PREFACE

All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the universe, and peace and blessings of Allah be upon His messenger Muhammad, his household and his companions.

This book is meant to teach Indian students how to read the Qur’anic Arabic through English. It is presumed that those who use this book are familiar with the speech-sounds which are common to most Indian languages.

This book is based on the following principles:

• The speech-sounds of one language vis-a’-vis those of another fall under three categories:

1. Completely identical,                                            
2. Similar but not identical,
3. Totally different.

• The Arabic sounds have been presented in this book in this order.
• From the very outset the consonants are taught with the vowel-signs.
• In each lesson only one letter, vowel-sign or rule of orthography is taught.
• Words in the exercises are made up of only those letters, vowel-signs and orthographical rules which the students have already learnt. So the students can read the words by themselves.

The teacher explains the new element in each lesson. Then the students read the words by themselves without the help of the teacher. The teacher moves to the next lesson only after all the students have thoroughly understood this new element.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala make this book useful, and help the students learn the language of the Quran better.

Madinah  Munawwarah

Ramdhan 16, 1420 AH                                                                                                                   V. Abdur Rahim