Friday sermon: Preserve Arabic to achieve piety

Muslims asked to guard and preserve Arabic language 'to convey the divine revelation'.

Muslims will be told today to guard and preserve the Arabic language to maintain their civilisation and achieve piety.

"The Arabic language is a clear carrier of the message of Islam, a tool to convey the divine revelation and perform prayers and other rituals," says the sermon. "It is as equally preserved as the Holy Quran."

The language is a method of communicating Arab civilisation to other nations, and Arabic in itself carries various literary miracles.

"So if nations compete for excellence through their languages, our honour as a nation was Allah's favour for choosing the Arabic language to reveal the Holy Quran."

The Quran came to make the Arabic language an effective global language, by relating it with acts of intellect.

A Quranic verse says: "Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Quran that you might understand."

One scholar once said: "Only when people abandoned the Arabic language, had they grown ignorant and diverged."

Allah has also linked Arabic language with piety, considering it a means to achieve it.

"Indeed it is through language one can soundly understand the holy Quran and Islam without any exaggeration," continues the sermon.