The Power of Language

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Entering a foreign country, whose culture and language is completely different from our existing practices is an experience that is all too familiar to many of us, whether we left for travel or even worse, decided to settle in this new country. This can be a devastating experience as many of their beliefs and values not only differ but sometimes even contradict your very own. Adopting this new culture and ambitiously forcing yourself to learn the language in order to communicate and assimilate can be extremely time consuming and at times raise feelings of anxiety. Many times, you feel isolated and ignored simply because there is a barrier separating you from the inhabitants of this new land, and you almost always can't benefit from their social services because of this language constraint. In an attempt to survive and maintain your sanity, you vigilantly bring yourself to learn this new language. 

Years later, after many hardships of mistakenly grabbing the wrong items in grocery stores because you failed to read the label, and chuckles across the street as you nervously stumble upon words to ask for directions, you master this new language. Upon doing so, you feel a sense of liberty and are no longer confined and dependent on others for survival. You are an independent person and you happily pat yourself in the back for working hard at eradicating your own barriers and integrating yourself into the body of this new society. 

This is how I feel about not being able to understand the language of Islam. It is in a way a form of entrapment and I can only free myself by learning this beautiful language. Many questions are raised and I always feel dependent on people of the language to interpret the written texts for me and I am incapable of contributing my thoughts and ideas so they're tucked away and ignored. Although, I consider myself a person who is well aware of the religion (Alhamdulilah) I will not feel completely assimilated into Islam so long as I can't understand the language. I have made a decision to embark on a quest to find my voice in Islam and learn this language upon graduation inshaa Allah. Similar to the need in learning the language of an unfamiliar country for purposes of survival, I want to learn this language for survival of my beliefs, values and devotion in Islam bi ' ithnillah.