From Kaduna
By Kamal Ololade Ahmad
The historic Arewa house in Kaduna was a déjà vu of Daaru-n-Nadwa (the place of meeting of the Arab in classical time established by Qusayy) as the Unified Arabic Schools and Islamic Enlightenment Organization held her annual symposium in the auditorium on Saturday 9th of Rabiu-l-Awal 1440 (corresponding to November 17, 2018). The programme which was chaired by Dr. Muhammad Sulaiman Adam of the Kaduna State University kicked off with Khutbatu-l-hajja at about 10:30 am and had in attendance Arabic teachers from different Islamiyyaat, lecturers and other dignitaries.
In his welcome address, the coordinator Abu Malik Ibrahim Busairiy charged the audience acquainting them with the objectives of the organization. According to him the organization is poised to chart a new course for Arabic teaching and learning in Nigeria. He asserted that, protecting Arabic language is protecting the fundamental essence of the Ummah in general. He quoted Shaykhu-l-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah who said:
“Arabic language is from the religion, and the knowledge of it is an obligation. For surely, the understanding of the Qur’an and the Sunnah is an obligation, and these two are not understood except with the understanding of the Arabic language and whatever obligation is not fulfilled except by certain steps then those steps themselves become obligatory.”
The event got to its high tide when the veteran Arabic scholar, Professor Basheer Hasan Abubakar of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria took the floor to deliver the lecture titled: “Comparing between teaching /learning Arabic: the past and the present.” In his about an hour presentation marked with candour for which time seemed still, the doyen university teacher illustrated how the teaching of Arabic in the area that later became known as Nigeria began from the point of contact with Arab traders to the climax of having some indigenous people travelling to Arab countries on scholarship and thence the anticlimax of low patronage and dwindling passion of the recent years. The Professor established that Arabic language had penetrated this region through Arab merchants who used to meet in Kano before Islam got to this place. As the efforts of “Uqbah Bn Naafi’ -may Allaah be pleased with him- continued to yield result and his successors brought Islam from North Africa to this clime several learning centres were established to teach how to read and write till the reformer Uthman Dan Fodio established the caliphate in Sokoto.
He, however, lamented that the first peril that befell Arabic language was the coming of the colonialists who made frantic efforts to change the religious, social and political setting they met in the North by substituting the Arabic language for English. He contended that the period that could be regarded as the golden age of Arabic learning and teaching was in the 30s when some advocated reawakening of the language in the North which resulted in sending some delegates to Sudan to adopt the curriculum and methodology used over there. The coming of some Sudanese teachers to Kano and establishment of school of Shari’ah which later spread to other Northern states such as Sokoto and Maiduguri were the highlights of this period. Soon afterwards, graduate from these schools were travelling for higher education in Arab countries like Syria, Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The fact that these early teachers did not understand the local language made it mandatory for the students to communicate effectively in Arabic language.
While highlighting the challenges facing the teaching and learning of the language today, the lecturer identified the widespread translation method of Arabic to local language in teaching which makes a student to reason in his language and only conveys thought using Arabic words. He highlighted other challenges to include lack of capable hands to teach the subjects, poor attitude of parents toward the language, lack of facilities and appropriate materials in schools.
In his recommendations, he submitted that to overcome these challenges and bring back the good old days, there must be a vanguard of capable teachers who know their onions and are given the opportunities for improvements through periodic training both within and outside the country; establishing an effective supervisory body that will oversee formulation of policies for Arabic education and monitoring the teachers’ activities; periodic review of Arabic syllabus and upgrading it; availability of modern educational technology and preparing suitable texts and teaching materials.
The first discussant, Dr. Ahmad Ja’far AbdulMaalik corroborated the lecturer citing how Arabic has been the vehicle of the history of Northern Nigeria. He quoted Prof. Abdullahi Smith who said he was sent as an Orientalist to study the history of Northern Nigeria but discovered he could not succeed in doing that without understanding Arabic. According to Dr. Ahmad, Prof. Abdullahi Smith later learnt and was conversing properly in Arabic and that enabled him to write a wonderful history of the North.
The symposium ended on a positive note as Dr. Muazu, the head of the Arabic Department, the Kaduna State University, optimistically projected that looking at the rate at which people are turning toward learning Arabic in Nigeria, the language in about 20 years to come will find its way as an official language in Nigeria particularly in the North as it is in Sudan.
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