As a Muslim youth in a place like NYC, I’ve found that it is so easy to let our deen slip away from us. The lifestyle, especially school, is so demanding of our time and energy that we often forget, delay, or even neglect salah at times. And when we do make salah, we often don’t have khushoo’ in it. And how can we? We don’t even understand what we are reciting from the Qur’an. The words of Allah are so powerful yet we can’t understand the depth and beauty of them because we don’t know the language.

Learning from Br. AbdusSalaam inspired and encouraged me to seek more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the Arabic language as well as the deen. He recognized the ability and potential I had to succeed if I continued to study Arabic after the class was over. So, I am still continuing my studies today and benefiting from it greatly, alhamdulillah. All that is required of one is to know how to read and write in Arabic. As long as one has the desire and dedication to have a stronger understanding of Islam and become closer to Allah, the path to learning Arabic will become easier in shaa Allah.

Besides the learning aspect, the class environment was also invaluable because it allowed me to meet and develop strong relationships with other dedicated students of knowledge. To this day, I consider them to be among the best and most trusted of my companions. We ask Allah to strengthen our desire to learn the language that He chose to be the most fitting for His final revelation. We ask Him to increase us in imaan, barakah, and success in seeking knowledge. And we ask Him to set our hearts and pens aright. Aameen.