al-Athar al-Tarbawiya li-Dirasat al-Lugha al-Arabiya
- Author died
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- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
al-Athar al-Tarbawiya li-Dirasat al-Lugha al-Arabiya (The Educational Impacts of Studying the Arabic Language) is an academic treatise by the contemporary Saudi scholar Khalid bin Hamid al-Hazimi examining the pedagogical, intellectual, and moral dimensions of learning the Arabic language and its literature .
Purpose and Methodology
The work addresses the perceived educational weakness in the practical use of Arabic and the tendency of students to treat language study merely as a means to pass examinations rather than appreciating its holistic formative value . Its primary aims are to demonstrate how engagement with Arabic shapes verbal taste, intellectual faculties, scientific acquisition, and moral character . It also seeks to provide educational institutions, curriculum designers, and teachers with insights to enhance instructional methods and motivate learners .
The author employs a descriptive and deductive methodology (المنهج الوصفي والاستنباطي), analyzing the structural characteristics of Arabic alongside literary texts to deduce their pedagogical effects on the individual's personality .
Structure and Content
The treatise is organized into an introductory framework followed by thematic discussions of the language's educational impacts:
- Introductory Framework and Historical Context: Explores the concept and educational importance of language, defining literature (adab) and Islamic literature as artistic expression aligned with Islamic principles . It highlights the distinctive characteristics of Arabic—such as its status as the language of the Quran, the balanced construction of its root words, its lexical breadth, and aesthetic phrasing—and details the historical care given to the language by early Muslim generations, caliphs, and private tutors (mu'addibun) .
- Educational Impacts: Delineates the specific developmental outcomes of studying Arabic:
- Cultivating Verbal Taste: Developing eloquence, refined expression, and sensitivity to the beauty of speech .
- Intellectual Growth: Stimulating creative imagination, contemplation, and cognitive discernment through rhetoric and literary maxims .
- Knowledge Acquisition and Preservation: Facilitating the transmission and memorization of sciences through the tradition of versified instructional texts (manzumāt) .
- Moral Formation: Inculcating virtues such as honesty, generosity, and chastity while discouraging vice through the ethical counsel embedded in Arabic prose and poetry .
Conclusions and Recommendations
The study concludes with several findings and recommendations, affirming that safeguarding and mastering Arabic is inherently linked to understanding Islamic law . It recommends increasing emphasis on Arabic pedagogy, incorporating practical spoken and written grammar across curricula, integrating classical proverbs and aphorisms into school textbooks, and highlighting the elevated standing of language educators in Islamic history .
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