retaining them is imperative for our self-preservation. Speaking to your children every day in your language will firstly make a difference for your child, who is inheriting an entirely unique set of frameworks for thinking and for experiencing the world. Importantly, too, it will make a world of difference for you, the parent, who can have a language partner to share your heritage with.

This is not a call to stop speaking English or to demonize the English language. Instead, we call people not to abandon their language for another – not to abandon Swahili for Arabic, or to abandon Arabic for English. Holding to our languages ensures we inherit them, and inheriting a language is inheriting the culture. It was thus a culturally imperialist project to strip a nation of both its language and culture. As entire peoples recover from the cultural erasure of the colonial era, part of this communal healing process is the preservation of language in the face of the looming global monoculture. We are unfortunately seeing an entirely new generation of children across ethnicities, cultures, and languages who do not speak their mother tongue, whose identities are uprooted and disconnected.

Many of our friends whose de facto common language is English fail to realise that teaching the children their language is still possible even if the parents speak English with each other! The how is important, and you will find some pointers at the end of the page. Let us first dive into the why: why is it so important to spend the first few years establishing a foundation of the mother tongue in your children?

The Problem

Whether living in the East or the West, the mother tongue has become, in most cases, the minority language, which means it is spoken less and practiced less. Linguists encourage the exertion of effort for the minority language, which faces challenges like a lack of educational resources and loss of speakers, as opposed to focusing on the majority language. Our friends who are trying to break out of the habitual usage of the majority language, like English, are mostly intercultural couples who do not share a mother tongue with their spouses. In the cases we have come across as language educators, some parents struggle with their own proficiency and function out of convenience, but others have a conviction in abandoning their language. A false belief that replacing their language with Arabic is their Islamic duty guides their choices in some cases.

Another prevalent reason is a materially-rooted belief in ‘progress’ where replacing their language with English will secure opportunities and prestige. It is a problem not only because it is counter to the recommendation of focusing on the minority language, but because of the internalised inferiority complex that comes with abandoning one’s language, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Negative implications arise; the weakening of familial ties, the attack on the honour of Muslims, and ceding to the global monoculture, making us a product of consumerism and an easy marketing target for products and ideologies from across the spectrum. Without making sweeping claims and corollaries, we contend that the collective effort to preserve languages is a push against cultural imperialism and materialism, and it is a step towards fostering wholesome identities in our children and creating an ideologically fortified community. Aside from that, learning languages is good for the brain! The benefits of bilingualism are countless, albeit not our focus.

Preserving the Maqasid al-Sharia

While referring to Maqasid al-Sharia here is not a classical application, it serves as a reminder to appreciate how Islamic objectives can illuminate our cultural responsibilities in the modern world. The Maqasid al-Sharia, the objectives of the way of Islam, call for the preservation of 1) Life, 2) Lineage and family, 3) Property, 4) Intellect, 5) Honour. Simply put, we must preserve the implicated Maqasid that are connected to our languages. Preserving family ties by speaking our languages, where our children can communicate with their grandparents and our own parents, avoids putting this objective in peril. Similarly, preserving our intellect in a world where uniformity is easy for consumerism becomes a must. Opting out of sustaining our languages is a step towards the global monoculture, which serves corporations terribly well when niches are consolidated into less diverse categories. 

The preservation of honour and dignity is also called into question when our cultures and their subsistence are implicated. When our languages disappear, so does the access we have to our cultures. Language is a tool that has allowed our peoples to demand their rights for freedom, and the very right to practice those languages. 

Malcolm X, a man who served God and His messenger by reclaiming his dignity and that of his people by mastering English, his language, long called for individual liberation from the clutches of one’s own ignorance. He said: “In order for a man to really understand himself, he must be part of a nation; he must have some land of his own, a God of his own, a language of his own. Most of all, he must have love and devotion for his own kind.” Much like his mastery of language reclaimed his dignity, so is the story of many of our independence wars. A strong factor that sparked Bangladesh’s fight for independence was the Bengali Language Movement, a pivotal socio-political event that sought to preserve the right for East Pakistan to retain Bangla. 

Another example showcasing the role of language in anti-colonial efforts is the Muridiyya movement of Senegal, led by Ahmadou Bamba, who advocated for the widespread use of Wolof and a decrease in the use of French. This reestablished Wolof as the dominant native language in Senegal to disconnect people from the cultural influence of colonial powers. Whether it is to preserve family, intellect, or dignity, speaking your language pertains to the Maqasid al-Sharia. Speaking your language is not an ‘unIslamic’ undertaking; in the day to day, Arabic is not more Islamic than Urdu, and Urdu is not more Islamic than English. Arabic as it is practiced today is not the Arabic that the Prophet and his companions used. The language that they spoke is still studied and used to interpret primary religious texts, but as remote as it was to the desert Arabs, colloquial Arabic differs not only from the Prophet’s speech, but from country to country.

The importance of reading Arabic as Muslims is not to be understated; it is a skill that allows us to read with the word of God. But knowing Arabic for religious reasons is not mutually exclusive to learning and speaking our language and passing it down to our children. It can be said, in fact, that it is our religious duty to know our languages. Neglecting one’s own language and focusing on Arabic for “religious purposes” is antithetical to the spirit of Islam if it cuts us and our children off from their uncles, aunts, grandparents, and homeland. This is notwithstanding the fact that although Arabic is an ilm al ‘ala, a science of tools which gives us access to the tradition; there is much wisdom and Islamic knowledge in languages other than Arabic. The majority of scholars from our history who preserved and advanced both the religion and Arabic were ‘ajam: non-Arabs who both mastered Arabic and produced works in their mother tongues. Imam al-Ghazali’s Alchemy of Happiness, for example, was originally published in Persian.

In the realms of scholarship, mastering more than one language is essential, given that accessing the tradition is not reserved for the Arabic tradition. There is a treasure trove of profound religious and moral literature in historically Muslim languages such as Turkish, Urdu, Persian, and Malay, yet to be explored.

This is true especially for Muslim converts, who come from morally rich cultures that are convinced by Arab and South Asian dominated communities to abandon their culture and their language. In reality, there is nothing un-Islamic about teaching your children German, Norwegian, Hungarian, or Japanese. If any of these is your native tongue are your native and mother tongue, it is imperative for your children’s identity to connect them to the culture they come from, and access the beauty of their heritage.

To our surprise, we tend to come across people who “focus on Arabic” but cannot speak it. This means that they do not communicate with their children in it; they simply reserve it for the classroom. Many students of knowledge have the ability to break down Arabic sentence structure without the practice or knowledge of how to utilize it to communicate with their children, which puts them in the same camp as parents who resort to English in the home.

To end, it is imperative to realise that letting go of our native languages is a subconscious subordination to postmodern discourse, removing any fortification we have against fluctuating public discourse and ever-changing cultural trends. The very medium that is used to communicate morality is abandoned for a postmodern, culturally predatory version of English. The inability to communicate concepts of morality is a factor in the lack of morals. There are countless examples of public figures with a horrifying moral footprint, whose language is quite elementary. The Greek word ‘logos’ means both ‘to reason’ and ‘to speak’, just like the Arabic word ‘mantiq’ meaning ‘reason’ shares roots with ‘nutq’, ‘to utter’ or ‘to speak.’

Across cultures, we see a connection between language, speech, and reason. All three are essential to construct something intelligible and meaningful. Without language, our ability to cognitively interpret all forms of linguistic prose is reduced, if not lost. Our native languages communicate our cultures, and when embodied properly, will connect us to God and a prophetically embodied practice of Islam. 

Where to Begin

1. Understand and observe the methods for language acquisition:
   • One Person, One Language (OPOL): Each person speaks a different language consistently. This method has been highly effective. One important rule I have for any language teacher is not to translate while talking to establish your language as the status quo.
   • One Time/Place, One Language: Assign specific languages to certain times or places. For example, I would speak French to my children when we were at the French learning centers. Grandparents’ home is another place they can associate with a specific language.
2. Minority Language at Home: The minority language is the one that is used less frequently, often spoken in the home, and needs more attention to thrive.
3. Language Learning Components: Language acquisition involves speaking, reading, listening, and watching.
4. Mother Tongue Comes First: Children with a strong foundation in their mother tongue tend to learn additional languages more effectively.
5. Integrate the Language into Their Life: Language learning doesn’t have to be overly formal. Make it part of their everyday routine.
6. Consistency: Regular exposure and practice are key.
7. Name the Language After a Person or Goal: Give the language a meaningful identity, making it harder to reject. For example: “The Language of the Quran” or “Grandpa’s Language.”
8. Interest and Passion-Centered Learning: Engage your child by focusing on their interests and passions related to the language. 
9. Make It Fun and Natural: Language learning should feel natural and enjoyable.
10. Listening Practice: Incorporate lots of listening activities, like podcasts in the car. Exposure to the language in context is crucial.
11. Discipline: Stick to the target language consistently, even when it feels challenging.
12. Provide the Right Environment: Create an environment that encourages language learning—this could include resources, exposure, and consistent practice.

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