One of my old students forwarded to me the blog of Dr V. Abdur-Raheem, the Author of the Madeenah Series. This genius has been responsible for the education and propagation of the Arabic language throughout this Ummah for the last century. Through his books, we teach today Arabic at our Arabic Courses centre. Below is a brief biography of the shaykh, with a link to his own personal blog (which is very good considering he is in his 80s).
I tried to visit him when I was last in Madeenah, but because of my own procrastination, I messed up. He works at the Mujamma', where the Qur'aan is printed in Madeenah (by the way, by the end of this year, they will have printed 260,000,000 copies of the Qur'aan since it opened!!!). I left it to the last day I was in Madeenah to pay him a visit, and there was some difficulty getting to him (nithaam as they say). So I was unsuccessful in seeing him, although I did manage to go into the Mujamma' and get some good video footage and pictures of the whole process and some of the outer building (I'll post up another time).
In his biography, the shaykh explains why the Madeenah series is far superior to the ulternatives, like al-Arabiyyah bayna yadayk.
Enjoy, and spread the word about his blog.
http://drvaniya.com
His biography
V. Abdur Rahim was born in the small town of Vaniyambadi in the state of Tamil Nadu, India in 1933. After finishing his secondary school studies, he joined Presidency College, University of Madras where he majored in English Language and Literature. He graduated in 1957. In 1964, he joined al-Azhar University, Cairo, where he did his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Arabic Philology.
It is to be noted that Abdur Rahim learnt Arabic by himself. The school where he did his secondary school studies offered Arabic, but the lessons it offered consisted of only memorizing the conjugation tables. Abdur Rahim detested this method. He thought that it was the most unnatural way of learning a language. Only dead languages like Latin, Syriac, etc. are taught this way. Living languages teach sentences straightaway. He decided to design a curriculum to teach Arabic to non-native speakers of Arabic.
In 1969, he joined the Islamic University of Madinah to teach Arabic Philology. Here, he was also associated with the Programme of teaching Arabic as a foreign language. The course he designed for this purpose is now known as Durûs al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah li-Ghair al-Nâtiqîna Bihâ. (Now these books are popularly known throughout the world as “MADINAH BOOKS”.)
When he was learning Arabic by himself, Abdur Rahim studied the many problems that beset the non-native students of Arabic, and tried to solve them. He discovered that all these problems can easily be solved by applying the principle of taqdîm al- usûl ‘ala al-furû‘, i.e. teaching the primary elements before the secondary elements. The following are some of the manifestations of the application of this principle:
1 Teaching the primary case-endings before the secondary endings, so you teach the masrûf noun before the mamnû‘ min al-sarf, and the al-af‘âl al-arba‘ah before the al-af‘âl al-khamsah.
2 Teaching the sâlim verb before the other categories.
3 Teaching the al-mudâri‘ al-marfû‘ before the al-mudâri‘ al-mansûb or al-mudâri‘ al-majzûm.
4 Teaching the plural of intelligent nouns before that of non-intelligent nouns.
Another principle Abdur Rahim advocates is that rules of waqf should not be applied during the teaching stage, for in that case the student cannot learn the correct ending of the last word in the sentence as, ma smu-ka and ma smu-ki, for example, are both reduced to ma smu-k.
The following are the books Dr. Abdur Rahim has written in the field of teaching Arabic as a foreign language:
1- Durûs al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah (3 parts).
2- Key To Durûs al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah (3 parts).
3- Key To Exercises of Durûs al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah (3 parts).
4- Teachers’ Guide To Durûs al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah (3 parts).
5- A Glossary of Words used in Durûs al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah.
6- Ahadith Sahlah.
7- Nusûs min al-Hadîth al-Nabawiyy al-Sharîf.
8- Nusûs Islâmiyyah.
9- From Esfahan To Madinah.
10- Al-Bâhith ‘an al-Haqq.
11- Innahumâ min Mishkâtin Wahidah.
12- Fi Balât Hiraql.
13- Abshir bi-Khayri Yawm.
14- Arba‘ûna Hadîthan.
15- Al-Mus‘if fî Lughati wa I‘râbi Surati Yûsuf.
Currently, Dr. V. Abdur Rahim is Director, Translation Centre, King Fahd Glorious Qur’an Printing Complex, Madinah Munawwarah.
Overview of the Shaykh
Overview of the Profile of Shaykh Dr. V. Abdur Rahim
(may Allaah preserve him):
* An outstanding Scholar of Arabic Language and Literature;
* Deeply learned in the Glorious Qur’aan and Sunnah;
* Majored in English Language and Literature (University of Madras, India);
* Holds M.Phil. and Ph.D. Degrees in Arabic Philology from the University of Al-Azhar (Cairo);
* Formerly Professor of Arabic Language for 30 years at the International Islaamic University of Madinah;
* Has taught Arabic Language at the Islaamic Universities around the world: at Omdurman – Sudan, Germany, Washington D.C. – U.S.A, and British Guyana;
* Has been teaching Arabic as a foreign language for more than 50 years;
* An expert on European Languages and their etymology, phonetic change and semantic development;
* Formerly the Director of the ‘Institute of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language’, Islaamic University of Madinah;
* Currently the Director of the Translation Centre at the ‘King Fahd Glorious Qur’an Printing Complex’ (Madinah, Saudi Arabia).
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