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Al-Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mentions in Iqtida’ al-Sirat al-Mustaqim: “Accustoming yourself to the Arabic language affects the mind, the character, and the religion a strong, clear effect It also brings about resemblance to the earliest generations of this Ummah (the Companions and the Tabiʿīn) And that resemblance increases one’s mind, religion, and character” اعْتِيَادُ اللُّغَةِ يُؤَثِّرُ فِي العَقْلِ وَالخُلُقِ وَالدِّينِ تَأْثِيرًا قَوِيًّا بَيِّنًا، وَيُؤَثِّرُ أَيْضًا فِي مُشَابَهَةِ صَدْرِ هَذِهِ الأُمَّةِ مِنَ الصَّحَابَةِ وَالتَّابِعِينَ، وَمُشَابَهَتُهُمْ تَزِيدُ العَقْلَ وَالدِّينَ وَالخُلُقَ After 14 years of learning Arabic, I’ve noticed that the Fusha we learn from books like Al-’Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk or the Madinah Books is usually formal Fusha The kind you hear in a khutbah, on the news, or in a university lecture But that’s not always how Arabs naturally spoke in everyday conversations Even the Sahabah would often lower their level of eloquence in casual speech The goal wasn’t to sound impressive The goal was simply to communicate clearly and naturally They weren’t constantly thinking about grammar or trying to sound like they were delivering a sermon Many Arabic students miss this The purpose of learning Arabic isn’t to perform Fusha It’s to live it That’s why I’ve always paid attention not only to grammar, but also to the rhythm, expressions, and word choices of native speakers If my goal is to make Arabic part of my daily life, raise children who speak it, and apply Ibn Taymiyyah’s advice, I need to understand how Arabic is actually used That’s also why I encourage students, once they’re fluent in Fusha, to learn from the dialects Not because dialect replaces Fusha But because it teaches how native speakers naturally communicate and makes your Fusha feel alive instead of like a textbook It took me just 10 months to become independent in Arabic Fusha
