Incompatible Discrepancy Between Low Proficiency of Arabic Language and Its High Status and Prestige

Abstract

Muslims are ardent to learn Arabic and study al-Qurʾān, but many of them are not competent in manipulating the Arabic language. The discrepancy of high prestige and status of the language versus low proficiency of the learners is the target of the research in this chapter. The author calls this “incompatible discrepancy.” What do they indeed do in the Arabic school and Qurʾānic school? If they are so ardent, they should be highly competent in Arabic. The process of their learning is, exactly to say, rote-learning. In schooling they just memorize phrases from al-Qurʾān and the other religious texts. They start to learn Arabic as a graphic mode. They never learn Arabic as an identity marker without sticking to the way of learning it as a graphic mode. In this globalizing world everything is going to be digitalized. On the other hand, in the Islamic world many of the things remain analog, especially the way of leaning Arabic. The globalizing world is digital while the Islamic world is analog. Digital/analog can be considered as an important perspective for the world.