“Know that habitual use of a language has a strong and evident effect on the mind, on character and on religion; it also brings one closer to the first generation of this community, the Companions and their Successors, and resembling them increases mind, religion and character. Moreover, the Arabic language itself is part of the religion, and knowing it is an obligation: understanding the Book and the Sunna is obligatory, they cannot be understood without understanding Arabic, and whatever an obligation cannot be fulfilled without is itself obligatory.”

Ibn Taymiyya

d. 728 AH / 1328 CE

Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyya, Hanbali jurist and theologian

The Arabic original

وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ اعْتِيادَ اللُّغَةِ يُؤَثِّرُ فِي العَقْلِ، وَالخُلُقِ، وَالدِّينِ تَأْثِيراً قَوِيّاً بَيِّناً، وَيُؤَثِّرُ أَيْضاً فِي مُشابَهَةِ صَدْرِ هَذِهِ الأُمَّةِ مِنَ الصَّحابَةِ وَالتّابِعِينَ، وَمُشابَهَتُهُمْ تَزِيدُ العَقْلَ وَالدِّينَ وَالخُلُقَ. وَأَيْضاً فَإِنَّ نَفْسَ اللُّغَةِ العَرَبِيَّةِ مِنَ الدِّينِ، وَمَعْرِفَتَها فَرْضٌ واجِبٌ، فَإِنَّ فَهْمَ الكِتابِ وَالسُّنَّةِ فَرْضٌ، وَلا يُفْهَمُ إِلّا بِفَهْمِ اللُّغَةِ العَرَبِيَّةِ، وَما لا يَتِمُّ الواجِبُ إِلّا بِهِ فَهُوَ واجِبٌ