Building Respect, Seeking Truth
Introduction to Qur'anic Arabic 1
(In-person classes)
October 18th - November 16th, 2023
Course leader: Dr. Motaz Al-Thaher
This course is open to anyone interested in Arabic as a classical language.
It will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:30pm to 9pm, in Houston.
(Times may be altered according to student availability, so please contact us if
you wish to do the course but are unavailable at these times).
6:30pm to 7pm - Refreshments and Meet-and-Greet.
7:00pm to 8:30pm - Class
8:30pm to 9pm - Practice and Q&A
Course Objectives:
By the end of the in-person section of the course, students will be able to
1. Read the pointed Arabic text.
2. Identify word roots and look them up in dictionaries.
3. Read with understanding surahs al-Fātiḥa and al-Ikhlāṣ.
The first 6 applicants can take this course FREE! The full cost of the course is
$200 per student.
Required Materials:
Notebooks and writing tools are required. Laptops with an Arabic keyboard are optional but recommended. All students should have a hard copy of the Qur’an in Arabic.
The "Introduction to Qur'anic Arabic 1" course aims to provide a foundation in Qur'anic Arabic by enabling participants to read Arabic text with the help of dictionaries. Through interactive exercises, the course develops these skills through reading short Sūrahs from the Qur'an, specifically al-Fātiḥa and al-Ikhlāṣ.
The format includes nine in-person sessions and covers topics ranging from the Arabic alphabet to word analysis. This in-person course will be followed up by an online class.
Syllabus
- Session 1 (Wed, Oct 18): Introduction
- Session 2 (Mon, Oct 23): Alphabet 1
- Session 3 (Wed, Oct 25): Numbers
- Session 4 (Mon, Oct 30): Alphabet 2
- Session 5 (Wed, Nov 1): Typing
- Session 6 (Mon, Nov 6): Breaking Words Down into Letters.
- Session 7 (Wed, Nov 8): Analysis of Word Roots.
- Session 8 (Mon, Nov 13): Transliteration.
- Session 9 (Wed, Nov 15): Using Dictionaries & Useful Websites
The Muslim-Christian Dialogue discourse which I studied during the online course will help us craft a new course for our seminarians on Muslim-Christian Dialogue, to promote tolerance among the would be ministers.
Simbarashe Munamati, Murray Theological College, Zimbabwe
Don’t do it unless you enjoy the subject being offered and can be sincerely and fully engaged and devoted. . . . . I’m a self-proclaimed nerd and loved every second of discussion, lecture, presentation, and reading.
Usmon Shaikh, University of Houston
The course is very practical and relevant for the contemporary situation. It opens a window where students can express their opinions - not polemically but in a peaceful environment. Students may have different opinions, but respect towards each other is carefully maintained.
Sujit Sarker, ICL, Bangladesh
I think, this course will serve as a mile stone for those students who are interested in the history of Muslim-Christian Dialogue.
Urfa John, Forman Christian College, Pakistan